A note from Dr. Siegfried

In the last year, our department and a number of our faculty, students and staff have been recognized for their achievements. The list of significant awards continues to grow, and I believe strongly that our department possesses some of the best and brightest entomologists and nematologists in the world. Across the board, I have been extremely pleased with the dedication of everyone that makes this a great place to work and learn, and it is gratifying to see people being recognized for their accomplishments.  Importantly, these recognitions are happening because of our dedication to research, education and extension missions and to a strong balance of our programs. As a department, we must remain committed to this balance and continue to garner support and recognition for all that we do.

A big part of finding this balance is the recognition that our department is comprised of faculty from Pensacola to Homestead and housed at 11 different Research and Education Centers. Our Center faculty contribute significantly to all three departmental missions and are integral to our success. As I traveled around the state for annual evaluations, I was reminded (not that it is easy to forget) that our department is large and diverse! Although the drive gets a little tedious, it is always a pleasure to see the facilities and meet with our faculty and to recognize the diversity of the state’s agricultural and natural resources and the programs that our department administers.  

Another part of our success is the wealth of recent hires combined with experienced and successful faculty. A quick count indicates that approximately 26 of our faculty are assistant or new associate professors. These numbers suggest strongly that we have a balance of youth and experience with new faculty bringing fresh ideas and perspectives on our disciplines and experienced faculty that understand our history and problems facing our state. As I approach completing my third year as chair, I am more and more convinced that balance among our missions and among our faculty is critical to continued success. While we don’t all have the same responsibilities and experience, I hope that we can all share a commitment to finding balance across our missions.   

Thank you for all you do,
~Dr. Blair Siegfried

Give Back
Want to support the UF Entomology & Nematology Department? Consider making an online gift today! Questions can be directed to Christy Chiarelli at (352) 392-1975 or ccw@ufl.edu.

Dr. Oscar Liburd was sworn in as the 2018-2019 President of the Southeastern Branch (SEB) of the Entomological Society of America at the SEB annual meeting in Orlando.

In February, Dr. Jiri Hulcr and Dr. Andrea Lucky were funded by the Israel Taxonomic Initiative to lead a week-long workshop on bark and ambrosia beetle taxonomy and systematics at the Faculty of Agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Rehovot. The course was filled to capacity with 25 participants from diverse backgrounds, including students, foresters, taxonomists, biosecurity professionals and members of the ministry of the environment.

The trip included the opportunity to visit forests, avocado groves, nursery facilities, an inspection station at the port of Haifa and the soon-to-open Israel Museum of Natural History. One exciting finding was the discovery of a species of Fig Bark Beetle (Cryphalus dilutus) previously unrecorded in Israel, which is a known problematic pest of figs and mangoes elsewhere. This new record (a new genus for Israel) in an otherwise very well documented country was a highlight!

ABOVE: Left: Course participants learning about beetles affecting avocadoes. Middle: Lab facilities at the Faculty of Agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Rehovot. Right: In the field with coleopterist Dr. Leonid Friedman, staff at the entomology collection in the faculty of Biology at Tel Aviv University.

The Office of Faculty Development and Teaching Excellence is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2018 Online Education Excellence Awards. The 2018 Student Engagement winner is Dr. Andrea Lucky, for her course ENY2040, The Insects. The award will be presented by Dr. Andrew McCollough at the 2018 Interface on April 19th in the Presidents Ballroom of Emerson Alumni Hall. 

Dr. Norman C. Leppla recently was awarded a plaque in appreciation for continued support of the Sysco Sustainable/IPM Program at the 9th International IPM Symposium in Baltimore, MD. Initiated in 2004, the Sysco Sustainable Agriculture Integrated Pest Management Program is a worldwide initiative conducted in partnership with 74 Sysco Brand processed fruit and vegetable suppliers at 180 processing locations. It is designed to protect ecologically sensitive areas; improve air, water and soil quality; reduce, reuse and recycle resources; conserve energy; and promote the responsible use of agricultural inputs. The Sysco IPM program involves more than 40 basic and specialty crops produced by 7,000 plus growers on more than a million acres.

Dr. James P. Cuda received his Lifetime Achievement Award plaque from the Friends of IPM at the ESA-SEB awards luncheon, March 6th. Dr. Cuda attended the annual Fulbright Scholars Reception held at the Earl and Christy Powell University House on March 12th.

ABOVE: Dr. Bryony Bonning’s lab welcomes postdocs Dr. Ya Guo from  Northwest A&F University, PRC, and Dr. Suresh Panneerselvam from Ajou University, South Korea. Dr. Guo is working on honey bee viruses, and Dr. Panneerselvam is working on the construction of a pesticidal protein database and development of an improved classification algorithm. From left to right: Dr. Biviana Flores-Escobar, Dr. Mariah Kemmerer, Dr. Ya Guo, Dr. Bryony Bonning, Dr. Pavan Kuman, Dr. Emiliano Canton, Dr. Suyog Kuwar, Dr. Suresh Panneerselvam, and Dr. Ruchir Mishra.

The Entomology Club has been selected as this year’s UF Club of the Year! The presentation of the award will be at the CALS Scholarship and Awards Banquet on April 19th.Oliver Keller, a graduate student in the department, won a shared first place in the UF Elegance of Science Contest for his picture of a bess beetle with its offspring from Guatemala. Bess beetles display subsocial behaviors and produce sounds to relay different behavioral context. The specimens were collected during a research trip to Guatemala in 2016.Oliver (and other winners) were recognized during an award ceremony at Marston Science Library on April 3rd, where he and others presented the science behind the images in a series of short talks.

Congratulations to Patricia Prade, Ph.D. candidate at the UF/IFAS/Indian River Research and Education Center, on winning second place in the student competition at the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council’s annual meeting. Patricia’s paper was titled “Cold tolerance of Calophya latiforceps and Calophya terebinthifolii adults, potential biological control agents of Brazilian peppertree.” Patricia is working in Dr. Carey Minteer’s lab and is supervised by both Dr. Minteer and Dr. Jim Cuda. Ms. Prade, successfully completed her Ph.D. qualifying examination on March 26th.

Ms. Rachel Watson, a USP undergraduate student in the laboratory of Dr. James P. Cuda, won 1st place for the Undergraduate Student Poster Competition held at the recent ESA-SEB Annual Meeting held in Orlando, FL,  4-7 March. The title of the poster was “ Improvements to hydrilla tip mining midge rearing: oviposition requirements”, and was co-authored by former USP student Ms. Julie Baniszewski, and Dr. James P. Cuda and Dr. Emma N. I. Weeks. Her work and WSSA research grant were featured in the April 9th edition of the Independent Alligator. 

Emily Gaskin, an undergraduate working in Dr. Carey Minteer’s lab, presented “The air potato leaf beetle: Poster child for biological control outreach” at the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council’s annual meeting in Melbourne on April 5, 2018.

In March, three members of the Miller Lab (Daniela Gomez, Ebony Taylor, and Dieu Tran) presented their research at the University of Florida Undergraduate Research Symposium. Daniela gave a poster presentation titled, “Is male testes size affected by female presence and quality.” Ebony gave a presentation titled, “Males with continuous access to females have relatively smaller testes.” Finally, Dieu presented on, “Long-term sperm storage in the cactus-feeding bug, Narnia femorata (Hemiptera: Coreidae).”

Larissa Laforest, an undergraduate researcher in both the Miller and Dale labs, presented her research at the 2018 University of Florida Undergraduate Research Symposium. Larissa is investigating the consequences of a host parasite interaction on body size in a novel range.

ABOVE: Emerging Scholar Chriselle Tiu and Undergraduate Scholar Linda Dao from the DiGennaro Lab presented their work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium March 22nd. Linda Dao has accepted a PhD research assistantship in the Horticultural Department here at UF, starting this fall.

Lindsy Iglesias, Ph.D. candidate in Oscar Liburd’s lab, presented her Ph.D. Exit Seminar on March 28th. Her dissertation is titled “Studies on the behavior and ecology of Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) and development of IPM strategies in berry crops”.

Lorena Lopez, Ph.D. student in Oscar Liburd’s lab, was selected to present her research on companion planting in squash for insect pest management at the SARE Our Farms, Our Future Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, April 3-5. Lorena was selected to receive a full scholarship for the conference hosted by SARE every 10 years.

Simon Yeboah, Ph.D. student in Oscar Liburd’s lab, was awarded the First Place Spring 2018 ENSO Graduate Student Travel Grant. Simon will use his funds to travel to the International Symposium on Fruit Flies of Economic Importance in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico.

Elizette Rodriguez and Ebony Taylor, two undergraduates from Dr. Christine Miller’s lab, were accepted into the Organization for Tropical Studies, Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Elizette and Ebony will be heading to Costa Rica this summer to investigate the behavior and kinematics of leaf cutter ants. Additionally, two more undergraduate students from the Miller Lab, Daniela Gomez and Sarah Haley Lenga, were accepted into prestigious research programs offered through the University of Florida (UF) this past month. Daniela Gomez was accepted into UF’s McNair Scholars Program and Sarah Haley Lenga was accepted into UF’s University Scholars Program. Daniela and Sarah will be investigating factors that affect reproductive success in leaf-footed bugs.

U.S. Navy entomologist Lieutenant Commander Dr. James Dunford, was recently selected as the 2017 Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center’s enterprise-wide Junior Officer of the Year. Dr. Dunford earned his master's degree in entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Ph.D. at the University of Florida. Dunford has been stationed at the Center since 2015, where he is Head of the Preventive Medicine Program and Policy Support Department and Disease Vector Component Manager of the Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Unit.

The University of Florida Society for Viral Studies (Virology Club) took a Spring Break trip to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colorado. Nineteen students and their advisor, Dr. Jim Maruniak, participated in tours of the research facilities including the Biosafety Level 2 labs in which diseases of mosquitoes and ticks were being researched. We also were able to view the insectory and see rearing of different stages of the mosquitoes and ticks. The tour was headed by Dr. Ben Beard, Ph.D. 1988, Entomology & Nematology Department. Dr. Beard is the Chief of the Bacterial Diseases Branch at the Division of Vector-‐Borne Diseases within the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at CDC.

We were able to talk to a number of researchers who discussed their current research projects and possible careers with the CDC. Additionally, the students and Maruniak went to the Anschutz Medical School at the University of Colorado in Denver. Several faculty and graduate students presented their research on viruses that they are performing research with. We also got a tour of the campus research and medical school. Another tour included the Museum of Nature and Science in Denver where beautiful butterfly and insect collections are displayed.

BugFest 2018 was an IncrediBUG event to conclude BugWeek here on campus. The rain did not keep the crowds away, and the UF Entomology and Nematology Department welcomed 403 guests to the BugFest Open House 2018. Participants had the opportunity to learn about plant and insect interactions from DPM student, Matt Borden, entomophagy from Dr. Rebecca Baldwin, and insecticide resistance from Dr. Blair Siegfried. Insects from around the world were on display, and participants could interact with the UF Arthropod Petting Zoo. Entomology Club members posed at the photo booth with cockroach, spider, and fly costumes. 

Besides free cotton candy, families could participate in a cricket spitting competition, cockroach races, identification of aquatic insects, make clothespin grasshoppers, learn how to collect insects at night, and could even paint an ecoart bookmarker using house fly maggots. The Florida Museum of Natural History and IFAS Communications sponsored an insect themed scavenger hunt at the museum. BugFest was sponsored by the UF Entomology Club. The Entomology Club had 40 volunteers participate in BugFest. Partner clubs for BugFest included the UF Beekeeping club, ENSO, The Urban Entomological Society (UES), and the DPM Student Organization. Special thanks to Kay Weigel, Suzy Rodriguez, the Kaufman Lab, the Urban Entomology Lab, and Hogtown Reptiles for their help in the event.

ABOVE: Entomology was well represented at the 2018 Undergraduate Research Symposium on March 22 in the J. Wayne Reitz Union Grand Ballroom. Three students from Andrea Lucky's lab presented posters: Katie Carroll, Sara Alvarez and Nathan Duerr. Nate's project was a combined art-science project that illustrated the evolution of ants, or the ant tree of life, as a mobile sculpture.  

From the Outreach Coordinator

Here are our events from March:

• March 3rd – Agricultural State Fair – Clancy Short and Dr. Jennifer Weeks
• March 5th – Girl Scout Troop – Dr. Jennifer Weeks
• March 10th/11th – Marion County Master Gardener Spring Festival – Constance Darrisaw
• March 13th – Manatee County Middle School – Dr. Rebecca Baldwin, Melody Bloch, Laurel Lietzenmayer
• March 15th – Belleview Public Library – Constance Darrisaw, Laurel Lietzenmayer
• March 22nd – East Marion STEAM Showcase – Simon Yeboah
• March 23rd – Homeschooling Group – Clancy Short, Dylan Tussey
• March 30th – Sigma Alpha Professional Agricultural Sorority – Marice Lopez

Upcoming Events:

• April 16th – Classical Conversations
• April 20th – Cornerstone Academy
• April 21st – Earth Day Festival
• April 23rd – Ambleside School of Ocala
• May 5th – Learning Gate BioBlitz
• May 11th – Littlewood Elementary
• June 7th – Archer Branch Library

ABOVE: Undergraduate student, Constance Darrisaw, showing off a Chaco golden knee tarantula to some young visitors at the Belleview Public Library.

The live critters are always a hit with children and adults alike. The critters are available for you to check out should you be leading an outreach event. We have doubles of our most popular critters, as well as various native insect species depending on the time of year. We have large wood and Plexiglas cages for viewing our native orb weaving spiders. There is one travel cage and one larger static cage. Please be sure to contact us and review the protocol on transporting and handling the critters if you are not already familiar with it. If you lead an outreach, be sure to fill out a documentation form so your event can be included in the newsletter and we can log all outreach events.