March 2001

NEWSLETTER
March 2001 Entomology and Nematology News
Entomology and Nematology Student Organization
A University of Florida Publication

Secret of Success: "Grow antennae, not horns."

AWARDS

Andy Rasmussen received a $300 travel award from the North American Benthological Society to attend this year's annual meeting to be held in Lacrosse Wisconsin.

GRANTS

Dr. James P. Cuda was awarded a grant for $26,717 from the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission to release and evaluate natural enemies of Brazilian peppertree on county property.

MEETINGS

Dr. James P. Cuda was invited to give a poster presentation at the American Farm Bureau's 82nd Annual Convention held in Orlando, FL, 6-8 January as part of the Meet the Researchers Program. The title of the presentation was "Classical Biological Control of Brazilian Peppertree (Schinus terebinthifolius) in Florida."

Drs. James P. Cuda and Julio Medal were invited to attend the 5th Annual Southeast Regional Public Health Pest & Vector Management Conference in Panama City Beach, FL, 13-15 February. They developed a two-hour workshop on biological control of aquatic weeds that was presented by Medal. The meeting was hosted by the John A Mulrennan, Sr. Research & Education Center, Florida A&M University.

Dr. James P. Cuda attended the 41st Annual Meeting of the Weed Science Society of America held in Greensboro, NC, 10-14 February. Cuda gave three oral presentations entitled, "Risk Assessment of Pseudophilothrips ichini for Classical Biological Control of Brazilian Peppertree in Florida"; "Classical Approaches to Biological Control of Tropical Soda Apple"; and "Toxicological Issues Associated with Weed Biological Control Agents." Two of the presentations were co-authored by Dr. Julio Medal.

PUBLICATIONS

Cuda, J.P. and D.L. Sutton. 2000. Is the aquatic weed hygrophila, Hygrophila polysperma (Polemoniales: Acanthaceae), a suitable target for classical biological control?, pp. 337-348. In N.R. Spencer (ed.), Proceedings of the X International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds, 4-14 July 1999. Montana State University, Bozeman, MT.

Vitorino, M.D., J.H. Pedrosa-Macedo and J.P. Cuda. 2000. Biology and specificity tests of the sawfly Heteroperreyia hubrichi Malaise (Hymenoptera: Pergidae) as a potential biological control agent for Brazilian peppertree, Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi (Anacardiaceae), pp. 645-650. In N.R. Spencer (ed.), Proceedings of the X International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds, 4-14 July 1999. Montana State University, Bozeman, MT.

DEPARTMENTAL READING ROOM

The Entomology/Nematology Reading Room is room 2105. It has a fine collection of scientific journals and trade magazines, and an assortment of books. The door is kept unlocked from 8:00 to 5:00 on weekdays, and at other times can be unlocked with your key to the building. The Reading Room has some very simple rules:

READING MATERIALS MAY NOT BE BORROWED, so either read them there, or photocopy what you need there.
The photocopy machine accepts cash.
You may obtain a charge card for the machine from Nik Hostettler.
Do not take food or drinks into the Reading Room.
Tidy up after yourself (re-shelve books and journals).

FROM: Departmental Reading Room Committee.

RESEARCH IN NATIONAL PARKS

The National Park Service has created an Internet-based site for its Research and Collecting Permits. The site covers all National Park Units in the United States. The web site is: http://science.nature.nps.gov/research

The web site has been designed to be a comprehensive location for researchers to:

have the opportunity to review procedures, previous research efforts, policies, and conditional requirements before submitting a new proposal
search NPS-identified research preferences (the system is new and park staff may not provide this information for several months)
complete and submit an application for a permit via the Internet
file required Investigator's Annual Reports via the Internet

We look forward to encouraging scientists, agencies, non-profits, and all researchers and research institutions to consider the U.S. National Parks as a good place for science that provides public benefits to all citizens.

New Georgia Leps website officially open!

Dear friends and colleagues,

Although it is still being constructed, and will be in such a state for quite some time, I think there is enough information/pictures on the Lepidoptera of Georgia website now that you can enjoy. The address is: http://www.daltonstate.edu/galeps/

Please pass the address on to others who may not be on this list. Any comments/corrections/additions are welcome! The noctuid classification is still a little weird; but this will be modified in the coming weeks.

Dr. James K. Adams
Dept. of Natural Science and Math
Dalton State College
213 N. College Drive
Dalton, GA 30720
Phone: (706)272-4427; fax: (706)272-2533
U of Michigan's President James Angell's

NEW BUG TUTORIALS

Three new tutorials were developed by Thomas Fasulo and Philip Koehler on behalf of the department for licensed pesticide applicator recertification: Bloodsucking Insects and Filth-breeding Flies. These two tutorials offer one CEU each in the General Household Pest, Limited Structural, or Public Health categories.

Beneficial Insects #3, developed by Thomas Fasulo, offers 1 CEU in seven different categories: Commercial Lawn and Ornamental, Limited Lawn and Ornamental, Ornamental and turf, Limited Lawn Maintenance, Private Agricultural Applicator, Agricultural Row Crop and Agricultural Tree Crop.

This brings to 19 the number of Bug Tutorial available. They may be ordered by calling the UF/IFAS Extension Bookstore at (352) 392-1764 or (800) 226-1764. You can find detailed information on all these tutorials at the Buggy Software WWW site available through http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/pests/software/

If there is something you would like to see in future editions of the newsletter, pleas send all thoughts, suggestions and supportive criticisms to: Erin Britton, editor.

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.

This version of the newsletter is prepared for the Web by Andy Koehler.

March 2001. Updated May 2003.