NEWSLETTER

AWARDS

Marco A. Toapanta received the Police Service Award from the hands of the Chief of the Police Department of the University of Florida in a ceremony celebrated at the Harn Museum. Marco received this award for his exceptional dedication to the betterment of life within the University community.

FACULTY, STAFF AND STUDENTS NEWS

Divina Amalin's research was cited in The IPM Practitioner (IPMP) September 1996 issue. It was under the Conference Notes section entitled "Spiders for Leafminer Biocontrol."

Pauline Lawrence was an invited speaker in a symposium entitled "Biochemical and Physiological Interactions Between Parasitoids and their Hosts," held at the XX International Congress of Entomology in Florence, Italy in August.

Pauline Lawrence was recently appointed for a three to five year term as a panel member for the National Science Foundation, Washington D.C. in Ethnology and Neuroscience.

Tom Fasulo will be traveling from October 21st until November 4th. The first week is a meeting of the Southeast Pesticide Applicator Trainer's at West Palm Beach. There he will demonstrate software he developed in cooperation with other members of this department (see below), and with Dr. Norm Nesheim of the Pesticide Information Office. This software allows certified pesticide applicators to earn CEUs in the CORE category at their place of work. The following week Tom will go to the annual meetings of the National Pest Control Association in San Diego. Several companies and associations will be demonstrating and selling software packages developed in his lab. These software packages were developed in cooperation with members of this dept., including Phil Koehler, Gene Gerberg, Dini Miller, Jane Medley, Jim Castner, Pat Hope, and Tom's OPS crew: Dan Nichols, Nathan Nipper, Homero Calderon, Everett Yang, and Matt Downey.

Dr. James P. Cuda attended the Annual Meeting of the Florida Aquatic Plant Management Society. The conference was held at the Sheraton Harbor Place in Ft. Myers, 8-10 October. Dr. Cuda presented a paper entitled "Hydrellia pakistanae is Alive and Well at Rodman Reservoir." This insect is a leaf-mining fly introduced from India in 1987 to control hydrilla.

Don Dickson attended the northeastern regional Nematology meeting in Ithaca, NY 3-4 October. Dr. Dickson is a member of the committee participating in the biological control portion of the project.

Bon voyage to Regina Carneiro. Regina leaves for Brazil next week after spending over one year working in Dr. Dickson's lab as a visiting scientist.

Dr. M.T. Sanford has been invited to attend the Eleventh Brazilian Beekeepers Congress in Piaui state Brazil. The event will take place in Teresina. Dr. Sanford will present papers on honey bee nutrition and the effect of the Digital Information Revolution on beekeeping.

ENSO BULLETIN BOARD

We are in the process of updating the ENSO bulletin board located outside the teaching labs. Anyone with photographs of students involved in any of ENSO's activities who would like to donate them to the new ENSO board, please contact Denise Johanowicz.

FROM THE PRESIDENT

As part of his duty as President of our prestigious Ent/Nem Student Organization (ENSO), Clay Scherer would like faculty and students to know about The Florida Academy of Sciences. This society was founded in 1936 and promotes all fields of science from Anthropology to Zoology. The society publishes a quarterly journal titled The Florida Scientist. It is Clay's opinion that this journal should become familiar to everyone in the Department. Regular membership is $25 and $10 for students. For those interested: The Florida Scientist, Dr. Dean F. Martin-Editor, Dept. Chemistry, University of South Florida, Ph (813) 631-4121, e-mail: Martin@chuma.cas.usf.edu. You can also ask Clay if you need more information.

NEW DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEES

A new committee structure is being implemented for the Department's teaching program. Undergraduate and Graduate Committees have been elected, and the graduate and undergraduate coordinator will be selected for a two-year term from the committee members. Present Undergraduate Committee: V. Gupta, F. Slansky, J. Lloyd, J. Butler, J. Strayer D. Hall, T. Weissling. The following students were elected to represent the undergraduate students : Melissa Lilvoir and Hazel Levy. Present Graduate Committee: P. Lawrence, F. Slansky, J. Maruniak, G. Smart, H. McAuslane, G. Hall, L. Duncan. The following students were elected to represent the graduate students: Dini Miller, Clay Scherer and Enrique Perez. The Graduate Committee will plan recruitment and retention efforts, course and curriculum review and improvement, scholarships and records, and graduate students admission.

PUBLICATIONS

Harrison, J.F.; Fewell, J.H.; Roberts, S.P.; Hall, H.G. 1996. Achievement of thermal stability by varying metabolic heat production in flying honeybees. Science 274:88-90.

Moraes, R.R. and Maruniak, J.E. Detection and identification of multiple baculoviruses using the polimerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction endonuclease analysis. Journal of Virological Methods.

NEW SUBTERRANEAN TERMITE

A new subterranean termite, Coptotermes havilandi, has been discovered in Miami. And it's the first record of this species in the continental United States. What makes it even more interesting is that this species is considered to have just as much damaging potential as the Formosan subterranean termite. N.-Y. Su, R. H. Scheffrahn, and T. Weissling, entomologists at UF's research center at Ft. Lauderdale, have posted a file to Pest Alert at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/pestalert/.

IAEA CONSULTANTS MEETING

Marjorie A. Hoy attended the International Atomic Energy Association's (IAEA) Consultants Meeting on Transgenic Arthropods in Vienna, September-October 2, 1996. The group was excited that the Mediterranean fruit fly had been genetically transformed with a white gene using a transposable element called Minos. This success encouraged the group to believe that genetic transformation of arthropods other than Drosophila can be routinely achieved for both research and applied applications. The group discussed potential risk issues of transgenic arthropods, including the inadvisability of inserting pesticide resistance genes into the Medfly or other pest species.

The group recommended that neutral marker DNA sequences be introduced into insects used in ongoing sterile insect release (SIR) programs. Such a molecular marker would enable sterile released and endemic fertile insects to be distinguished readily and would be beneficial in operational SIR programs. Because the released flies would be sterile as they could not transmit the transgene to the endemic population and the risks associated with release of a transgenic arthropod would be minimized.

NEW COURSE

During Spring Semester 1997, Marjorie A. Hoy will teach a new course, "Introduction to Agricultural Acarology." This 3-unit course is open to both graduate and undergraduate students and will be taught on Wednesdays from 10:40 - 11:30 AM and Fridays 9:35 - 11:30 AM. The course will provide an introduction to the biology, ecology, behavior, and genetics of mites of agricultural importance. Students will learn how pest mites are managed in a variety of crops, and the focus will be on managing mites within an IPM system. The course is numbered ENY 4905 for undergraduates and 6905 for graduate students. Course prerequisite: an introductory course in entomology or invertebrate zoology.

READING ROOM

Books and journals have been inventoried in the reading room. A hard copy list of this information will be placed in the reading room. There are over 1600 books presently located in the reading room. Journal holdings are being completed and will be available soon. A reminder: Books and journals are to remain in the reading room at all times. Please do not remove them.

PRINTERS AVAILABLE

The department has two HP LaserJet II printers available. One still works, but is noisy and is in need of servicing. The second is not currently working and needs immediate servicing. Estimated cost to get either of these working well again is about $200. If you are interested, please contact Steve Lasley.

ASM SE BRANCH MEETING

The annual meeting of the Southeastern Branch of the American Society for Microbiology will be held November 7-9 at the Radisson Hotel in Gainesville. Invited speakers are Dr. James Maruniak and Dr. Drion Boucias. Scientific posters will be presented by Rejane de Moraes and Alejandra Garcia Maruniak. For the nematologists there will be a poster in fluorescent characterization of proteins involved in the attachment of Pateruria penetrans to root knot nematodes, this work was done by Dr. Dickson in conjunction with the Microbiology Department.

BUGGY SOFTWARE

In 1992, Drs. Phil Koehler, Gene Gerberg, and Tom Fasulo developed a 60 MB hypertext Knowledgebase on urban pests for Whitmire Research Laboratories of St. Louis. Tom Fasulo and Dan Nichols have completed a major revision of this program. Thousands of links to definitions and graphics are available, and the program was upgraded from DOS to Windows. The commercial version is being sold and the UF/IFAS version will be available in November.

BLOOD DONOR HONOR ROLL

Civitan included the following people from the department in their Honor Roll: Laura Betch, Homero Calderon, Lloyd Davis Jr., Don Dickson, Thomas Fasulo, John Foltz, Judy Gillmore, Robin Goodson, Stanley King, James Nation, Hussein Sanchez-Arroyo, and Janel Smith.

The next newsletter will be published Friday, November 15. Deadline for contributions is Monday, November 11.

Editor: Enrique Perez

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

October 1996. Revised March 2003.