Marjorie A. Hoy presented the Alexander Lecture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst on December 14.  She also presented a talk to the IPM class on the 15th.  Fortunately, there was no snow on the ground in Amherst (and everyone was talking about how mild it was!), but it was sufficiently cold to remind her how much she liked Florida.

Dr. Tom Sanford was invited to participate in the organization of a Secretariat on diseases in beneficial insects (honey bees) to be housed at the FAO Headquarters in Rome.  If the proposal is accepted by donor countries, then the addition of this program will mean a good deal extra funds will be available for training and research in honey bee culture around the world.  The funding is expected to be deposited in a trust fund and will not be part of FAO's annual budget.

On November 18-19, Phil Koehler spoke at the southern meeting of the Georgia Pest Control Association on the management of cockroaches and fleas. Tom Fasulo, Tom Powell and Cindy Tucker "personned" the department's booth in the meeting's exhibit hall.

On December 3, Tom Fasulo, Tom Powell and Jerry Gahlhoff manned the department's booth at the Florida Pest Control Association's Termite Symposium which was attended by industry leaders from across the country.

Congratulations are in order for Janete Brito, Claudia Riegel, and Billy Crow for winning travel grants to attend the American Phytopathological Society/Entomological Society of America joint meeting in Las Vegas.  Janete's paper won 3rd place in the competition (The Donald E. Mathre travel grant award).  Not bad for nematology students competing with plant pathology students nation wide.  A tally showed that three awards to one University was a record. The papers are posted on the bulletin boards along the nematology section hall way.

Don Dickson presented invited papers on developments in biological control of nematodes at the APS/ESA meeting in Las Vegas and the ONTA meeting in Mendoza, Argentina (October 1998).

For those who missed Dr. Rick Davis's departmental seminar last week you should check out the commentary, Plant parasitic nematodes: Digesting a page from the microbe book, published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci, 95:4789-4790.  For sure, you missed an outstanding seminar.  For those who do not remember, Rick received both his M.S. and Ph. D. degrees from this department.

CONGRATULATIONS

On December 19, 1998, Dini Miller received her Ph.D; on December 20, 1998, Dini married Tim McCoy, another urban entomology student working on his M.S.; and on April 1, 1999, she will begin work as the Virginia state urban extension entomologist with teaching responsibilities. Until then, she will be working as a post-doc in the UF Urban Entomology lab.

AWARDS

Tom Fasulo received the 1998 Orkin Excellence in Research Award for his work in support of the urban pest control industry. The award includes a tidy cash award to support his work.

Claudia, Billy Crow, and Janete Brito recieved American Phytopatholical Society Foundation Travel awards of $350 each.

PEST ALERT

Dr. Phil Stansly, entomologist at the University of Florida's Southwest Florida Research and Education Center, has posted a report to the Florida Pest Alert on the new outbreaks of California red scale on Florida citrus, and its apparent tie-in to Nextor, a miticide. A link to the description and life cycle of California red scale is also available in the report. Pest Alert is available on the WWW.

FEATURED CREATURES

Hall, D. W. and J.F. Butler. (November 1998). Polydamas swallowtail, Battus polydamas lucayus (Rothschild & Jordan). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-62.

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Editor: Michael Patnaude

This version of the newsletter is prepared for the Web by Kathryn Jones.

December 1998. Updated March 2003.