At a meeting of 22 biological control workers from the
Berkeley and Riverside campuses of the University of California
in January 1986, a new biological control-oriented
reference text was conceived, and collectively there was
agreement to contribute to the task of preparing such a
volume. The end product was not perceived as a revision
of Biological Control of Insect Pests and Weeds, edited by
DeBach (1964), which was "California School" classical
biological control oriented and had a strong technique, or
application, bias. We initially hoped that the present volume
would be made available for the Vedalia Centennial Symposium
on Biological Control held at Riverside in April,
1989. However, further consideration of the project, and of
the greatly expanded scope of biological control in the last
thirty years, indicated that a much larger work than was at
first envisaged would be necessary to cover the field. The
project was refined and reshaped, additional authors were
recruited to add chapters suited to the scope of the field,
and the volume grew in both breadth and depth. The intent
was to cover, as much as possible, the great breadth of
biological control science and application as is practiced in
so many fields today. The result is the volume before you.