NEWSLETTER
11/06/98 Entomology and Nematology News
A University of Florida Publication


And the poor beetle that we tread upon
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies
- William Shakespeare

AWARDS

Dr. Jim Tumlinson was inducted in to the ARS Hall of FAME on September 16 at a ceremony in Washington, DC, along with Thomas Henneberry of the Western Cotton Research Laboratory. This is ARS' highest honor. Jim was honored for his identification of the pheromones of the cotton boll weevil and more than 40 other species, and for his recent research on plant-insect interactions. Please join me in congratulating Jim on his admission to the Hall of Fame.

Billy Crow was awarded $250 for second place in the Best Student Paper Competition titled "Effects of crop rotation and covercrops on plant-parasitic nematodes and other soilborne pathogens of potato" at the Florida Soil and Crop Science Society Annual Meeting held last week in Daytona Beach. D. P. Weingartner and D. W. Dickson are co-authors on the paper. Other students competing from ENSO were Claudia Riegel, Janete Brito, and Helena Han. All together there were over 20 best student papers presented.

Denise Bonilla and Victor Hultstrand selected by the undergraduate committee won special faculty-donated scholarships ($500 each).

Denise has been an active member of ENSO for the last year. Through ENSO she has helped to plant and maintain the department's Scott Yocum memorial butterfly garden. She has also pinned cockroaches to help fund travel grants for graduate students and has represented the department at the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens Spring Festival. She is a member of the Florida Entomological Society and also has worked in the Entomology Department for a year.

Victor has worked to straighten and organize the entomology teaching laboratory's Coleoptera study collection in phylogenetic order. He is also a new member of ENSO.

EXPANDING THE BROOD

Dr. James P. Cuda officially joins the department on October 1, 1998, taking what was called the "Habeck position," after Dr. Dale Habeck who retired a year or so ago. Those of you who knew Dr. Habeck knew he combined his research duties on biological control of weeds with courses on immature insects. 70% Research - Biological Control of Weeds 30% Extension - Biological Control

Dr. Cuda has worked as a post doc in the department for some time, so he hits the ground running in his research. While he is new to extension, he has already begun working in that area and has contributed a file to Featured Creatures on the "hydrilla tip mining midge."

MEETINGS

Dr. Marjorie Hoy attended an OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) workshop meeting September 27-30 in Montreal, Quebec, on "Safe Utilization of New Organisms in Biological Control." The objectives were to identify issues and needs for research in OECD countries to ensure sustainability of agricultural systems using new organisms in biological control. Most of you probably haven't heard of this organization: The OECD was initiated after World War II with the objective of monitoring economic trends in its 29 member countries. Government representatives meet in the OECD to compare and coordinate their policies, both domestic and international. Their discussions are supported by the analytical work of the OECD Secretariat (in Paris). The OECD is the largest source of comparative data on the industrial economies in the world, producing a wide range of publications, economic surveys of each member, statistics, analyses, and policy recommendations on trade, banking, financial markets, employment, social policies, the environment, agriculture, energy, industry, development cooperation, science and technology, taxation, education, and transport.

The OECD funds Fellowships to encourage exchange between scientists interested in research themes and pay transportation costs and subsistence to post-doctoral level research scientists from a participating country (USA participates) wishing to work in a laboratory in another participating country: see http://www.oecd.org/agr/prog/ for additional information.

Marjorie Hoy participated in a meeting sponsored jointly by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Centers for Disease Control, which took place in Washington, DC on September 22-23. The topic of discussion was "Field Release of Genetically Manipulated Arthropod Vectors of Human (and Animal) Disease." The meeting included speakers who provided an overview of progress toward the development of incompetent vectors (arthropods unable to transmit disease), and their population genetics and ecology. Discussion on public perceptions and current USDA-APHIS regulations, current EPA regulations and oversight, World Health Organization perspectives, US AID perspectives and OECD protocols were provided. Hypothetical test cases were discussed from ecological, legal, and regulatory viewpoints. A variety of issues were raised, including the need for evaluation of potential releases of transgenic arthropod vectors of disease in a sociological context, including oversight regarding human subjects risks and informed consent.

Dr. James P. Cuda attended the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Florida Aquatic Plant Management Society held in Cocoa Beach, Florida, 12-15 October. Cuda moderated a speaker session and presented a paper coauthored by R. Pereira and M. Broza entitled "Interference of Natural Control of the Aquatic Weed Azolla by the Red Imported Fire Ant".

PUBLICATIONS

Squitier, J.M., M. Deyrup, and J.L. Capinera. 1998. A new species of Melanoplus (Orthroptera: Acrididae) from an isolated upland in penninsular Florida. Volume 81 of the September 1998 Florida Entomologist.

Alvarez, J.M. and R. VanDriesche. 1998. Effect of Prey, Sex, Density, and Age on Oviposition of Cybocephalus sp. nr. nipponicus (Coleoptera: Cybocephalidae) a Natural Enemy of Euonymus Scale (Homoptera: Diaspididae). Florida Entomologist. 81. 429-437.

PEST ALERT

As a result of the death of a child in Florida from yellowjacket stings, Dr. Philip Koehler, our urban entomologist, is receiving many calls concerning this group of insects and the high yellowjacket populations Florida is experiencing. He has posted a file to Pest Alert describing this group of insects with advice on preventing stings, removing nests and when to seek medical care. The file includes a color photograph and links to UF/IFAS publications with more detail.

Pest Alert is available on the WWW at: http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/pestalert/.

WEBCRAWLING

Featured Creatures:

http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/

Weissling, T.J. and R.M. Giblin-Davis. Silky cane weevil, Metamasius hemipterus sericeus (Oliver).

Hall, D.W. and J.F. Butler. Goatweed butterfly, Anaea andria Scudder.

Habeck, D.H., and F.D. Bennett. Cactus moth, Cactoblastis cactorum (Berg).

Hall, D.W, J. F. Butler and H.L. Cromroy. Hackberry petiole gall psyllid, Pachypsylla venusta (Osten-Saken).

Cuda, J.P. Hydrilla tip mining midge, Cricotopus lebetis Sublette.

Hall, D.W. and J.F. Butler. Zebra swallowtail, Eurytides marcellus (Cramer).

Denmark, H.A., and H.L. Cromroy. House dust mite, Dermatophagoides spp.

Hall, D.W. and J.F. Butler. Palamedes swallowtail, Papilio palemedes (Drury).

Hall, D.W. and J.F. Butler. Tiger swallowtail, Papilio glaucus L.

Creature Citations:

To save space in the newsletter, the citations for Featured Creatures are not listed exactly as they should be referenced in a list of authors' publications. The correct, complete citation is: Author(s). (date). Title. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-##. URL

Software Resellers:

Five CEU/Training tutorials authored by Phil Koehler, Tom Fasulo and Norm Nesheim (of the FRE Department) were advertised in the October issue of "Pest Control", a national magazine that serves the urban pest industry. While these tutorials are described in detail in several files on the UF Buggy Software WWW site, we now also provide a single file that not only lists the tutorials, their categories and CEUs, but also now allows users to download and print (in Adobe Acrobat) the Florida CEU "Attendance Form."

The Buggy Software site is at: http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/pests/software/.

A downloadable presentation on IPM for Cockroaches in Schools has been added to the School IPM WWW site at http://schoolipm.ifas.ufl.edu/.

WWW Logos:

John Foltz asked Tom Fasulo for a smaller logo of the Featured Creatures WWW site that he could place on his Principles of Entomology WWW site. Tom and his crew - Matt Downey and Everett Yang - responded with a series of smaller static and animated GIF files, complete with HTML code, that can be cut and pasted into other WWW files. Visitors to your site can then just click on the graphic to access the other sites. They plan on doing this for most of their WWW sites, but right now only Featured Creatures and School IPM logos are available. Links from the main menus of those sites take you to the Logo WWW site that also includes instructions for cutting and pasting, and even capturing the graphics and changing the HTML code if desired.

READING ROOM

The Reading Room (room 2105) contains books and periodicals donated by faculty members. They are available for use by anyone in the department - but only in the Reading Room. This means that they may NOT be removed from the Reading Room - no excuses are accepted. If you really need a photocopy of some item in the Reading Room, then obtain an account on the photocopy machine there. Do NOT borrow the item to read or photocopy somewhere else.

ENTOMOLOGY AND NEMATOLOGY STUDENT ORGANIZATION

Volunteers needed: Our department is constructing a float for the homecoming parade and we need help. Homecoming is Saturday the 14th of November at 11:00 am.

Philip Lake has taken over the Outreach program. The Outreach program is designed to educate children about insects and nematodes. Anyone needing information or would like to volunteer to help should contact him.


A hard copy of this newsletter is given to department members in Building 970 only. All others can obtain an electronic subscription by sending a request to listserv@lists.ufl.edu and in the text of the message type

subscribe UF-bugnews-L yourfirstname yourlastname

Turn off any signature file, if you have one. You will receive instructions for confirming your subscription and further information on the rules for the list server.

The next newsletter will be published Thursday, November 19. Deadline for contributions is Monday, November 16 University of Florida Entomology and Nematology Newsletter - September 1998

Editor: Michael Patnaude


November 1998. Updated April 2003.