October 2002

Drs. Julio Medal, James Cuda, and Raghavan Charudattan attended and gave lectures at the 'First Latin-America Short-Course on Biological Control of Weeds' that was held in Montelimar, Nicaragua, during 24 to 28 June 2002. This course was organized by Dr. Medal, and had the participation of 78 trainees from 17 countries and 15 speakers with widely recognized international experience on all aspects of weed control using insects and/or pathogens. A written evaluation of the course was made by the participants during the last day of the event. All the participants rated the course good to excellent, and all the participants, except 3, indicated that they could apply what they learned during this intensive short-course. A second short-course is in preparation and will be conducted in 2004 in Brazil.

Dr. Eileen Buss, Dr. Phil Koehler, Dr. Faith Oi, and Cindy Tucker along with Eric Althouse from the Florida Department of Education organized and presented "The IPM for Educational Facilities Series, 'Mole Crickets and Fire Ants'." The workshops were held at five different locations throughout the state, and were open to school personnel, professional pest control operators, and the public

Dr. Phil Koehler, Dr. Faith Oi, Jane Medley, Richard Martyniak, Joe Jonovich, Rebecca Baldwin, Cindy Tucker, Cara Congdon, Ricky Vasquez, Brian Eisenberg, and Kim McCanless, attended and presented a technician training seminar at the CPCO annual meeting in Coral Springs, FL.

Dr. James Cuda, Dr. John Foltz, Dr. John Capinera, Dr. Norm Leppla, Dr. Grover Smart, Jim Dunford, and Rebecca Baldwin attended the CALS 3rd Annual Teaching Enhancement Symposium held on 20 August at the UF Doubletree Hotel and Conference Center.

Dr. James P. Cuda attended the 17th Annual Symposium of the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council held in Sebring, FL, 17-19 September. Dr. Cuda gave a PowerPoint presentation entitled, "Brazilian Peppertree Leafrolling Moth Episimus utilis (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): Laboratory Biology and Preliminary Results of U.S. Quarantine Host Range Tests." The presentation was co-authored by Cliff Martin, Kezia Awadzi, Judy Gillmore and Julio Medal.

Dr. James P. Cuda attended the FAEP Annual Conference held in Panama City Beach, 9-12 September. Cuda was invited to give a presentation entitled, "Contributions of Extension to Invasive Plant Management in Florida." With the assistance of Jane Medley, Marion Douglas, Glinda Burnett and members of the IPM Design Team, Dr. Cuda also developed a poster presentation entitled, "IPM at Your Service" for the Innovation Station Display.

Drs. James P. Cuda and Julio C. Medal co-organized and participated in the First Latin American Short-course on Biological Control of Weeds held in Montelimar, Nicaragua, 24-28 June 2002. Dr. Cuda presented two PowerPoint lectures entitled "Procedures in Weed Biological Control" and "Biological Control of Aquatic Weeds in the USA."

Drs. Jim and Ale Maruniak attended the XXXV annual meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology (SIP) held in Foz de Iguazu, Brazil, from August 19 to 23. Dr. Jim Maruniak was also elected to be the Chair for the Virus Division of the Society. During this trip they were also able to meet with Brazilian scientists about on-going collaborative projects on baculovirus genomics. They included Dr. Paolo Zanotto who finished his Master's degree in our Department in 1990 and is currently a professor at the University of Sao Paulo, and Dr. Octavio Henrique Pavan who spent a one-year sabbatical in our Department in 1994 and is a professor at the University of Campinas.

Dr. Oscar Liburd presented a paper entitled "Pest management options for Florida blueberry growers" at the annual blueberry meeting in Hawthorne, Florida. Approximately 80 growers from Florida and other neighboring states were present at the meeting.

Dr. James P. Cuda completed a short-course on Introduction to GIS Applications offered by the Soil and Water Science Institute, 13-14 August.

The Small Fruit and Vegetable IPM Laboratory headed by Dr. Oscar Liburd participated in the annual grape field day, Friday, August 9th, in Tallahassee, Florida. Several key pests of grapes were put on display. Growers were able to visit booths and learn basic tactics for managing key pests of grapes. The UF Small Fruit booth banner was entitled, "Discovering alternatives for managing key pests of grapes."

Dr. Oscar Liburd presented a paper at the Florida Entomological Society meeting entitled "Capture of blueberry maggot flies in Georgia and northeast Florida and potential to monitor with host volatile compounds."

Norm Leppla just returned from team teaching a semiannual, international short course at Mississippi State University, "Principles and Procedures for Rearing Quality Insects" (October 15-20, 2002). It is the only course of its kind, so it attracts students from around the world. He lectured on the history of quality control in insect rearing and international insect mass rearing programs, such as those for the Mediterranean fruit fly, Cerititis capitata; caribfly, Anastrepha suspensa; screwworm, Cochliomyia hominovorax; boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis; and pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella. He concluded with a system for assuring the production of high quality insects, "Total Quality Control for Arthropod Rearing." The course has been such a success that the instructors have been invited to present it in England and South Africa in the near future.

Medal, J., and H. Norambuena (eds.). 2002. Manual de Control Biologico de Plantas Invasoras. University of Florida-IFAS. Gainesville, FL. 85 p.

Olckers, T., J. Medal, and D. Gandolfo. 2002. Insect herbivores associated with species of Solanum (Solanaceae) in northeastern Argentina and southeastern Paraguay, with references to biological control of weeds in South Africa and the United States of America. Florida Entom. 85 (1): 254-260.

Medal, J. 2002. Historia del control biologico de malezas, pp. 1-12. In: Manual de Control Biologico de Plantas Invasoras (J. Medal & H. Norambuena, eds.). University of Florida-IFAS. Gainesville, FL.

Medal, J. 2002. Procedimientos a seguir en un programa de control biologico de plantas invasoras, pp. 13-17. In: Manual de Control Biologico de Plantas Invasoras (J. Medal & H. Norambuena, eds.). University of Florida-IFAS. Gainesville, FL.

Cuda, J. P., B. R. Coon, Y. M. Dao, and T. D. Center. 2002. Biology and Laboratory Rearing of Cricotopus lebetis (Diptera: Chironomidae), a Natural Enemy of the Aquatic Weed Hydrilla (Hydrocharitaceae). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Amer. 95: 587-596.

Medal, J. C., J. P. Cuda, and D. Gandolfo. 2002. Classical biological control of tropical soda apple in the USA. EDIS ENY-824. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu//pdffiles/IN/IN45700.pdf

Cuda, J. P., K. T. Gioeli, K. A. Langeland, and V. J. Vandiver, Jr. 2002. Contributions of extension to invasive plant management in Florida, p. 56. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Florida Associations of Extension Professionals. University of Florida Cooperative Extension

Cuda, J. P., and G. R. Buckingham. 2002. Biological control of aquatic weeds in the USA, pp. 70-76. In Training Manual for the First Latin American Short-course on Biological Control of Weeds held in Montelimar, Nicaragua, 24-28 June 2002. University of Florida, IFAS

Cuda, J. P., G. S. Wheeler, and D. H. Habeck. 2002. Brazilian peppertree seed wasp, Megastigmus transvaalensis (Hymenoptera: Torymidae). EDIS EENY-270. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu//pdffiles/IN/IN45300.pdf.

Medal, Julio C., Nancy C. Coile, Daniel Gandolfo, and James P. Cuda. 2002. Status of biological control of tropical soda apple, Solanum viarum, in Florida. Botany Circular No. 35, September-October. Fla. Dept. Agric. & Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry.

Cuda, J.P., G.S. Wheeler, and D.H. Habeck. June 2002. Brazilian peppertree seed chalcid, Megastigmus transvaalensis (Hymenoptera: Torymidae). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures EENY-270 http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/beneficial/m_transvaalensis.htm.

David Dame and Thomas Fasulo recently completed the new National Public-Health Pesticide Applicator Training Manual. Graduate student Angela Brammer provided invaluable assistance as the copy editor for the manual, and Jane Medley designed the colorful cover. This three-year project underwent reviews from numerous national experts. Sixteen states and four Federal agencies cooperated in providing information for the first revision of the manual in almost twenty years. The manual includes the following chapters: Introduction, Pests and Public Health, Mosquitoes, House Frequenting Insect Pests, Mites and Ticks, Flies, Venomous Arthropods, Vertebrate Pests, Control Organization Responsibilities, a Glossary and a Key to Acronyms. A printed copy of the manual and a CD-ROM was sent to Pesticide Coordinators in all 50 states and US Territories for use in whole or to edit for their state manual. The 144-page, spiral bound manual, with a color cover depicting nine public health pests, is available from the UF/IFAS Extension Bookstore by calling (800) 226-1764. The cost is $25. You may also order online at the UF/IFAS Extension Bookstore. Or you may print the PDF files from the Public Health Web site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/vector/. Quantity (25%) and reseller (40%) discounts are available from the Extension Bookstore.

Jane Medley and Thomas Fasulo revised their two computer tutorials on butterflies of the southeastern United States and reissued them on a CD. All of the photographs are now of better quality and some are new. The CD is available from the UF/IFAS Extension Bookstore. Details are available on the Buggy Software Web site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/pests/software/.

The Florida IPM/Biocontrol Web site recently underwent a major design overhaul that is especially visible on the main menu. The team involved in this revision includes Dr. Norm Leppla, Dr. James Cuda, Gary Brinen, Tom Fasulo, Dan Sonke, Patrick Hope, and Andy Koehler. In addition to making subheadings easier to find, additional sections were added, including funding, employment and IPM success stories. Video and PowerPoint presentations have been added and more will be posted to the site in the future. IPM information from students, as well as faculty and staff, is welcome for the Web site as additions or links.

MCricket v 2.0 is a major revision of the University of Florida's knowledgebase on mole crickets. The mole cricket knowledgebase provides information on all ten species found in the United States, including Hawaii, and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This information covers distribution, description, life cycle, damage, and biological controls. It also includes an identification key for these species that makes heavy use of graphics and photographs. A separate control section lists information on damage for various crops (turf, pastures, vegetables), and chemical and biological control methods. Another section provides references for users interested in obtaining more detailed information from the scientific literature. Additional references are either provided on the CD or linked to Web-based files. Developed by J. Howard Frank, Thomas R. Fasulo, Donald E. Short and Aaron S. Weed. Details are available on the Buggy Software Web site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/pests/software/.

Angela Brammer, a graduate student in the department, recompiled the information on poisonous spiders on the School IPM site (http://schoolipm.ifas.ufl.edu/) into several news releases (1 page, 2/3 page, 1/3 page) for use in school or other newsletters or news releases. Ms. Brammer has a degree in Journalism and is studying to be a scientific writer. She redid the news releases at the suggestion of the Florida School IPM Advisory Committee. The releases on spiders joins those she had already done on yellowjackets, hornets and bee/wasp stings and head lice.

The department now has 16 IPM tutorials on 8 CD-ROMs. The Bug Tutorials join the two Core tutorials and four Label Tutorials which were converted to CD-ROMs earlier this year. A single Bug Tutorial on diskette used to cost $15, but now you can purchase two Bug Tutorials on one CD-ROM for $25. All or some of the tutorials are authorized for CEUs in five states (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Vermont and West Virginia), and for the new technician/ID card holder, Pesticide Safety and IPM training requirements in Florida. The Bug Tutorials now paired on CD-ROMs are:

Beneficial Insects 3 and Beneficial Insects 4
Bloodsucking Insects and Filth-breeding Flies
Cockroaches, and Pest Ants
Eastern Subterranean Termite, and Wood-destroying Insects
German Cockroach and Stored Product Pests
Mosquitoes 1 and Mosquitoes 2
Ornamental Insects 1 and Ornamental Insects 2
Butterflies 1 and Butterflies 2

The West Virginia Department of Agriculture has approved three more UF/IFAS Bug Tutorials for CEUs in that state. This makes a total of 24 UF/IFAS computer-verified training tutorials approved by West Virginia. For West Virginia requirements and pesticide applicator categories, see http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/pests/software/wva-ceu.htm.

One of Tom Fasulo's many responsibilities is serving as project coordinator for the Featured Creatures Web site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/. This site has drawn numerous favorable comments from scientists at the state, national and international level, as well as teachers (K-college level) and private individuals. Featured Creatures is a database of arthropods in numerous areas. It consists of files on arthropods you may never encounter, and those you see every day.

Since there are over 1,000,000 identified species of just insects, it is obvious that we don't cover them all, even some especially common ones. However, we do cover many that might be of future importance. For example, Featured Creatures offered a detailed file on the pink hibiscus mealybug four years before it appeared in Florida, and numerous fruit flies that only appear occasionally in Florida are covered in detail.

There are over 275 Featured Creatures, with more in various stages of completion. Featured Creatures files are formal publications of the University of Florida - Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), and have an assigned series number beginning with EENY. The Featured Creatures site is a popular resource on the Web. This past summer IFAS IT programmers began implementing a new Web statistics package for IFAS Web sites, and the Featured Creatures Web site was used for demonstration and evaluation purposes. The results were very interesting. During the 31 days of May 2002, Featured Creatures received over 460,000 hits and over 130,000 distinct visits.

Featured Creatures files are posted on the Web in HTML format - using a design common for all Featured Creatures files. Recently, IFAS editors began converting these files into two other formats - HTML in an EDIS design (a major repository of IFAS publications in all areas), and in PDF. If you wish to print or download Featured Creatures files in the traditional IFAS format, then you can do so in EDIS, searching for the file using the EENY number. Each Featured Creatures file is linked to the main EDIS menu. Please be aware that not all Featured Creatures files are currently available on EDIS, and EDIS files may not be as up to date as Featured Creatures files. We very often change text and photographs in Featured Creatures files as our authors request. These changes are made much more quickly in Featured Creatures than in EDIS publications, simply due to the workload involved and the fact that, since we are dedicated to this task, we can often make the changes on the same day.

Other universities, scientists from around the world, and even private individuals have contributed photographs and other images to Featured Creatures, and caught us in some mistakes too. Tom Fasulo would like to take this opportunity to thank all contributors. Featured Creatures - http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/ EDIS - http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/

The UF Entomology and Nematology Department and the FDACS Division of Plant Industry have added files on the following organisms to the Featured Creatures WWW site at: http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/ There are now over 270 Featured Creatures files, with more undergoing development.

Osborne, R.S., N.C. Leppla, and L.S. Osborne, Predatory 'gall-midge,' Feltiella acarisuga (Vallot).

Heppner, J.B, K.A. Barbara, and E.A. Buss, Spanish moth, Xanthopastis timais (Cramer).

Warner, J., and R.H. Scheffrahn. Florida carpenter ants, Camponotus floridanus (Buckley) and Camponotus tortuganus (Emery).

Cuda, J.P., G.S. Wheeler, and D.H. Habeck, Brazilian peppertree seed chalcid, Megastigmus transvaalensis (Hussey).

Warner, J., R.H. Scheffrahn, and B. Cabrera, White-footed ant, Technomyrmex albipes (Fr. Smith).

New text and/or photographs were added to the files on: lady beetles, cactus bug, broad mite, Florida bromeliad weevil, Mexican bromeliad weevil, hydrilla tip mining midge, multicolored Asian lady beetle, white grubs, white garden snail, brown garden snail, snail-eating snails of Florida, the slugs of Florida To save space, these publications are not listed exactly as they should be cited. The complete correct citation is: Author(s). (date of publication). Full title. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY- ##. URL

"My girl-friend and I just saw our first Royal Walnut Moth. Talk about huge.... Beautiful specimen. Thank you and your colleagues for the photos on the net. Without them we wouldn't have been able to id him/her." - Kelsie and Susann

"I was reviewing the cactus moth, Cactoblastis cactorum, in Featured Creatures at the request of Ken Bloem (we have been working together with others on this moth). I really like this website!" - Dr. James E. Carpenter, USDA-ARS Insect Biology & Population Management Research Laboratory, Tifton, GA

"My 12-year old daughter brought me the weirdest worm tonight. I found your site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/land_planarians.htm, via a Nature.net forum, via google search for 'identify a slug gastropod'. Although the article describes their habitat from Florida to Louisiana, we thought you might want to know that land planarians are alive and well in Houston, Texas! Thanks." - Gregory & Amy Ball

"Thank you for your website on land planarians. We have just found two (Bipalium kewense Mosely) here in Arlington, TX - a city between Ft. Worth and Dallas. One was more than a foot long when stretched out and the other was about 7 inches. They seem to come out in the early morning on the sidewalk and were found in my friend's yard which is shaded and covered with well watered St. Augustine grass. They were the first that I had seen. I contacted the Tarrant County Extension Agency, a vet and a member of the science department at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History to identify this mysterious creature. LaShawn at the museum confirmed that it was a planarian." - M.K. Harris

Dr. James P. Cuda was elected to serve a 2-year term on the Board of Directors of the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council at the 17th Annual Meeting held in Sebring, FL, 17-19 September 2002.

Kathryn Barbara won second place in the Florida Turfgrass Association annual meeting Student Paper competition with her paper entitled, "Exotic mole cricket (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae) management with insect parasitic nematodes (Steinernema scapterisci Nguyen and Smart)."

Dr. James P. Cuda was awarded a grant for $8,788 from the South Florida Water Management District to conduct a feasibility study investigating prospects for classical biological control of torpedograss, Panicum repens (Poaceae). Torpedograss is considered one of the most invasive non-native grasses in 27 counties, and infests over 70% of Florida's public waters.

Drs. Norman C. Leppla, James P. Cuda, Jesusa C. Legaspi and Cassel Gardner were awarded a $5,000 grant from the Center for Cooperative Agriculture Program to initiate an IPM project entitled, "Demonstrating Emerging Pest Management Technologies to Resource-Limited Producers."

Dr. Flavio Moscardi who obtained his M.S. in 1977 and Ph.D. in 1979 in our Department of Entomology & Nematology, received the Award of National Scientific Merit, the highest scientific award in Brazil, from the President of Brazil.

Drs. James P. Cuda and Julio C. Medal were awarded a grant for $4,900 from the USDA, APHIS National Biological Control Institute for publication of the Proceedings of the First Latin American Short-course on Biological Control of Weeds held in Montelimar, Nicaragua, 24-28 June 2002.

Jim Dunford received the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Grant ($1,500) for conservation and natural history studies from the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

Yasmin Cardoza won first place in the FES student paper competition. She presented a paper entitled, "Fungus-induced plant-insect interactions in peanut."

Erin Finn won the second prize at the Florida Entomological Society meeting. She presented a paper entitled, "Evaluation of monitoring techniques for detecting blueberry gall midge in Florida." The paper was co-authored with Oscar Liburd.

L. Scotty Long was awarded third place at the FES annual meeting for his paper, "Evaluation of a novel bio-rational compound for the control of various economic and medically important pests."

Rebecca Baldwin, Kathryn Barbara, and Erin Finn have each been awarded $500 academic scholarships from the Florida Entomological Society.

Jim Dunford, Erin Finn, Kathryn Barbara, and Rebecca Baldwin each were awarded $200 mini-grants to support their research. The awards were presented by the Florida Entomological Society.

Jeffery White, Mirian Medina Hay-Roe, Rebecca Baldwin, Kathryn Barbara, Dina Richman, and Erin Finn each received a $100 travel-grant to help cover their travel expenses to attend the Florida Entomological Society meeting.

Raul Villanueva, Dina Richman, and Rebecca Baldwin each received a $200 travel grant to reimburse their travel expenses to the 2001 ESA meeting in San Diego, CA.

Joe Jonovich was the recipient of the CPCO Leonard M. King $500 Scholarship at the 8th Annual CPCO Convention in Coral Springs, FL.

Joe Smith, Dr. Phil Koehler, and Dr. Faith Oi were awarded a $350,000 grant from Procter and Gamble to work with termite cellulase inhibition.

The Graduate Committee has selected Yasmin Cardoza to represent us as our outstanding Ph. D. graduate student in the John Henry Comstock Award competition. She will compete in the Southeastern Branch (SEB) of the ESA, and if she wins at that level, she will represent the SEB in the national competition which will have one representative from each branch of the ESA. Yasmin's advisor is Dr. James H. Tumlinson. Congratulations to both Yasmin and Dr. Tumlinson!

Dr. Oscar Liburd received $117, 572 on a two-year grant from USDA-CSREES Pest Management Alternatives to develop a multifaceted IPM program for managing key blueberry pests in Florida. He is collaborating with Dr. Blair Sampson, Dr. Heather McAuslane, and Dr. Kenna Mackenzie on this grant. Dr. Sampson is the USDA-ARS Small Fruit research entomologist in Poplarville, Mississippi. Dr. Sampson will be responsible for evaluating potential parasitoids for managing blueberry gall midge. Dr. Heather McAuslane, chemical ecologist, Department of Entomology, University of Florida will assist Dr. Liburd in investigating attractants for blueberry gall midge. Dr. Kenna Mackenzie will assist Dr. Liburd in investigating sampling protocols for flower thrips in blueberries.

Students in the department selected Dr. Phil Koehler to receive the "Advisor of the Year" award from ENSO for 2001-2002.

Nancy Sanders was selected by the students to receive the "Student Appreciation Award" for her outstanding service to the students for 2001-2002. The award was sponsored by ENSO.

Graduate students, Jim Dunford and Scotty Long received the ENSO "Teacher of the Year" award for their instruction of both Insect Classification and Immature Insects during the 2001-2002 school year.

Paulo Vilarinhos, who finished his Master's degree in our Department in 1991, currently works in the Brazilian Ministry of Health and is involved in the control of Aedes aegypti that is a vector of Dengue Virus, a major health problem in Brazil.

A USDA scientist discovered a new genus and five new species of moths in the mountains of Colorado. For details see http://www.nps.ars.usda.gov/menu.htm?newsid=1964 A link is also available from the Florida Pest Alert site.

Since last spring, the Florida Pest Alert site, http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/pestalert/ has been keeping track of the arbovirus situation in Florida. Lisa Conti of the Florida Department of Health has posted all the DOH's weekly Arbovirus Summaries as well as any press releases due to medical alerts or confirmed human cases. In addition, there are a number of links to other related Web sites, some to maps showing West Nile and EEE activity in Florida and the United States.

Nancy Sanders would like to express her sincere thanks to everyone for giving her the Student Appreciation Award. She commented, "I enjoy being a part of this department and I consider it a privilege to be able to help each and every one of you in whatever way I can. Thanks again for this honor."

The Entomology and Nematology Department would like to thank undergraduate John Leavengood for organizing and curating the insect teaching collection this semester. He has also spent many hours integrating former student collections into the teaching collection. He is well on his way to getting the collection in good shape for all who use it. If the light is on in the prep room, stop by and say thanks.

Dina Richman accepted a job with FMC Corp. in Philadelphia, starting in December. She will be an Urban Entomologist working with GHP and wood destroying organisms on the research and development side.

A Shockwave program (732 KB) on fly integrated pest management is available for downloading from the Pest Alert site under 08/19/02. The program was developed by Abe Thomas of Actron, a California company specializing in fly control. The program emphasizes the use of insect light traps, but also presents detailed information for pest control managers in the entire area of fly management. This program is written at the level of pest management supervisors and other experts. Actron has done a nice job of developing an educational presentation on this subject, while at the same time avoiding any advertising.

Kim McCanless accepted a job as Research and Development Specialist with Syngenta in Vero Beach She began her position on October 1.

Dr. Kenna MacKenzie, Berry Crops Entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada spent the past six months working with Dr. Oscar Liburd and Dr. Paul Lyrene at the University of Florida. Dr. MacKenzie worked on blueberry pollination and thrips management in blueberries. Dr. MacKenzie investigated pollination efficiency of three main groups of bees (honey bees, bumble bees and southeast blueberry bee) foraging on southern highbush blueberries. In cooperation with Dr. Liburd's lab, she assisted with developing sampling protocols for thrips. Dr. MacKenzie recently returned to Canada, and will continue her collaboration with Dr. Liburd.

We would like to wish a speedy recovery to Mrs. Vassie Pittman and to Steve Lasley's daughter, Kelly.

Please come to the ENSO/ UES Halloween Party. Dates, times, and directions will be posted.

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

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:

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