Dr. Jeffrey R. Bloomquist was invited to become a member of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory Panel (FIFRA SAP).

Dr. Jaime Jimenez joined Dr. Bryony Bonning’s lab in September as a postdoctoral research associate. Dr. Jimenez, who completed his doctoral research in Madrid, Spain will be working on plant virus – insect vector molecular interactions.

The DiGennaro Lab would like to welcome visiting graduate scholar Betre Estifanos from the Julius Kuhn-Institute in Germany. During his six week stay, Betre will continue his Ph.D. work in identifying intra-specific genomic variation within Pratylenchus species and begin de novo genome sequencing of different plant parasitic nematode isolates.

ABOVE: Dr. Anthony Auletta and Dr. James P. Cuda represented the Department at the 3rd Annual Fall Undergraduate Research Expo held at the Reitz Union on September 17th. Over 1,150 students attended the event and gained exposure to ongoing STEM and non-STEM research at UF. About 30 students filled out a sign-up sheet, and asked for more information about research opportunities in our department.  

ABOVE: Our postdocs, staff, faculty, and students enjoyed our September postdoc appreciation event!

On September 23rd there was a ground-breaking ceremony at SWFREC Immokalee that honored the late Dr. Philip A. Stansly who served 32 years at UF and 29 years at SWFREC. The ceremony commemorated launch of construction of a brand new house for visiting students and scientists.

With Dr. Kelly Morgan’s introduction, Dr. Jack Payne, UF Senior VP, Dr. Elaine Turner, UF Dean of CALS, Mr. William McDaniels, Collier County Commissioner, Mr. Chuck Obern, owner of C&B Farms (in Immokalee) and 2019 Florida Farmer of the Year, and Ph.D. student Timothy Ayankojo gave short talks on Stansly’s illustrious career and the status quo of Florida agriculture. Following this, they and the Stansly family posed with shovels for the ~45 growers, center members and center supporters that attended.


All but the youngest of the Stansly family, Philip ‘Kip’ Stansly, were present. From left to right is oldest daughter Maggy, oldest sib Ted, Mrs. Silvia Stansly, then Rudy Gallegos and his wife Kasandra Stansly Gallegos with daughter Aria.

This will be the third house on-site, and blueprints have it at 1,750 square feet, with eight bedrooms, and four baths. Along with the two houses already present, these eight rooms bring the total to a 23 occupant capacity for the REC. Estimated date of completion is May, 2020. It will be named The Philip A. Stansly Graduate Student Residence. Dr. Joe Cicero and Dr. Kelly Morgan prepared this summary.

Many trees in the U.S. suffer from invasive wood boring insects that originated in Asia and were introduced to our ecosystems and industries. The UF Forest Entomology lab works in China to discover wood borer species that may become such pests in the future.

The team just returned from one round of the study, in which they operated multiple sentinel gardens across China, composed of American trees that serve as bait for the local wood borers. The project is a collaboration between the UF team, entomologists from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer services – Division of Plant Industries (DPI), and many colleagues in China.

ABOVE: Pre-invasion assessment of wood borers in a sentinel garden in the Fujian province: Dr. Li You (postdoc), A. Simon Ernstons (graduate student), Dr. Leroy Whilby (DPI) and Dr. Paul Skelley (DPI).

Dr. Michael C. Thomas, a graduate of our department (B.S, M.S., Ph.D.) died on Friday October 4th at the age of 71. Dr. Thomas became head of the entomology section of the Division of PIant Industry after Dr. Harold Browning retired. He was a coleopterist with responsibilities in insect identification and maintenance of the insect collection (Florida State Collection of Arthropods) at DPI. He retired in 2013. He also was chief editor of the journal Insecta Mundi.  

Memorial services will be held at Forest Meadows Funeral Home, 725 NW 23rd Ave, Gainesville, on Saturday, October 19th. The gathering begins at 12:00 noon with a short service starting at 1:00.

Dr. Thomas will be missed not only by his wife Sheila and two daughters and their families, but by a wide circle of colleagues and friends, many of them associated with the Center for Systematic Entomology.

Great alumni news! Dr. Barbra Larson will be the new Director of the CALS Center for Online Learning and Technology (COLT), replacing Ron Thomas. Dr. Larson began working in COLT on Friday October 4. Dr. Larson earned her Ph.D. from our department.

ABOVE: A beautiful engagement! Sarah Anderson, a graduate student in the Mallinger lab, was proposed to at Steinmetz Hall by her now fiancé Chris. Congratulations Chris and Sarah!  Our own Suzy Rodriguez was there to capture the moment.

From the Outreach Coordinator

September Outreach Events:

September 10th- CALS Kickoff: Clayton Bania, Dr. Rebecca Baldwin, Dr. Anthony Auletta, Constance Darrisaw, Ebony Taylor, Jordyn Ranfone, Brett Lebella, Tarolyn Plummey

September 14th- Touch-A-Truck: Clayton Bania, Constance Darrisaw, Ebony Taylor

September 15th- Bug Zoo Party: Dr. Rebecca Baldwin

September 17th- Exotic Animal Club: Dr. Lisa Taylor, Clayton Bania, Constance Darrisaw, Marielle Berto, Cleveland Ivey

September 24th/25th- Ft. Myers Outreach: Dr. Rebecca Baldwin

September 26th- Oak Hammock retirement community tour: Dr. Daniel Hahn, Dylan Tussey, Clancy Short, Clayton Bania, Ebony Taylor, Dr. Phil Koehler

September 28th- CALS Tailgator: Clayton Bania and the marvelous undergraduate Entomology Club!!

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.