April 2005

Faculty News

It is always nice to receive a compliment, but it is nicer to pass one on. I am currently reading For Love of Insects (published 2003) by biologist Thomas Eisner. Dr. Eisner is world renown for his research, books, and film efforts, as well as for his oft-repeated quote, "Bugs are not going to inherit the earth. They own it now. So we might as well make peace with the landlord."

As I started reading Chapter 4, "Masters of Deception," I, as I am sure you would be, was not really surprised by its first sentence, "James Lloyd was, first and foremost, a firefly enthusiast." Dr. Lloyd, who was suppose to retire several years ago but is still teaching his firefly honors course and taking up a parking space, has taught hundreds of students how to understand and appreciate the lightningbugs.

I wondered if Eisner selected the title, "Master of Deception," with Lloyd in mind, as he also writes in that first paragraph, "But Jim Lloyd was different." In any case, Eisner ends the paragraph with another compliment for Dr. Lloyd, "He had come to me as a graduate student, and he was to write a brilliant thesis." - Thomas Fasulo

Dr. Pauline Lawrence edited the February 2005 issue of the Journal of Insect Physiology (Vol. 51: 99-241) entitled "Non-poly-DNA viruses, their parasitic wasps, and hosts."

Dr. Pauline Lawrence served as a consultant at an NSF funded workshop in Memphis, TN from March 31 through April 2nd. The workshop was designed to teach grant writing skills to faculty from small colleges and universities. Faculty were assisted in developing actual grant proposals and project summaries for submission to programs in the biological sciences directorate of NSF.

Drs. James P. Cuda and Julio Medal traveled to South America, 5-16 March, to survey for natural enemies of Brazilian peppertree. For the first time, Cuda and Medal visited Paraguay, one of the countries where Brazilian peppertree is considered indigenous. During this trip, collaborative programs were developed with the scientists located in Asuncion at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Asuncion, the Inventario Biologico Nacional, and the Fundacion Moises Bertoni. The trip to Paraguay was funded in part by a travel grant awarded to Cuda from the UF/IFAS International Programs Office.

Dr. James P. Cuda was a guest lecturer for an undergraduate course entitled, "Pests, Pesticides and People" (PLS2002). Cuda's talk focused on the principles and practices of biological control.

Student News

Murugesan Rangasamy was elected secretary of the University of Florida Graduate Student Council for the 2005-2006 academic year.

Graduate student Esteban Rodriguez will attend the joint International Organization of Biological Control-Nearctic Regional Section (IOBC-NRS), and the Biocontrol Network of Canada Conference, 8-11 May 2005, in Quebec. While there, Esteban will present "Biology and life history of Triaspis eugenii (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a potential biological control agent for pepper weevil in the United States." He received a $300 student award from IOBC-NRS to help pay his expenses.

Staff News

Debbie Boyd, Laboratory Technician for Dr. McAuslane, is retiring on April 28th after 30 years of service with the University. Twenty-seven of those years were with our department.

Jerry "Mr. Fix-It" Wenzel, our departmental Maintenance Mechanic, is retiring on April 21st to return to his hometown of Chicago. Jerry won't be able to play golf as often as he does in Florida, but if he uses a black ball he can go out on the lake during the winter.

There will be a pizza party for both Jerry and Debbie at at 11:45, 13 April, in room 1031 Please let the front office know if you are coming so that the pizza is plentiful.

Publications

Howard FW. (March 2005). Seagrape borer, Hexeris enhydris Grote. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-345. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/trees/moths/seagrape_borer.htm

Warner J, Scheffrahn RH. 2005. Laboratory evaluation of baits, residual insecticides, and an ultrasonic device for control of white-footed ants, Technomyrmex albipes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Sociobiology 45: 317-330

(A copy is available at http://shalompest.homestead.com/Sociobiology_Vol_45_No_2_2005.pdf)

Dunford JC, Thomas MC, Choate PM. (2005). The darkling beetles of Florida and eastern United States (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/teneb/

(The above site currently includes identification keys, species profiles and images, distributions in Florida and eastern U. S., and literature associated with Tenebrionidae. The authors request that you send comments and/or report errors to dunford@ufl.edu or pmc@ifas.ufl.edu.)

Stelinski LL, Liburd OE. 2005. Behavioral evidence for host fidelity among populations of the parasitic wasp, Diachasma alloeum (Muesebeck). Naturwissenschaften 92:65-68.

Lim UT, Hoy MA. 2005. Biological assessment in quarantine of Semielacher petiolatus (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) as a potential classical biological control agent of citrus leafminer, Phyllocnistis citrella Stainton (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae), in Florida. Biological Control 33: 87-95.

Hashimoto Y, Lawrence PO. 2005. Comparative analysis of selected genes from Diachasmimorpha longicaudata entomopoxvirus and other poxviruses. Journal of Insect Physiology 51: 207-220.

Lawrence PO. 2005. Non-poly-DNA viruses, their parasitic wasps, and hosts (Editorial). Journal of Insect Physiology 51: 99-101.

Lawrence PO. 2005. Morphogenesis and cytopathic effects of the Diachasmimorpha longicaudata entomopoxvirus in host haemocytes. Journal of Insect Physiology 51: 221-233.

Lawrence PO, Matos LF. 2005.Transmission of the Diachasmimorpha longicaudata rhabdovirus (DlRhV) to wasp offspring: an ultrastructural analysis. Journal of Insect Physiology 51: 235-241.

Cuda JP, Medal JC, Vitorino MD, Habeck DH. 2005. Supplementary host specificity testing of the sawfly Heteroperreyia hubrichi, a candidate for classical biological control of Brazilian peppertree, Schinus terebinthifolius, in the USA. BioControl 50: 195-201.

Grants

Oscar Liburd received a USDA T-Star Grant for $61,000, to fund continuing research on living mulches in cucurbits.

Drs. Julio Medal, James Cuda, Philip Stansly, William Overholt, Lance Osborne (UF/IFAS), and Stephen Hight (USDA-ARS) received a $348,000 grant from USDA-APHIS. The one year grant provides for an expansion of the "Implementation of Biological Control of Tropical Soda Apple in Florida using the South American leaf beetle Gratiana boliviana (Chrysomelidae)." The field releases of this beetle began in Florida in summer 2003, and it is a tremendous success (with 60-100% defoliation, no fruit production, and no non-target effects) in most of the 11 Florida counties where it is released so far. Medal is coordinating a research team consisting of UF/IFAS, USDA-ARS, USDA-APHIS, and FDACS-DPI researchers.

Dr. James P. Cuda received a travel grant for $1500 from the UF/IFAS Office of the Dean for Research to attend the 41st Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Food Crops Society to be held in Guadeloupe, French West Indies, 10-16 July.

Meeting and Presentations

The Florida Entomological Society annual meeting for 2005 is scheduled for 24-27 July at the beautiful Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa. Please visit http://www.flaentsoc.org/annual.htm for details.

Graduate student Murugesan Rangasamy presented a paper entitled "Mechanism of resistance in St. Augustinegrass lines to southern chinch bug, Blissus insularis Barber" at the ESA Southeastern branch meeting, 6-9 March, in Tunica, Mississippi. He was also selected to give the same presentation at the Fifth Annual UF/IFAS Graduate Research symposium on 11 March.

I guess these qualify as "presentations." The last faculty meeting began with several video-taped "musical numbers" from Dr. Carl Barfield's "Bugs and People" course. Students in this course can earn extra credit by presenting a song based on class material (i.e., bugs). There must be at least two students and musical accompaniment for each presentation. While you shouldn't look for the CD at your local store, the presentations were entertaining and fun to watch.

Also, at that meeting, Thomas Fasulo showed how adding value to online publications increases Web visitors to that site, which data (obtained from a commercial statistics package that UF/IFAS has) can then be used in annual reports and promotion and tenure packages. Increased numbers of visitors then encourages authors to continue to add value to the publications as the information is reaching more users. Fasulo gave a number of examples where this process generated increased referrals to our Web sites from other universities to their clients, as well as providing WWW search engines the data necessary to list our Web sites higher in their search results. For example, in the last twelve months, the Featured Creatures Web site (http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/) recorded 1,425,604 "distinct visitors" and 2,850,126 page views.

Dr. James P. Cuda participated in the joint DEP-IFAS Aquatic and Invasive Plant Research Review meeting held in Gainesville, 28-29 March. Cuda gave a presentation on the status of the Brazilian peppertree classical biological control program and also served as a moderator for one of the speaker sessions.

Dr. James P. Cuda was an invited speaker at the annual Invasive Plant Management Short Course held in Ft. Pierce, FL, 23 March. The short course was sponsored by the St. Lucie Cooperative Extension Office.

Entomology Seminars

Graduate students Luis Matos, Sean McCann, Veronica Manrique and Murugesan Rangasamy are seminar coordinators. Seminars begin at 3:45 p.m. in room 1031, Entomology and Nematology (Bldg. 970). A listing of seminars is available in the January 2005 issue on the newsletter Web site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/news/. Lois Matos is now seeking recommendations for speakers and topics for the Fall semester. You can contact him at lmatos@ufl.edu.

Newsletter Minutia

Thomas Fasulo is the newsletter editor. Send submissions to him at fasulo@ufl.edu. Issues are published the middle of each month. Submit items for an issue by the 7th of that month.

Printed copies are distributed only within Building 970. UF-Bugnews-l listserv subscribers receive notices when HTML and PDF copies are posted on the newsletter Web site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/news/ , which has instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing.

During the last twelve months, the newsletter Web site recorded 33,119 distinct visitors and 58,723 page views.

April 2005.