NEWSLETTER

CONGRATULATIONS

Dr. Don Hall has been chosen as the 1997 recipient of the John V. Osmun Alumni Professional Achievement Award in Entomology. This award is given by the Department of Entomology at Purdue University to an outstanding alumni. Dr. Hall will travel to Purdue in mid-October and present a departmental seminar. He will be presented with a plaque at a reception held in his honor.

Dr. Joe Knapp, Professor of Entomology and Extension State Specialist, Citrus IPM, Lake Alfred was recently recognized by the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association at their annual meeting this month. Dr. Knapp was awarded the FFVA "Researcher of the Year" honor for his contributions to industry. In announcing the award, the awards chair cited the continued evolution and excellence of the Florida Citrus Pest Management Guide, published annually under Dr. Knapp's leadership. This guide has in recent years been remodeled to include discussions of the ecological and biological aspects of IPM and incorporates the decision processes of whether it is appropriate to treat with the discussion of treatment options. In addition, Dr. Knapp's field research evaluations of treatment tactics for arthropod pests on citrus was cited as being of significant impact to Florida citrus IPM.

Dr. Herb Nigg, Professor of Entomology at CREC, Lake Alfred was recently named a recipient of a Davis Productivity Award, an annual program conducted for state employees which recognizes contributions of individuals or groups for the difference that their efforts make. Dr. Nigg's award was in recognition of the contributions made over many years to improve agricultural worker safety and worker protection against exposure to agricultural pesticides. Dr. Nigg will be formally recognized during the Davis Productivity awards ceremony on November 20.

Marjorie A. Hoy was named the F.E. Guyton Distinguished Lecturer at Auburn University where she presented two talks on October 14. One talk was given to the Department of Entomology on transgenicarthropods and the second, entitled "Beyond Silent Spring: Will the Public Demand More Ecologically-Based Pest Management in Agriculture?" to the general public.

Dr. Phil Koehler and Clay Scherer along with Dr. Norm Nesheim (Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition) received a $40,000 Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to develop and test a "model IPM contract" or bid specifications for use by Florida's public schools to reduce potential pesticide exposure to school kids. Earlier in the year Dr. Koehler, Clay, Dr. Nesheim and Thomas Fasulo received a $50,000 Grant from the EPA to develop IPM strategies and methods for use in Public Schools and produce a School IPM WWW home page to make these tools available world- wide.

Jason Byrd received the Frank A. Reinhart award and scholarship. The Florida Division of the International Association for Human Identification annually awards an individual within the state of Florida for outstanding contributions to the field of forensics and for academic excellence within the forensic sciences. Congratulations Alonso Suazo for surviving qualifying examinations. Keep up the good work!

PUBLICATIONS

Capinera, J.L. (October, 1997). Golden tortoise beetle, Charidotella bicolor (Fabricius). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-14. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/potato/golden_tortoise_beetle.htm

Frank, J. H. and J.L. Foltz. 1997. Classical Biological Control of Pest Insects of Trees in the Southern United States: A Review and Recommendations. If you would like copies of this free publication, contact either Dick Reardon at the US Forest Service in Morgantown, phone 304-285- 1566 or Dr. Foltz.

ATTENTION UNDERGRADUATES

Advising and registration sessions will be held November 3rd and 4th from 6:00-8:00 pm in EYN 1031. Spring advance registration will begin November 3, 1997. November 26, 1997 is the last day to drop a course without receiving a failing grade.

ENSO's CORNER

Boo!
ENSO will be sponsoring a potluck lunch for Halloween. It will be at noon in the break/lunch area. ENSO will provide drinks and plates, and utensils. All departmental members are invited to participate by bringing their favorite dish to share. Everyone is encouraged to dress in costumes, ENSO will have some prizes for the best three. Please join us for lunch October 31.

Travel Grants
Students may now apply for IFAS travel grants independently from applications sent for GSC travel grants. It was previously required for the student to apply to GSC first to be granted IFAS travel money. The IFAS funds will be in conjunction with money provided by the department. The money will be given to the department upon receipt of a copy of the student's travel voucher. Application for GSC travel may be obtain from Fahiem El-Borai, our new GSC representant. Application forms for IFAS travel money may be obtained from Michelle Beach in room 1020.

The Florida Entomological Society will award grants to students who plant to travel to the ESA annual meeting in Nashville, to be held December 14-18, for the purpose of presenting their research results. Students requesting funds should state in a letter their purpose for attending the meeting and their other potential sources of travel funds. Applications must be received by Guangye Hu on or before November 3, 1997.

Fundraising
ENSO is steadily approaching its fundraising goals and everyone's participation has been greatly appreciated. We now have the opportunity to sell a small collection to a national chemical distributor. To do this ENSO needs some arthropod donations. Look over the list posted in the graduate mail room and if there are any specimens you can part with please contact Tim McCoy or just place them in his mailbox.

Photo Contest Reminder
All Students in the Department of Entomology and Nematology are invited to participate in the ENSO photo contest. ENSO will provide prizes for the three best entries!!! All entries must consist of 2x2 "slides of living insects, related arthropods or nematodes engaged in typical activities in relation to their environment; or 8x10" unmounted prints of SEM work. Please include your name and title of all entries (write neatly and small) and put them in Dini Miller's box in the graduate student mail room. Contest begins immediately. Deadline for submissions is November 1, 1997. All entries will be displayed and prizes awarded at the department seminar on Thursday, November 13, 1997. All entomological entries will be forwarded to the ESA southeastern branch Photo Salon competition in March 1998. All entries will be judged by Drs. Jim Lloyd, Jerry Butler and Paul (Skip) Choate.

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

A New Addition
Welcome to the faculty Dr. John Zenger, comes to us from Purdue. His appointment is 60% teaching and 40% extension. His duties include: (1) teaching introductory entomology courses for both science & non-science majors; (2) assist with advising undergraduate majors; (3) development of distance education via World Wide Web technology, and research in distance learning pedagogy; and (4) provide leadership for statewide 4-H entomology program (develop 4-H materials and help county faculty integrate entomology materials into their 4-H programs).

A Fond Farewell
A retirement reception for Dr. John Strayer will be held on Friday, November 14, from 3:00-5:00pm in room 1031. Everyone is invited to congratulate him and wish him well. Dr. Strayer will officially retire on November 30. He will continue to teach a few courses for another three years under the phased retirement program.

Skip Choate has relinquished some of his duties and taken on others. Since Jim Castner, out departmental photographer resigned, Skip has assumed the responsibility of teaching one lab section of Principles of Entomology and still teaches his computer course. Skip relinquished his responsibilities for the general management of the stockroom, quarantine facilities, reading room, and maintenance of departmental vehicles. Nick Hostettler will assume responsibility for vehicle maintenance in addition to aiding Drs. Foltz and Don Hall with their teaching responsibilities.

New Graphics Station!
The computer lab has a new machine! This machine and its software bring new and improved capabilities for manipulating graphics on the Windows platform. New software includes Windows 95 running the latest Photoshop and Pagemaker along with Freehand, DeltaGraph, CorelDraw, Visio, Omnipage, and Exchange. There are literally thousands of new features, and your feedback is important to help make sure the configuration suits your needs. Try it out, and be sure to let Steve Lasley know if you have any questions or problems.

Reading Room
This is a reminder to all faculty, staff, and students that no item belonging to the Reading Room should be removed for any purpose. Books and journals there were donated by faculty members and are for everyone's use there and nowhere else. If you want to consult books and journals, do so in the Reading Room, or photocopy the relevant pages and take the photocopies away with you. A photocopier has been provided in the Reading Room for your use. Cost of photocopies is only 5 cents per sheet (standard or legal); for $10 you can get an account that will allow you 200 photocopies.

OPPORTUNITIES

NSF's Biotic Surveys and Inventories Program
The National Science Foundation's Biotic Surveys and Inventories Program (BS&I) supports research into species-level diversity of life on earth as a prologue to investigations of patterns and processes and the development of plans for the conservation of that diversity. Proposals must be received by November 7, 1997.

Assistantships Available
A Ph.D. research assistantship is available for students interested in pursuing the systematics of the beetle family Scarabaeidae at University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The research assistantship is funded by the National Science Foundation and offers up to 5 years of graduate student support ($13,500 per year plus annual increases and paid tuition). The research project will train 2 Ph.D.-level students in the systematics of New World scarabs and Coleoptera. Funds for field research in the New World tropics are provided. Applicants should have an M.S. in entomology or biology (or equivalent) and have strong interest in beetles. For further information about this program contact Dr. Brett Ratcliffe, TEL: (402) 472-2614

UPCOMING EVENTS

The 134th Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of Ontario will be held November 7-8, 1997 in London, Ontario.

Blood for Halloween
The Civitan Regional Blood Center will be at the Entomology and Nematology building from 1:00 to 4:00 pm on Tuesday, October 28. Mark your calendar and plan on giving the gift of life.

OUT AND ABOUT

Dr. Don Dickson was invited by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences to work with scientist on biological control of nematodes in China. Dr. Dickson visited three provinces (Hebei, Szechuan, Yunnan) during his sixteen days in China including the cities Beijing, Chongking, and Kunming to collect nematode samples. Chongking is the world's largest city with over 30 million people. Another interesting fact, Yunnan Province has over 2.2 million tobacco growers. Dr. Dickson spent some time walking on the Great Wall, visiting the Ming Tombs, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven.

Dr. Capinera gave an informative talk on a WLUF AM radio talk show last month about lovebugs. The show gave the public an opportunity to call in with questions.

Dr. Patty Timper, nematologist with USDA ARS visited Dr. Don Dickson's laboratory on October 15-16th. She presented a seminar on the biological control of nematodes by ARF, a fungal isolate identified in Arkansas that parasitizes the soybean cyst nematode.

Dr. James P. Cuda attended the 21st Annual Meeting of the Florida Aquatic Plant Management Society held at the Sheraton Hotel in West Palm Beach, October 7-9. Dr. Cuda presented a paper entitled "Application of the 'New Host Association Principle' for Biological Control of Exotic Solanums in Florida".

Chris Tipping attended the 1997 Peanut Field Day in Marianna, Florida on August 22, and presented a paper entitled: "Impact of Insecticides for Thrips Control on Thrips Parasitism and Epiedmiology of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus in Peanuts". The event was attended by growers from the peanut producing regions in the southeast including Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Also, researchers from many universities were present as well as several chemical representatives.

Andy Rasmussen recently traveled to San Antonio Texas and presented a paper entitled: "Spatial Distribution Patterns of Aquatic Insects: An Ecoregional Attribute in Florida?" at the Biennial Research Symposium for the Association of Research Directors. This symposium is held in order to showcase research being conducted at historically black colleges and universities. Andy presented results of on- going research at Florida A&M, in which he is analyzing distribution patterns of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

COMPUTER CORNER

Dr. Foltz has started a web site with pictures and distinguishing characters for the insect families studied in ENY 3005, Principles of Entomology. He would like to improve the site with more and better pictures as well as provide links to additional material. Visit the site at: http://eny3005.ifas.ufl.edu/lab1/ then send Dr. Foltz your contributions and suggestions.

A hard copy of this newsletter is given to department members in Building 970 only. All others can obtain an electronic subscription by joining the listserv.

The next newsletter will be published Thursday, November 23. Deadline for contributions is Monday, November 26.

Editors: Yasmin Cardoza & Tim McCoy

October 1997. Updated March 2003.