ZOO’s PRINT, Volume XXX, Number 7 July 2015 17 Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Martius.) Solms; Family: Pontederiaceae) a free floating, perennial, aquatic herb of South American origin and is one of the world’s most serious aquatic weeds (Holm, et.al 1977). It was introduced in India as an ornamental plant with broad, thick, glossy, ovate leaves. Water hyacinth may rise above the surface of the water as much as 2 feet in height. The leaves are 10– 20 cm across, and float above the water surface. They have long, spongy, bulbous stalks. The feathery, freely hanging roots are purple-black. An erect stalk supports a single spike of 8-15 conspicuously attractive flowers, mostly lavender to pink with six petals. One of the fastest growing plants known, it reproduces primarily by runners or stolons, which eventually form daughter plants. Water hyacinth is one of the key pressures on the world's biodiversity altering ecosystem services and processes, reducing native species abundance and richness, and decreasing genetic diversity of ecosystems (Vila et.al, 2011). Since its introduction into India in late 19 th century water hyacinth spread throughout the country creating problems in the management and utilization of fresh water resources (Gopal and Sharma 1981). At present, more than 2,00,000 ha of water surface has been occupied by this weed in India. Water hyacinth has been identified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as one of the 100 most aggressive invasive species (Tellez, et.al 2008) and recognized as one of the top 10 worst weeds in the world (Patel, 2012). The success of this invasive alien species is largely due to its reproductive output. Water hyacinth can flower throughout the year and releases more than 3000 seeds per year which survives for about 20 years (Gopal, 1987). Failure in management of this weed by manual, mechanical and chemical methods which are expensive and unsatisfactory led to research in biological control. The water hyacinth weevil N. bruchi (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is also native to South America, and introduced to India in 1982 for the biological suppression of water hyacinth (Jayant, 1988). Field releases with N. bruchi were initiated in 1984 after obtaining Occurrence of Neochetina bruchi Hustache A Biocontrol agent of Eichhornia crassipes (Martius.) Solms in Satara, Maharashtra B.A. Kore 1 , S.V. Thite 2 and A.S. Kadam 3 1,2&3 Department of Botany, Yashvantrao Chavan Institute of Science, Satara, (M.S). Email: 1 basavaraj.kore@rediffmail.com (Corresponding author) Fig 1A. Eichhornia crassipes Habit Fig 1B. Eggs of Neochetina bruchi