NEWSLETTER

Congratulations to Dr. Tom Sanford. Dr. Sanford received a plaque and award from the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) for outstanding work in apiculture extension at the recent meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, January 10, 1997.

FACULTY, STAFF AND STUDENTS NEWS

Dr. Drion Boucias will be leaving for sabbatical in New Zealand on January 27. He will be working with Dr. Trevor Jackson and his team of researchers in Dr. Jackson's laboratory at AgResearch, Canterbury Agricultural and Science Center in Lincoln where they will be doing research on bacterial pathogens of the grass grub. Dr. Boucias also will be giving several presentations on his recent research at various other locations in New Zealand. At this time he plans to return in late July.

Dr. James P. Cuda was awarded $140,000 for three years on a USDA Cooperative Agreement to investigate the biology and impact of midges damaging the aquatic weed hydrilla in Florida. The objectives of this research are to determine how the native chironomid fauna might complement or compete with foreign species from East Africa that may be introduced for classical biological control, and to develop laboratory rearing procedures for host range testing of candidate species.

FROM THE GRADUATE COORDINATOR OFFICE

I really got "baptized by fire" in my introductory week as Graduate Coordinator. Fortunately for me, I found that all of the people associated with that office are very knowledgeable, and they helped me weather the storm. That does not mean that I feel secure in the job, but I will do my best to be of service to both students and faculty. I will appreciate your continued patience as I learn the job. - Grover Smart.

Debbie Hall reminds students that January 17 at 3:30 p.m. fees for the spring term are due. Also, students planning to graduate in spring should apply for graduation no later than January 31. Applications are available from Debbie in Room 1028 or at Criser Hall Room 222.

All graduate students should have a supervisory committee form on file as well as the Form 2, which is required by the College of Agriculture. There are are several Ph.D. students that have not completed new forms since receiving the M.S. degree in this department. All graduate students should make an appointment with Dr. Grover Smart at least one term before graduation to be sure all requirements have been met.

GRADUATE STUDENT FORUM

Dorota Porazinska volunteered to be the Coordinator of the Graduate Student Forum to be held on March 26 at the Reitz Union. She encourages all students to present a paper at the event. She said that presentations can be of papers already presented at other meetings or events, and considers this a great way to let your peers and professors from other departments know about your work. Anyone interested in presenting papers or helping organize the sessions can get in touch with Dorota

FEATURED CREATURES

The department's first World Wide Web-only publications have been accepted as official UF/IFAS publications. Although not yet "opened to the public," or linked in from any WWW site, Featured Creatures, as it is called, can be found at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/. This project is a cooperative effort with the FDACS Division of Plant Industry. These publications are designed to offer more detailed information than normally found in an extension publication, on a specific insect species, to agricultural professionals. In addition to life cycle, description and damage, the publications also offer sampling techniques, economic thresholds, scientific references and color photographs. The species covered do not have to be pest species, but may be beneficial or just interesting. Congratulations to the first seven authors: John Capinera (bean leafroller), Steven Valles (German cockroach), Juan Villanueva-Jimenez (plaster bagworm), Jason Squitier (American grasshopper), Skip Choate (tiger beetles of Florida), Clay Scherer (eastern lubber grasshopper), and Susan Halbert and Lawence Brown (brown citrus aphid).

PUBLICATIONS

Crow, W. T., E. A. Guertal, and R. Rodriguez-Kabana. 1996. Responses of Meloidogyne arenaria and M. incognita to green manures and supplemental urea in glasshouse cultures. Annals of Applied Nematology 28:648-654.

Cuda, J.P., J.A. Hornby, B. Cotterill and M. Cattell (in press). Evaluation of Lagenidium giganteum for biocontrol of Mansonia mosquitoes in Florida (Diptera: Culicidae). Biological Control.

DEPARTMENT ONLINE PUBLICATIONS

Our online extension publications have now been indexed with keywords. They should be much easier to search. Skip Choate would appreciate that anyone using the index verify for accuracy and notify him via e-mail if you encounter problems.

MILITARY INSECTS

On January 14, Don Hall and Tom Fasulo each made presentations at the Annual Review of the Armed Forces Pest Management Board. This national meeting of Department of Defense entomologists met at the USDA Gainesville labs for three days. Don Hall's presentation was on his multimedia insect software that has won him national recognition. Tom Fasulo's presentation was on the many urban pest software packages that he has developed in cooperation with other members of this department and the urban pest control community.

NOTICE FOR LASER PRINTER USERS

Entomology & Nematology Computer Support Services maintains an inventory of the most common laser printer toner cartridges for your convenience. You may stop by room 1013 and pick up a replacement as needed; your departmental account will be charged for the cost of the cartridge. These cartridges are obtained from Laser Action Plus, Inc., which offers free printer cleanings every six months to users of its cartridges. If you are using a Laser Action Plus cartridge and wish to have your printer cleaned for free, please contact Steve Lasley (ext. 114; e-mail: selasley@ifas.ufl.edu) to have that service scheduled.

LOOK AND LEARN

Do you need to know how to use Corel Draw, PowerPoint or Excel - now? Check out instructional videos for free on these and other software programs. Entomology/Nematology faculty, staff and students are welcome to borrow them. Just stop by Room 1023 and see Jane Medley or Pat Hope.

IV INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ECTOPARASITES OF PESTS

Nancy Hinkle, the extension veterinary entomologist at the University of California and one of our Ph.D graduates, is the chair of the Fourth International Symposium on Ectoparasites of Pests. The conference will be held at Riverside, California April 6-8, 1997.

EARN CEUS WITH SOFTWARE

Over the last three years, faculty and staff in the department have developed three computer-verified training tutorials on fleas, cockroaches and termites for the National Pest Control Association. These tutorials are now certified by the state for Continuing Education Units (CEUs) in General Household Pests and Termites for pest control operators in Florida. All three tutorials are available in the department's computer lab.

BLOOD DRIVE

Civitan Blood Mobile will be in the Entomology/Nematology parking lot on Tuesday, February 4th. If you can't find a place and time to donate beforehand, plan on donating at that time.

OBITUARY

Dr. David Rosen passed away on January 8, 1997, in Israel.

CIVIL WAR REENACTMENT

The American Civil War can be experienced in its full intensity about 60 minutes from Gainesville on February 14-16, 1997. Olustee State Park Historic Site is located off I-75, on U.S. 90, 15 miles east of Lake City in north central Florida, and is the site of the largest Civil War battle in Florida, which took place on February 20, 1864. More than 2,000 reenactors from all over the United States and Europe are expected for the 21st annual reenactment of the battle. Thousands of school children will visit the camps on Friday. On Saturday at 3:15 P.M., there is the reenactment of the February 15, 1864 skirmish at Barber's Plantation. Sunday has the main battle reenactment at 1:15 P.M. In addition, there are continuous events from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. on Saturday and Sunday. Come visit the authentic camps, walk the hiking trails, see artillery, infantry drill and medical demonstrations, attend period church services, and inspect the goods and food for sale at the sutlers. More importantly, talk to the men and women portraying the people of this period in our nation's history. Spectator parking at the Lake City Airport (west on U.S. 90), or at the Correctional Center (east on U.S. 90) is free. Bus transportation from these sites to and from the battle site is only one dollar. For additional information check out Olustee's WWW site at http://battleofolustee.org/.

COREL WORDPERFECT SUITE

Technically, the University of Florida no longer has a site license for the Novell WordPerfect for Windows 6.1 suite. However, the Corel WordPerfect Suite for Windows 3.1 (v. 6.1) and for Windows 95 (v. 7) are for sale on CD to university faculty, staff and students for $32 at UF's Technology Hub. The two versions each provide WordPerfect (6.1 or 7), Quattro Pro, Presentations, CorelFLOW 2, Sidekick 2, Dashboard 3.0, 150 fonts and 10,000 Corel clip art images.

The next newsletter will be published Monday, February 17. Deadline for contributions is Friday, February 14.

Editor: Enrique Perez

This version of the newsletter is published for the Web by Tim McCoy.

January 1997. Updated March 2003.