Chemical interference among plants mediated by grazing insects : A reassessment.

A recent paper has proposed that frass produced by eucalypt-defoliating insects has allelopathic effects on herbaceous plants growing under the canopies of woodland eucalypts. Insect frass fall under woodland eucalypts may have been overestimated, however. Alternative estimates of frass fall are presented and it is proposed that these levels are too low to have a significant impact on the kinds of herbaceous plant species occuring under woodland eucalypts.