November 2007
Faculty News
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel covered the release in Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge of the fly parasites that UF/IFAS entomologists hope will control the Mexican bromeliad weevil that is devastating Florida's unique bromeliads. Drs. Howard Frank and John Capinera were featured.
Palm Beach's Channel 5 has a similar story and a video, featuring Dr. Frank, graduate student Teresa Cooper, U.S. Representative Roy Klein and a class of 4th grade children available at http://www.wptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=ee21ead0-9401-4fb5-acb1-907db52ed5ad. The video is preceded by a short commercial. The Herald-Tribune also had an article at http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20071014/COLUMNIST17/710140399. You can read the Featured Creatures publication on the Mexican bromeliad weevil and its fly parasite at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/m_callizona.htm.
Dr. Jaret Daniels was featured in a news release on the Miami blue butterfly at http://snre.ufl.edu/Pubs&Event/Source/fall07/butterfly.html.
On 5-7 November, Dr. Marjorie A. Hoy traveled to Catania, Sicily, for an IOBC meeting on Integrated Control in Citrus Fruit Crops. Traveling with Dr. Hoy was Lipolexis oregmae, a hymenopteran parasitoid of the brown citrus aphid, which will be reared in Catania for possible release against its host. The brown citrus aphid recently invaded the Mediterranean basin and is a threat to citrus planted on tristeza-tolerant rootstock. Dr. Lucia Zappala, of the University of Catania and a former postdoctoral scientist in the Hoy lab, will rear the parasitoid and share it with other countries in the region.
On 17-19 October, Dr. Marc Branham attended the 2007 Jumpstart Training/Planning Meeting in Indianapolis for newly elected officers of the Entomological Society of America (ESA). The purpose of the meeting is to train members in the duties and responsibilities they will encounter as new officers (Section Past President, President, Vice President, Vice President Elect and Treasurer), and outline section-specific goals and timelines for addressing them. The new re-organization of ESA allows each section more latitude in pursuing goals specific to the interests of each section, and each section will be allotted its own budget to those goals.
Drs. James Cuda, Howard Frank, Christine Miller, Oscar Liburd, Marc Branham, and Michael Scharf hosted a group of Chinese entomologists touring the department on 31 October. The four-member delegation from the Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University in Yangling, Shaanxi, China, were visiting Canadian and U.S. institutions for the purpose of initiating collaborative research and student exchange programs.
The roles that Drs. Susan Webb and Phil Stansly played in the discovery of the vector and disease agent for watermelon vine decline were recognized in the November/December 2007 issue of the USDA Agricultural Research magazine. See http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov07/vine1107.htm.
Staff News
Dr. Rebecca Baldwin accepted the department's Senior Teaching Lab Specialist position. Her responsibilities include teaching ENY 3005/5006 Distance (which currently has 106 students), ENY 3005L/5006L Distance, and ENY 3007/5160 Life Science. She also will continue her extension work with School IPM and the Termite Training Facility. Basically she is doing everything she did before in her grant-funded, faculty-level, Assistant Extension Scientist position, but now she has a permanent position. In addition, Dr. Baldwin was recently appointed chair of the Florida Entomological Society's (FES) Education Committee.
Student News
Graduate Student Amit Sethi received a $300 travel grant from the office of the UF Vice President for Research to support travel to the ESA meeting in San Diego, California, this December. Sethi will speak on "Banded cucumber beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) resistance in romaine lettuce: understanding latex chemistry," during the Ph.D. student competition.
Graduate student Mike Bentley was recently appointed to the FES Education Committee.
Alumni News
In the Editor's Note to the Spring 2007 issue of the American Entomologist, editor Dr. Gene Kritsky wrote that the Winter 2006 issue was the "...premiere of the color version of the What is it?' feature." The inaugural photograph, submitted by Dr. Nancy C. Hinkle [Ph.D. 92], was a wonderful image of a glowing larviform insect." The winning answer included the URL to a Featured Creatures publication (http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/beetles/glow-worms.htm) written by Dr. Marc Branham.
Dr. Juan Manuel Alvarez (Ph.D. 00), an Associate Professor of Entomology in the Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences Department of the University of Idaho presented the keynote address during the 10th International Plant Virus Epidemiology symposium "Controlling Epidemics of Emerging and Established Plant Virus Diseases - The Way Forward." The meeting occurred at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, in Hyderabad, India, during 15-19 October. Alvaraz spoke on "Mixed-viral infections (potato virus Y-potato leafroll virus) affect the biology and preference of aphid vectors and consequently the epidemiology of potato viruses."
Dr. Andrei Sourakov (Ph.D. 97), well known for his photographic skill, created an image gallery of over 1,000 butterflies for the Florida Museum of Natural History. See http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/butterflygallery/.
Publications
Stelinski LL. (2007). Citrus peelminer, Marmara gulosa Guillèn and Davis. Featured Creatures. EENY-415. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/citrus/citrus_peelminer.htm
Rios LM, Connelly CR. (2007). Common malaria mosquito, Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say. Featured Creatures. EENY-419. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/aquatic/Anopheles_quadrimaculatus.htm
Medal JC, Gandolfo D, Overholt W, Stansly P, Roda A, Osborne L, Hibbard K, Gaskalla R, Burns E, Chong J, Sellers B, Hight S, Cuda JP. 2007. Biology of Gratiana boliviana, the first biocontrol agent released to control tropical soda apple in the USA. EDIS. ENY-826. 3 p.
Medal J, Bustamante N. 2007. Biological control of weeds in Latin America: actual situation and future trends, p. 134-141. In Lira H. (ed.). Bioplaguicidas y Control Biologico. Centro de Investigacion en Quimica Aplicada- Universidad Autonoma Agraria Antonio Narro. Monterrey, Mexico.
Bredow E, Pedrosa JH, Medal JC, Cuda JP. 2007. Open field host specificity tests in Brazil for risk assessment of Metriona elatior (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), a potential biological control agent of Solanum viarum (Solanaceae) in Florida. Florida Entomologist 90: 559-564.
Mann RS, Kaufman PE, Butler JF. (2007). A sand fly, Lutzomyia shannoni Dyar. Featured Creatures. EENY-421. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/flies/Lutzomyia_shannoni.htm
Wheeler MM, Zhou X, Scharf ME, Oi FM. 2007. Molecular markers for monitoring dynamic shifts of cellulolytic protozoa in Reticulitermes flavipes. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 37: 1366-1374.
Stelinski LL, Gut LJ, Haas M, McGhee P, Epstein D. 2007. Evaluation of aerosol devices for simultaneous disruption of sex pheromone communication in Cydia pomonella and Grapholita molesta (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). Journal of Pest Science 80: 225-233.
Thancharoen A, Ballantyne LA, Branham MA, Jeng ML. 2007. Description of Luciola aquatilis sp. nov., a new aquatic firefly (Coleoptera: Lampyridae: Luciolinae) from Thailand. Zootaxa 1611: 55-62.
Arévalo HA, Liburd OE. 2007. Horizontal and vertical distribution of flower thrips in southern highbush and rabbiteye blueberry plantings, with notes on a new sampling method for thrips inside blueberry flowers. Journal of Economic Entomology 100: 1622-1632.
Dunford JC, Austin GT. 2007. Nomenclatural faux pas for Speyeria atlantis greyi Moeck, 1950 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Insecta Mundi 17: 1-4.
Dunford JC, Somma LA, Serrano D. (2007). FSCA Mecoptera Resources. Florida State Collection of Arthropods. http://www.fsca-dpi.org/MecopteraPage.htm
Meetings and Presentations
Dr. Julio Medal was invited to give an opening talk at the International Sustainable Agriculture Symposium held at the Universidad Autonoma Agraria Antonio Narro in Saltillo, Coahuila state, Mexico, 24-26 October. His presentation on "Biological control of invasive plants in Latin America: Current status and future trends" was co-authored by technician Nikary Bustamante.
Ph.D. student Emily Saarinen recently gave a poster and three oral presentations on the Miami blue butterfly. She presented the poster "Conservation genetics of the endangered Miami blue butterfly," at the UF Genetics Symposium, in Gainesville, during November; a 10-minute paper on "The conservation genetics of the Miami blue butterfly: Integrating science and management," at the Canyon National Parks Science Scholars Program Retreat and 10th Anniversary Meeting, Grand Canyon, AZ, during October; a 30-minute paper on "The conservation genetics of the Miami blue butterfly," for the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity lecture series in Gainesville, during October; and a 20-minute paper, with coauthor Dr. Jaret Daniels, on "Conservation genetics: The past, present, and future of the Miami blue butterfly," for the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera, Annual Meeting, in Gainesville, during October.
Dr. Jaret Daniels gave the presentation "Florida Butterfly Diversity and Conservation" to the Hernando County Audubon Society on 27 September, in Brooksville. He also gave the presentation "Butterfly Conservation Through Compound Eyes" at the 7th Annual Southwest Florida Butterfly Conference (Lee County Extension) on 3 November.
Dr. James P. Cuda was an invited speaker for the inaugural Right-of-Way and Aquatic Weed Control Training Workshop held in Panama City Beach, FL, 16-18 October. Cuda gave the presentation "Current and Future Role of Classical Biological Control for Integrated Management of Aquatic and Upland Invasive Plants."
Dr. James Cuda produced a series of handouts on biological control of invasive plants for over 400 participants attending the 27th Annual Florida Master Gardener Training Conference held at the Reitz Union, 22-24 October.
Drs. James Cuda and Oscar Liburd were invited attendees for the College of Engineering Sciences, Technology and Agriculture Research Forum held at Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL, 25 October.
Fall Entomology Seminars
Graduate students Murugesan Rangasamy (Chair), Amit Sethi, Craig Roubos, Seth Bybee, Andrew Derksen, Corraine Scott and Jennifer Zaspel serve on this semester's Seminar Committee. Seminars are held on Thursday afternoons in room 1031: refreshments at 3:45 pm; seminar at 4:00 pm. A listing of seminars is available online in the September 2007 issue.
McGuire Seminars
Fall seminars at the Center for Biodiversity and Lepidoptera are held in the McGuire Conference Room from 12:00-1:00 pm and include lunch. A listing of seminars is available online in the October 2007 issue.
Grants
Drs. Betty Dunckel, Jaret Daniels and Thomas Emmel received a $18,615 grant from the Florida Wildflower Foundation for the second printing of the Florida Wildflowers and Butterflies brochure (100,000 copies).
St. Lucie County Extension Agent Mr. Ken T. Gioeli and Drs. James P. Cuda, William Overholt and Julio Medal were co-recipients of a $7,500 Extension Program Enhancement Grant on "Taming Invasive Plants: A Solution for you Life."
Dr. James P. Cuda and graduate student Abhishek Mukherjee received a $10,000 grant from Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Invasive Plant Management to support graduate student travel and related expenses for research on biological control of the aquatic weed hygrophila.
Segments
Thomas Fasulo often receives enquiries from faculty and students asking how Featured Creatures (FC) and EDIS interrelate. All FC publications also become EDIS publications. The EDIS document retains the FC EENY number. While the text and images are the same, the format is different. The same day that Fasulo posts a completed and reviewed FC, he alerts Glinda Burnett, the department's EDIS editor, that a new FC is available, and she then creates an EDIS version. Any changes to the FC, by the author or by Fasulo if the author is no longer available, are provided the same day to Burnett, who then makes those changes in the EDIS copy. You may view these publications at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/ or http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/.
The Entomological Digital Library is a collaborative effort by three universities (North Carolina State, Iowa State and Clemson) and The Entomological Foundation. The Library's goal is to provide access to high-quality, expert-reviewed entomology teaching materials. As of mid-November there were a 118 different titles in numerous categories listed on its site at http://www.entlibrary.org/. A number of these are software and video publications developed in our department.
According to a UF press release, a UF chemical engineer "... is drawing inspiration from the eyes of moths and the wings of cicadas to create unusual new anti-reflective and water-repellant coatings coatings that appear to have potential to make solar cells both more efficient and self-cleaning." See http://news.ufl.edu/2007/10/23/moth-eyes/ for details.
Newsletter Minutiae
Thomas Fasulo is the newsletter editor. You can submit news anytime 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. Pam Howell and Nancy Sanders review the newsletter for errors and prepare the print version for distribution. Thomas Fasulo codes the HTML version.
In the last 12 months, the newsletter Web site recorded 61,302 visitor sessions, 82,444 HTML page views and 8,506 PDF downloads
November 2007.