NEWSLETTER

CONGRATULATIONS

Dr. Tom Walker was awarded the university-wide Faculty Superior Accomplishment Award on May 22.

Jason Squittier, MS student with John Capinera, Married Robyn McDowell on May 31. The ceremony took place in Clearwater, Florida. Our best wishes to the newly weds!

Divina Amalin, Wendy Meyer, and Julieta Brambila have passed their written and oral qualifiers which has earned them their Ph. They just need to defend their dissertation to get the D's and complete their Ph.D.'s!

In May, Jennifer Anderson (MS student with Jim Maruniak) was appointed as Director of the "Graduate Student Affairs Cabinet" in UF Student Government. She was appointed to this position by the SG President having shown outstanding leadership capability in previous roles on campus. She is one of about twenty cabinet directors which make up the majority of the executive branch of SG and works directly with the Vice-President. Part of her responsibilities will include coordinating the University's annual "Graduate Student Appreciation Week" in March. Also she conveys graduate student concerns directly to the President of SG and acts as our overall representative in the executive branch.

Jaw-Ching Liu (Leo) (Jim Maruniak's student) finished his PhD dissertation on the phylogenetic study of baculoviruses. He is now working as a post-doc in the Human Genetic Center at the University of Texas, School of Public Health. He is working on a project to study the evolutionary rate of a primate growth hormone receptor gene. We are very proud of his success and wish him good luck in the future.

Robin Goodson has completed his Ph.D. work in our department, and it appears he is now gainfully employed. Robin is working on the biocontrol of weeds in the NCDA Beneficial Insects Lab. He is mainly involved in collection and redistribution of rosette weevils (Trichosirocalus horridus) and flowerhead weevils (Rhinocyllus concicus) for biocontrol of musk thistles. His new address is:

Robin L. Goodson N.C. Dept. of Agriculture Beneficial Insects Laboratory P.O. Box 27647 Raleigh, NC 27611 Phone 919-233-8214 FAX 919-233-8394 E-Mail: Robin_Goodson_at_biocontrol@mail.agr.state.nc.us

DEPARTURES

Jim Castner has left his position at this department to pursue personal interests. He is planning to work on a few book chapters and a special project in South America. Good luck Jim!

STUDY SESSIONS

Thanks to Judith Kelley who is hosting Wednesday and Sunday help sessions for students in Principles of Entomology. While these sessions are underway in room 2216 there will be a sign-in sheet on the door indicating why it is unlocked and the hour for which it will be unlocked. Please do not relock the door during the posted hours.

VISITING SCIENTISTS

Dr. Octavio Henrique Pavan will be in Dr. Maruniak's lab from June 25 to June 30. Welcome to sunny Florida!

ENSO's CORNER

Outreach On May 29 Julieta Brambila gave two 45-minute presentations to the sixth-grade class of a private school in Miami on their science carreer week. She talked about entomology and its importance.

Memorial Garden ENSO is happy to announce we were able to collect all the money needed to buy a new permanent plaque for our memorial garden, and then some. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Diana Simons, Phil Koehler, Dini Miller, Tim McCoy, Howard Frank, Juan Villanueva, Hugh Smith, James Cuda, Jane Medley, Debbie Boyd, Wendy Meyer, Yasmin Cardoza, Grover Smart and all the people whose contributions enabled us to reach this goal. Thank you very much!

Picnic The ENSO sponsored picnic on May 29 was a success! Many people came to enjoy the free hamburgers and hotdogs provided by ENSO and the delicious desserts and side dishes contributed by some of the students, faculty, and staff members. Tim McCoy and Yasmin Cardoza did an excellent job coordinating and organizing the picnic. Dick Godwin, Don Dickson, Phil Koehler and Billy Crow excelled at the grills. Thanks also to Dini Miller and Juan Villanueva for their help in various chores.

Seminar Series Jennifer Anderson and Maria Bertorelli have volunteered to coordinate the seminar series for the Fall '97 and Spring '98 semesters. Contact them if you have ideas for speakers or would like to help entertaining guests and preparing food for the sessions. Jennifer Anderson is an MS student with Jim Maruniak.

Fundraiser Skip Choate has kindly agreed to share some of the insects from Dr. Foltz's principles of Entomology collections with us. ENSO will use these insects to make small collections to sell to local schools. Two collections have been put together by ENSO members and will be shown at different schools by Claudia Riegel. Hopefully she will get many orders!

ENSO would like to ask everyone for donations of insect specimens to help with this year's fundraising project. If you would like to help, please contact Yasmin Cardoza or Tim McCoy.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Dr. Phil Stansly is looking for an assistant to work full time in Immokalee on citrus and vegetable entomology research. Minimum requirement bachelor's degree or equivalent and interest in applied agriculture. This would be a soft money position but with no end in sight. Salary commensurate with experience and abilities.

NATL NEWS

The Entomology and Nematology Student Organization's wiregrass plant-in for the upland pine in the Natural Area Teaching Lab (NATL) went well. On Tuesday, May 27, ENSO attracted a crew of ten, and on Wednesday, May 28, a crew of five practiced planters finished the job of inserting slips of wire grass and upland-pine forbs throughout the area that was burned in April, 1996. Most of the volunteers were from ENSO, but the crews included Don Graetz and Ken Prestwich (a visiting prof from Massachusetts) and as well as Tom Walker. ENSO was represented by Dini Miller, Tim McCoy, Clay Scherer, Billy Crow, Yasmin Cardoza and Greg McDermott. They helped digging holes and planting the grass. The NATL committee thanked ENSO and its president, Yasmin Cardoza, for its help in restoring these important missing species.

EXAMINATIONS

The next offering of the Competency Examination will be Thursday, July 3, 1997 beginning at 9:00 am. Both the Biology and Entomology tests will be administered. Those who have not taken the Examinations, and have not been excused from doing so because they have satisfied all requirements, should sign up. The Examinations will be offered again in the fall semester shortly after mid-semester. The date and time will be announced later.

Dr. Smart, graduate coordinator, is asking graduate students to check with him before scheduling their final examinations. He intends to assist at all PhD qualifying exams and Masters defenses so no two examinations will be scheduled at the same time.

ON TV

Adjunct Professor Gene Gerberg and graduate students Van Sherwood and Tim McCoy where on Good Morning America on May 26th. Dr. Gerberg, who has done extensive work in this field, showed the use of a repellent testing cage, and then put on a simulated field test for mosquito repellents with Van and Tim.

MEETINGS

The SEB-ESA Student Affairs Committee is organizing the student symposium to be held during the 1998 SEB-ESA meeting in Chattanooga, TN. At this time, the committee is soliciting suggestions for the symposium topics.

Dr. James P. Cuda attended the 12th Annual Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council Symposium held at the Sheraton Harbor Place, Fort Myers, Florida from May 20-22,1997. Dr. Cuda presented the paper, "Prospects for Biocontrol of Weedy Sesbanias in the southeastern U.S."

Tom Fasulo attended the National Pesticide Applicators Training meeting in Columbus, Ohio June 9-12. While there he demonstrated the computer-verified training tutorials he developed in cooperation with UF faculty and the pest control industry. These tutorials not only provide training to applicators but allows them to earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) in their workplace. As a result, it not only becomes more convenient and less costly to recertify, but provides applicators with a continuous training resource. Tom has developed nine such programs and has eight more under development.

PUBLICATIONS

Chen, Z. X., D. W. Dickson, D. J. Mitchell, R. McSorley, & T. E. Hewlett. 1997. Suppression mechanisms of Meloidogyne arenaria race 1 by Pasteuria penetrans. Journal of Nematology. 29:1-8.

Cardoza, Y. J., N. D. Epsky & R. R. Heath. 1997. Biology and Development of Lespesia aletiae (Diptera: Tachinidae) in two Lepidoptera Species in the Laboratory. Fla. Entomol. 80(2): 289-300

Miller, D.M., P.G. Koehler & R.S. Patterson. 1997. Use of German cockroach Blattella germanica fecal extract to enhance toxic bait performance in the presence of alternative food sources. J. Econ. Entomol. 90:483-487.

Miller, D.M. & P.G. Koehler. 1997. Least toxic methods of cockroach control. Extension Entomology ENY-258. Florida Cooperative Extension Service, IFAS, University of Florida.

The University now has a site license for McAfee anti-virus software. For details and to obtain your own copy see the following web site:

http:// www.software.ufl.edu/.

Avas Hamon of DPI has added a "Whitefly Pests of Florida Citrus ID Key" to the DPI section of our department's WWW site. This key uses color photographs of nymphs and covers 16 species. The key is linked through the Whitefly Knowledgebase WWW site at

http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/whiteflies/

Flora MacColl, department editorial assistant, has authored a short introduction to Adobe PageMaker, a page layout program available for use in the computer lab. The graphics station in the lab is in the process of being upgraded with the newest version of this software plus other graphics software which will optimize the use of the flatbed scanner. If you would like a copy of this booklet, stop by the administrative office.

A GREEN BRIEFCASE

The Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Development, representing 125 international companies, and AISEC, the largest student organization in the world, have developed a program to improve environmental literacy. Students passing the exam will receive a certificate that will be recognized by all member companies in job applications. (Toronto Financial Post, June 5, 1997).

NEVER TOO SOON

At a recent meeting of the department's Advisory Council, representatives of industry in agriculture, horticulture, and urban pest control stated that they were in need of graduates and summer interns in Entomology and Nematology. The problem was they didn't know who is available. If you want a summer internship or a full-time position, then it is never to early to advertise. All of these industry representatives have WWW access and can look over your CV on the department's WWW site, but ONLY if you have one. Only a few of our students have their CV on the department's WWW site. So guess who has more exposure when it comes to finding a job? See Dr. Skip Choate if you have questions about placing your CV on our WWW site.

PEST ALERT

Pine beetles. Forest entomologists John Foltz (UF) and James Meeker (FLDAC) are reporting an outbreak of southern pine beetles in Marion and Levy counties. They posted a file on the details and what agents and homeowners, even in other counties, should look for. The file is in Pest Alert at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/pestalert/.

Medflies. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced the discovery of a Mediterranean fruit fly in Tampa, FL. A file concerning the discovery is available in Pest Alert, Fruit Crops Category. The Division of Plant Industry has posted a file to Pest Alert that details the aerial treatments of bait and malathion currently being made in Hillsborough county. Safety concerns are also addressed. With all the news about the Mediterranean fruit fly in the Tampa area, agents are reminded that a UF/IFAS fact sheet, ENY-809 Mediterranean Fruit Fly, is available on the WWW at:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/

The Division of Plant Industry also has an excellent Entomology Circular in its Triology series on this pest. Contact DPI and ask for Entomology Circular #230 on the Mediterranean fruit fly.

Mole Crickets. This is also the time of year that the cute little baby mole crickets are starting to hatch. Well, at least they are cute to their mothers. The calls will start coming into the county offices and many of these calls will generate more calls to the mole cricket experts in the Entomology and Nematology Department. Drs. Short, Frank, and Smart want me to remind the agents that the MCricket Knowledgebase offers more information on the identity of mole crickets and their control than they could deliver in a three hour talk. Information on life cycle, a graphical ID key, damage, references, and more are available. MCricket is also available on CD-ROM for $20 see http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/pests/software/

Armyworms. Richard Sprenkel and Tracey Austin, of the North Florida Research and Education Center, have begun posting the weekly results of the beet armyworm pheromone trapping program that covers Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Texas.

Ticks. The Communical Disease Center (CDC) has recently stated that the incidence of Lyme disease, caused by a tick transmitted pathogen, increased from 17 cases in 1995 to 55 cases in 1996.

Ticks are also the vectors of Ehrlichiosis, which is considered even more dangerous than the greatly feared Lyme disease. Ehrlichiosis was first discovered in the 1980's in the U.S. and more than 360 cases have been reported since. In 1996, ten cases of Ehrlichiosis were reported in Florida, including two cases in Alachua and one in Clay County. Ehrlichiosis can be fatal if it is left untreated. Thus, people who spend much time outdoors should be aware of tick bites especially around this time of year.

UPCOMING EVENTS

On July 11 the XXI ICE (International Congress of Entomology) organizing committee will send to the Committee for the International Congresses of Entomology its proposal for the sessions that will compose the XXI ICE. For the moment the congress sessions are being decided. Call for symposia will be made as soon as the international committee agreement on the sessions proposal is received, and it is estimated for August.

Delegates for different countries are needed to help distribute the folders during congresses and meetings. A mailing list is being built. Due to postage and related costs, E-mail addresses are preferred, but in any case post addresses are also welcome.

READING ROOM POLICIES

In a meeting held May 29, 1997, the Reading Room Steering Committee recognized that books and journals are still being taken from the Reading Room (RR) in violation of policy. A sign stating this policy has been posted in the inside of the room, the committee has agreed that an additional sign should be posted outside the door or on the door itself. The sign will read "NO Reading Room materials may be taken from the reading room under any circumstances. Any violator of this policy is liable to be charged with theft by the University Police." The reading room steering committee is currently composed of Don Dickson, Howard Frank, Gene Gerberg, Heather McAuslane, Frank Slansky, John Foltz and Tom Walker. Please contact any of them if you have any inquiries regarding this issue.

Anyone wishing to use the photocopier machine in the RR needs to get proper authorization to do so. A $10 charge account can be obtained from Nick Hostettler and this allows for 200 copies to be made.

LOST

A Caramate slide viewer has recently disappeared from the RR. There is some indication it dissapeared at the time of the State fair. It is asked that whoever has it, please return it immediately to the RR.

BUILDING SECURITY

Standard operating procedure for building security is that all exterior doors to the Entomology/Nematology building are locked except during normal business hours, Monday through Friday. Whenever a door must be unlocked at other times, the responsible person should post a small sign on the door indicating the location and expected duration of the extra-hour activity. Anyone finding an unlocked door outside these hours is asked to lock it so that unathorized persons can not easily enter.

BLOOD DRIVE

Many thanks to the 13 persons who donated blood on June 12. Each received the "Starve a mosquito, give blood" t-shirt. Regular donors who were unable to donate that day may get one of these beautiful shirts from John Foltz, room 2110, while the supply lasts. The bloodmobile will again be at the Entomology-Nematology building on September 2 and October 28. Mark your calendar and plan to donate on these dates.

You can obtain an electronic subscription by joining the listserv.

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

The next newsletter will be published Thursday, August 21. Deadline for contributions is Monday, August 18.

Editors: Yasmin Cardoza & Tim McCoy

June 1997. Revised March 2003.