September 2003

Faculty Metamorphosis

Four more of our faculty retired over the summer. The "Fab Four" are Drs. Jerry Butler, James Lloyd, James Nation and Grover Smart. Butler retired at the end of July, while Lloyd, Nation and Smart retired at the end of June. They were all honored at a reception early in the summer and the large teaching room was packed with those who came to wish them well. However, old habits are hard to break and some of them seem to be spending just as much time around the department as they did when they were fully employed. Obviously we need a seminar on how to behave when you are retired.

These four men have well over 100 years of service to the department and their accomplishments are too numerous to mention. But we will mention some highlights. For example, Jim Lloyd is well known as a kindly, well-mannered advisor to numerous students in many disciplines whose office resembles a Victorian sitting room. And just like many of the Victorians, Jim Lloyd has "Sex On The Brain." At least, that was the title given to one of his papers included in the book Insect Lives: Stories of Mystery and Romance from a Hidden World, published in 1999. The book lists for US $27.95, but you can buy it for less than half that on half.com. However, you will not find Jim Nation's 2001 edition of Insect Physiology and Biochemistry offered at a discounted price. This excellent book sells for $95 or more on the Internet and in university bookstores around the country where it, like at UF/IFAS, is the recommended text in insect physiology courses. Perhaps in a year or so you will be able to find used copies at a bargain on the Web.

Faculty, staff, students and alumni can walk into hardware stores across the nation and purchase a bottle of DEET-free MosquitoSafe, TickSafe or FireAntSafe repellent, which uses a botanical as its active ingredient. While paying for it at the counter, they can boast, "I know the guy who developed this." While this repellent is one of Jerry Butler's accomplishments, he is probably prouder that almost all the medical entomologists serving on active duty with the military were once his students. Nematologist Grover Smart spent his last years in the department serving as the graduate student coordinator, but he shares the honor, along with Khuong Nguyen, also of this department, of receiving the first patent ever awarded on a live organism. Steinernema scapterisci Nguyen & Smart is known as the mole cricket nematode as it is an extremely effective biological control agent of tawny, southern and shortwinged mole crickets. The nematode is now sold in a commercial formulation and is used on turfgrass across the southeastern United States.

Beginning this semester, the Insect Physiology course, long taught by Jim Nation, will be taught by Dr. Pauline Lawrence. Meanwhile, Dr. Philip Koehler will try his hand at teaching Medical and Veterinary Entomology, now that Jerry Butler has retired. However, Jim Lloyd doesn't trust anyone with his popular Honors course in fireflies and he has offered to continue to teach it for awhile.

Dr. Bryon Adams accepted "an offer he could not refuse" at Brigham Young University in Utah and left the department during the summer.

During May a vote was taken on the candidates for the Insect Taxonomist position. Duties and responsibilities for this position are: 70% Teaching (Insect Classification twice/yr; Immature Insects twice/yr; General Entomology, e.g. Insect Diagnostics, Behavioral Ecology; to include distance education methodologies as well as classroom presentations), and 30% Research (conduct and publish research on issues related to insect taxonomy, natural history, and conservation of Florida arthropods).

Dr. Marc Branham, a recent graduate of Ohio State University (OSU) was offered the position, accepted, and plans to arrive in December. Don Hall, selection committee chair, reported that Dr. Branham has extensive teaching experience as a teaching assistant, including undergraduate courses in insect biology, general biology and graduate courses in economic entomology, insect behavior, insect morphology, and insect systematics and diversity. Marc also has significant experience in outreach activities, and had an immature insects course. He won several teaching awards, including the General Biology Teaching Award at OSU and the Mary Ellen Clay Teaching Award from OSU's Department of Entomology. Marc has an outstanding research record with a variety of small grants and a very prestigious Theodore Roosevelt Postdoctoral Fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History, where he currently serves. He also has a strong publication record including papers in Nature and Cladistics.

Dr. Don Hall assumed Grover Smart's responsibilities as Graduate Student Coordinator, while Dr. Carl Barfield stepped into the Undergraduate Student Coordinator role vacated by Don Hall.

Retirement Report from Dr. Smart

"Since retiring I have been coming back to the department volunteering my time to make microscope slides of nematodes for our teaching collection. At first, I had a temporary office, thanks to Dr. Butler. Before using that office much, I discovered that I had an inguinal hernia and underwent surgery to have that repaired. I goofed off two weeks while healing. Then, after Dr. Adams left for his new job at Brigham Young University, I moved to his office (my old office) and started to work.

"Getting set up to make slides was frustrating because I had to start from scratch. I managed to get a stereo microscope and a compound microscope. Then I begged some BPI watch glasses from several sources. Next, thanks to Frank Woods and Khuong Nguyen I was supplied with nematodes already killed and fixed. I picked out desirable specimens and processed them to glycerin. Next, I began making the aluminum slide blanks and cutting tabs used to hold square coverglasses in the blanks (we use a square coverglass on the bottom and a round coverglass on top so that we can turn the slide over if the specimen can be viewed better that way). By the time you read this, I will actually have made a few slides! I hope to make a few hundred.

"Retirement, all two months or so of it, has been good. I do not know how long I will continue to work in the department, but probably about a year. After that, I plan to get more involved in teaching Bible classes at my church, and perhaps working with Habitat for Humanity"

New Faculty Position

Proctor and Gamble made a cash contribution to the department to complete work on a product that P&G is donating complete rights for to UF/IFAS. As a result there is support for a faculty position to perform toxicology research. A search and screen committee was formed consisting of Heather McAuslane as Chair, Marjorie Hoy, Philip Koehler, and Simon Yu. The position description, see http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/faculty_pos.htm, is for a three-year, non-tenured, 100% research position, which has the potential to become permanent.

Staff Awards

The department would not run efficiently if it were not for our outstanding staff. Recently, three USPS employees received service award pins for continued service to the Department and the University. Debbie Hall, Program Assistant in our graduate student office - 10 years; Sharon Hoopaugh, Accountant in our fiscal office - 20 years; and Judy Gillmore, Senior Laboratory Technician for Jim Cuda - 25 years. The pins were awarded on Thursday, August 28, 2003.

New Students

The department welcomed 18 new graduate students this summer and fall, bringing our total to 90. Here they are, listed by: name, (degree sought) - major advisor:

Karla Addesso (PhD) and Murugesan Rangasmy (PhD) - McAuslane; Erika Anderson (MSN) - Hall/Mizell; Samuel Breaux (MS) - Boucias; Rodrigo Diaz (PhD) - Overholt; Sandra Garrett (MS) and Leslie Viguers (PhD) - Maruniak; Laura Hunnicut (MS) and Jerry Mozoruk (MS) - Cave; Crystal Kelts (MS) and Elena Rhodes (MS) - Liburd; Aaron Mullins (MS) - Su; Linda NcHerne (MS) and Justin Saunders (MS) - Koehler; Tobin Northfield (MS) - Funderburk; Rachel Seman-Varner (MS) - McSorley; Frank Wessels (MS) - Cuda; and Yingfang Xiao (PhD) - Stansly.

New Post-Doc

Dr. Un Taek Lim joined Dr. Marjorie Hoy's laboratory to work on biological control. Dr. Lim completed his Ph.D. with Dr. Van Driesche at the University of Massachusetts and his undergraduate and M. S. degrees in Korea.

Publications

Alto BW, Lounibos LP, Juliano SA. 2003. Age-dependent blood-feeding of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) on artificial and living hosts. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association. (in press).

Baldwin R. (June 2003). Red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-289. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/beetles/red_flour_beetle.htm

Baldwin R, Fasulo TR, Koehler AD. 2003. Maxforce Bait Computer Tutorial. UF/IFAS Label Tutorials. SW-167.

Brammer AS. (March 2003). Southern lyctus beetle, Lyctus planicollis LeConte. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-283. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/beetles/s_lyctus_beetle.htm

Choate PM. (July 2003). Giant water bugs, Lethocerus, Abedus, Belostoma. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-301. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/bugs/giant_water_bugs.htm

Denmark HA, Cromroy HL. (June 2003). Tropical fowl mite, Ornithonyssus bursa (Berlese). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-297. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/tropical_fowl_mite.htm

Dixon WN. (June 2003). Whitefringed beetles, Graphognathus spp. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-294. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/field/beetles/whitefringed_beetles.htm

Dixon WN. (July 2003). Cypress looper, Anacamptodes pergracilis (Hulst). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-303. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/trees/moths/cypress_looper.htm

Edwards GB, Hibbard KL. (May 2003). Mexican redrump tarantula, Brachypelma vagans (Ausserer). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-287. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/spiders/M_redrump.htm

Edwards GB. (June 2003). Tropical orb weaver spider, Eriophora ravilla (C.L. Koch). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-291. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/spiders/tropical_orb_weaver.htm

Edwards GB. (August 2003). Brown recluse spider, Loxosceles reclusa Gertsch & Mulaik. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-299. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/spiders/brown_recluse_spider.htm

Halbert SE, Choate PM. (June 2003). An Asian woolly hackberry aphid, Shivaphis celti Das. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-288. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/trees/asian_hackberry.htm

Finn EM. (January 2003). Robber flies, Asilidae. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-281. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/beneficial/flies/robber_flies.htm

Hill SL, Hoy MA. 2003. Interactions between the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta and the parasitoid Lipolexis scutellaris potentially affect classical biological control of the aphid Toxoptera citricida. Biological Control 27: 11-19.

Mead FW. (June 2003). A leaf-footed bug, Euthochtha galeator (Fabricius). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-293. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/flowers/euthochtha_galeator.htm

Medal J, Norambuena H, Gandolfo D. (editors). 2003. Proceedings (in Spanish) 'Primer Curso Latinoamericano en Control Biologico de Malezas. University of Florida-IFAS. Gainesville, FL. 158 p.

Nickerson JC, Fasulo TR. (June 2003). Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius (Latreille). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-298. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/ants/harvester_ant.htm

Nickerson JC, Harris DL, Fasulo TR. (June 2003). Pharaoh ant, Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-290. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/ants/pharaoh_ant.htm

Persad A, Hoy MA. 2003. Intra- and interspecific interactions between Lysiphlebus testaceipes and Lipolexis scutellaris (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae) reared on Toxoptera citricida (Homoptera: Aphididae). Journal of Economic Entomology 96: 564-569.

Stange LA. (June 2003). Cicada killers of Florida, Sphecius spp. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-295. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/beneficial/cicada_killers.htm

Steck GJ. (May 2003). Mango fruit fly, Ceratitis cosyra (Walker). UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-286 http:/entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/fruit/tropical/mango_fruit_fly.htm.

Walker A, Hoy MA. (April 2003). Citrus leafminer parasitoid, Ageniaspis citricola Logvinovskaya. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-285. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/beneficial/a_citricola.htm

Walker A, Hoy MA, Meyerdirk D. (August 2003). Papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-302. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/fruit/mealybugs/papaya_mealybug.htm

Warner J, Scheffrahn RH. (March 2003). Caribbean crazy ant, Paratrechina pubens Forel. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-284. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/ants/caribbean_crazy_ant.htm

Wineriter SA, Halbert SE, Cuda JP. (August 2003). A psyllid, Boreioglycaspis melaleucae Moore. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-300. http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/beneficial/B_melaleucae.htm

Awards

In May, Don Hall presented, on behalf of the University of Florida, a plaque for the Most Outstanding Department Display at Gator Encounter honoring the outreach program of the department headed by graduate student Justin Harbison. He was assisted at Gator Encounter by students Scott Weihman and Cynthia Tucker, but a number of other students assist Justin throughout the year. Our outreach program is extremely popular and Justin reports that he visits about 10 schools per month as well as providing insect talks to other groups. The department considers the program so important that we support it by providing an assistantship for a graduate student. In recognition of this award, the Dean bought pizza for 70 students.

Dr. Julio Medal received a certificate from Mr. Charles H. Bronson (Florida Agriculture Commissioner) and Mr. Richard D. Gaskalla (FDACS-Division of Plant Industry Director) in recognition of his years of "Outstanding Research" in biological control of tropical soda apple, especially by the "First Biocontrol Agent (a South American leaf beetle) Released in Florida" this summer 2003.

Meetings

Dr. Marjorie A. Hoy attended the Fourth International Symbiosis Society Congress in Halifax, Nova Scotia August 17-23. The meeting was outstanding and included talks on symbiosis in insects, as well as many other organisms.

Dr. Marjorie A. Hoy was an invited speaker at a symposium, Genetics and Entomological Research, held at the annual meeting of the Florida Entomological Society, Stuart, Florida, July 2003, where she presented a talk on "Genetic Tools for Biological Control".

Dr. Julio Medal traveled to Canberra, Australia to participate at the XI International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds , April 27 to May 2. Medal presented the poster entitled "Perspectives and Limitations for Biological Control of Invasive Plants in Latin-America." He also presented the poster "Risk Assessment of Gratiana boliviana (Chrysomelidae), a Potential Biocontrol Agent of Solanum viarum in the USA." Medal was also coauthor of Dr. James Cuda's poster entitled "Biology and Host Range of the Brazilian thrips Pseudophilothrips ichini, a Candidate for Biological Control of Schinus terebinthifolius: US Quarantine Tests."

Dr. Julio Medal was an invited speaker at the 18th Annual Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council Symposium held in St. Petersburg, FL., June 4-6. Medal gave a presentation on "The First Biological Control Agent Released in Florida for Tropical Soda Apple."

Dr. Julio Medal traveled to Montpellier, France from June 22-27 to participate at the Risk Analysis in Biological Control Course organized by the Midwest Institute for Biological Control. Medal gave a presentation on "Risk Analysis of Biological Control of Medusahead (Poaceae) in the USA."

Dr. Julio Medal attended the semi-annual meeting of the Tropical Soda Apple Task Force in Dothan, Alabama on July 22. Medal gave an update on "Research on Biological Control of Tropical Soda Apple."

Grants

Kathryn Barbara and Cara Congdon each received a $100 travel grant from the Florida Entomological Society to attend that society's annual meeting in July.

Drs. Julio Medal and James Cuda were awarded a one-year grant for $35,000 from USDAS-APHIS to initiate the mass rearing and field release of the leaf-beetle Gratiana boliviana for biocontrol of tropical soda apple, which is one of the most invasive weeds of pastures and natural areas in the southeastern states.

Drs. Julio Medal and James Cuda received a one-year grant for $50,000 from FDACS-Division of Plant Industry to initiate the implementation strategies for biological control of tropical soda apple in Florida.

New Teaching Lab

Over the summer, due to the increased demand for teaching space resulting from the large number of graduate students in our program and the Doctor of Plant Medicine degree, the faculty discussed converting one or more research labs to a teaching lab. The decision was made to convert Jim Nation's research labs (rooms 3117, 3118, 3119, and 3120), to a teaching lab to be used primarily for graduate courses. A faculty committee will work out the details. When work will commence is anyone's guess, but the west corridor will be noisy when it does.

Reading Room

"Room 2105 is the department's Reading Room. It is not a library (no librarian works there) and so it has a few simple rules: (1) if you have taken books or journals from the shelves, please reshelf them (your mother is not there to tidy up after you), (2) please do not take food or drinks into the Reading Room (to discourage cockroaches) and (3) do not remove from the room any reading material that is not yours. There is no check-out system, so nothing may be checked out. New for this summer is a video surveillance system, so smile, your use of the room is being recorded. (We really want to discourage the temptation to remove books and journals from the room.)" - J. Howard Frank, for the Reading Room committee.

Fall Seminar Series

09/11 - Dr. J. Maruniak (University of Florida, Entomology/Nematology Dept.) "RNA interference in uninfected and baculovirus infected lepidopteran cells."

09/18 - Dr. R. Meagher (USDA, Gainesville) "Population dynamics of fall armyworm host strains in Florida."

09/25 - Dr. R. Koenig (Rosie's Organic Farm, Gainesville) "An insight into crop protection practices in organic systems."

10/2 - Dr. M. Turnbull (Clemson University, Division of Entomology) "Polydnavirus and insect gap junctions - a role in immune regulation?"

10/9 - Dr. W. Overholt (University of Florida, IIREC) "Initiation of a new program on classical biological control of invasive plants in Fort Pierce."

10/16 - Dr. B. Magalhaes (EMBRAPA, Brazil) "The use of Metarhizium anisopliae var. acridum against the grasshopper Rhammatocerus schistocercoides in Brazil."

10/23 - Mr. G. Jones (University of Florida and Santa Fe College) "Avian insectivores as agents of biocontrol in cropping systems."

10/30 - Dr. L. Wiener (St. John's College, NM) "All about spiders."

11/6 - Dr M. Kairo (CABI, Trinidad) Title pending

11/13 - Dr. B. Unruh (University of Florida, West Florida REC - Jay) "The role of the extension specialist: past, present, and future."

11/20 - Dr. L. Morrison (USDA, Gainesville) "The island biogeography and metapopulation dynamics of Bahamian ants."

11/27 - Thanksgiving

12/4 - Dr. L. Duncan (University of Florida, Citrus REC - Lake Alfred) Title pending

USDA Fire Ants

As part of a multi-year project on Areawide Suppression of Fire Ants, Dr. Philip Koehler is developing extension publications in support of the USDA demonstrations. As part of this effort, Koehler and Jane Medley developed two color brochures that were distributed nationally. In addition, Joe Jonovich created a Web site at http://www.ars.usda.gov/fireant/. When the site was mentioned in a David Barry (Miami Herald Pulitzer Prize winning humorist) column, the resulting traffic brought down the USDA server. If you wish to see Joe's work, you should do so quickly, as he is finishing up his M.S. degree this semester and gave up the title of Webmaster to Thomas Fasulo and Andrew Koehler. Tom and Andy completely redesigned the Web site and the new version should be on the USDA site soon. When you look at either version, take time to enjoy the three videos Richard Martyniak created on interactions between the red imported fire ant and its decapitating fly parasitoids, especially the "Flight Check" video showing the newly emerged fly pumping its wings out to full size. The new version is already available on a UF/IFAS mirror site at http://fireant.ifas.ufl.edu.

Biological Control Short-Course

Dr. Julio Medal is organizing the Second Latin-American Short-Course on Biological Control of Weeds and provides the following information.

"The conference will be held on June 7-10, 2004, at the Barceló Hotel in Montelimar, Nicaragua. Participants will gain a basic understanding of the principles and concepts of biological control of weeds using insects and pathogens, and receive training in how to implement a weed biocontrol program.

"Group discussions will focus on the prospects for and limitations of biological weed control in Latin America. About 15 weed biocontrol experts and 100 trainees from at least 15 developing countries will be involved. After completing this course, participants will be able to implement weed biocontrol programs in their own countries, as well as work with international agencies in the region."

See http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/bcw/reg.pdf for the registration file. For more information contact Dr. Medal at medal@ifas.ufl.edu. For a complete schedule in Spanish (the language of the short course) see the UF/IFAS Pest Alert site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/pestalert/.

Graduate E-mail Addresses

"Entomology and Nematology graduate students should access the graduate student listing on the departmental Web site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/grdtable.htm and check their listed e-mail addresses. There are problems with the accuracy of some of these addresses and the list must be updated. If your listed e-mail address is not correct, please send the correct address to me at barfield@ufl.edu or (352) 392-1901 x 131. I will update the list and work with the Department's Webmaster to make changes. Attention to this matter as quickly as possible would be appreciated." - Carl Barfield

While reviewing the list, you might also notice how few graduate students (actually only one) have their C.V.s online. Do all the rest expect a job to fall into their laps when they graduate?

Final Diapause

Dr. John Heppner of the Division of Plant Industry informs us that UF Emeritus Professor Minter Westfall, Jr., of the Zoology Department, died on July 20, 2003, in Gainesville, Georgia. He was 87 years old. Dr. Westfall taught the Aquatic Insects graduate course for many years while here at UF.

Natural Area Teaching Lab

In May, Dr. Tom Walker gave an overview of the proposed road to be built through the Natural Area Teaching Lab. For more information you can visit the Web site at http://natl.ifas.ufl.edu/. Butler Enterprises is recommending to UF that this would be beneficial because it would relieve some of the traffic flow from 34th and Archer Road and also allow for easier access to Butler Plaza. Walker went over the procedure that was followed and the many committees that were involved in order for permission to be granted to build this road. Tom felt that this was not handled properly and he is very concerned that it will disrupt the Natural Area Teaching Lab. This has political and scientific issues and Tom suggested that if the faculty wished to contest the building of this road they should submit their concerns and complaints to the Faculty Senate. He recommended that the UF faculty needs to research this more carefully before final approval is granted.

Recent Graduate Adventures

Angela Brammer came to us with a B.S. in Journalism and a desire to become a science writer. James Lloyd was Angela's major advisor and Thomas Fasulo coordinated her writing assignments. Angela received her M.S. in Entomology in August and immediately took off for Japan, where she is an employee of the Japanese government in a Japanese Exchange Teaching (JET) program. Angela sent Tom the following report.

"I live in Yamagata prefecture ('mountain shape'), which is about three hours north of Tokyo by bullet train. It gets quite cold here (2 meters of snow is not uncommon), and I have a traditional Japanese apartment, which means my walls are essentially made of paper. Winter is going to be ... interesting.

"I have an unusual job. Most people on the program work only in schools. In addition to teaching at two senior high schools, I also work at the Prefectural Education Center, sort of like the school board. I am the only gaijin (foreign person) in the building, so I stick out a bit. I help organize seminars for English teachers throughout the prefecture (about 70 senior high schools, 130 junior high schools), seminars for the other JETs, etc. My official title is ALT - Assistant Language Teacher.

"Tomorrow will be my first day teaching. I am a little nervous about it, but also very excited. In the classroom, I will work together with Japanese teachers of English. The English ability of the Japanese teachers of English varies enormously. One man in particular, whom I will be working with tomorrow, can just barely get a sentence out. It should be an interesting day.

"The two schools I have are both considered low-ability. One, called Yamanobe Senior High, has a pre-nursing track, so of the 400 students, only about 10 are boys. That's where I'm going tomorrow. The other one is a special school for students who don't go to regular high school for some reason, whether it's because they dropped out, or had behavioral problems, or were bullied, etc. If they change their minds and want to come back, they go to this school, called Kajo Gakuen Senior High.

"The Prefectural Education Center building is right smack in the middle of an enormous green rice field. The rice has just started to appear this past week. I'd never seen rice growing before I got here. And the cicadas they have up here are unbelievable. They are louder than anything in the South. The ones I've seen are all about 2 inches long, and they regularly dive bomb me while I'm biking to work.

"Having fun and eating lots of noodles. - Angela"

You can contact Angela at asbrammer@aol.com.

LiveStats

If you manage or include a Web site in your annual Faculty Accountability System (FAS) report then you should be using LiveStats. This is a commercial software package that UF/IFAS IT has had running on its server for over a year. While much of the information that LiveStats provides is meaningful only to network or server managers, other information is valuable to those of us who provide the information that a Web site displays. For example, the Site Activity - Visits function allows you to show how many distinct visitors used your site during a time period: day(s), week(s) or month(s). A "distinct visitor" is defined as a user who entered the site, looked at one or more pages, and then left. Only if a visitor remains inactive for 15 minutes within your site (perhaps he or she took a break for some reason) and then continued with the search for information, would that visitor be counted as a second distinct visitor. The Site Activity - Page Views function allows you to see how many pages were called up within a time period. Other functions allow you to monitor the number of downloads, determine which pages were the most popular, see where your visitors are coming from and much more.

Here is why is this important. We had a counter on the Featured Creatures Web site that told us that about 100 people a day were accessing the main menu, but not how many people were finding other pages on the Web site directly from search engines or links to the site. As a result, the figure of approximately 3,000 visitors a month, or 36,000 a year, was very inaccurate, but we had no other data. However, using LiveStats we are able to show that during the twelve month period ending 31 August 2003, the Featured Creatures Web site recorded 1,041,544 distinct visitors and 1,898,317 page views. Those latter numbers are much more impressive when included in the annual FAS report.

The UF/IFAS LiveStats site is located at http://livestats.ifas.ufl.edu/. It only works with the Internet Explorer browser. Enter your top level Web site domain name URL into the Server ID box, as in "entomology.ifas.ufl.edu." You do not need to enter a Username or Password.

They Eat Bugs

"Entomologists are often interested in carnivorous plants but do not know where they can be purchased. Agri-Starts III (http://www.agristarts3.com/ or 352-589-8055) produces and markets a variety of carnivorous plants. This company has two new pitcher plants for sale in 72-cell liners, Sarracenia x 'Scarlet Belle' and Sarracenia x 'Dana's Delight.' The first will grow to one foot tall and the second can reach two feet. They can be planted in the landscape of plant zones 7 to 10 in full or slightly filtered sun. Propagation is through tissue culture, division and seed. The company began raising carnivorous plants to reduce their collection in nature, especially because some of them are rare. Agri-Starts III is a wholesale producer, so if you contact the company for information or to order some carnivorous plants, be sure to identify yourself as being from the University of Florida." - Norm Leppla

Bug Tutorials

Due to increased sales and recovery of costs, the UF/IFAS Bug Tutorials developed in our department were reduced from $25 to $15 per CD-ROM. Twenty-two of these tutorials, on 11 CD-ROMs, are approved for pesticide applicator relicensing CEUs in Florida in many of the commercial pest control and agricultural categories, as well as state required technician/ID card holder training. Many of the tutorials are also approved for CEUs in Arizona, West Virginia and Vermont. The 12th CD contains two tutorials on southeastern butterflies. Four more tutorials are in different stages of development.

Two related tutorials come on each CD-ROM and each tutorial allows licensed applicators or technician to earn one CEU or one hour of approved training. The UF/IFAS Buggy Software Web site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/pests/software/ contains complete information on these tutorials as well as the Core and Label Tutorials.

Turfgrass Insects 2 Error

One of the CD-ROM Bug Tutorials, SW 163, has an identified error in Turfgrass Insects 2. I made a mistake and inserted a hyphen in a file name. As a result, the text under the Info Text button in the tutorial does not display. This error applies only to the CD-ROM version. If you have the earlier diskette copy your software runs properly.

In the CD-ROM version, the file \uf-mc\turf-2\turf-2.txt should be renamed to \uf-mc\turf-2\turf2.txt.

If you own this software and make this change the text that supplies the answers to the questions in Turfgrass Insects 2 will be displayed in the tutorial. If you wish you can return CD-ROM SW 163, to me and I will replace it with a new one, version 1.01. Return the CD to:

Thomas R. Fasulo BLDG 970, Natural Area Drive University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611-0640

Please don't forget to include your mailing address.

Featured Creatures

The UF/IFAS Entomology and Nematology Department and the FDACS Division of Plant Industry now have over 300 UF/IFAS publications on the Featured Creatures WWW site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/, with more undergoing development.

In addition to the new files listed under Publications above, new text and/or photographs were added to the files on: blister beetles (photo), plaster bagworm (photos), red imported fire ant (photos), lobate lac scale (name change), bed bug (photo), giant crab spider (photo), olive fruit fly (text), southern house spider (photos), squash bug (text), cactus bug (photos), Colorado potato beetle (text) and golden silk spider (photos).

A recent comment from a visitor: "Thank you for your most informative web site on the common house fly." - Michelle Knevel, Department of Surgery, Hamilton Health Sciences, Ontario, Canada

Arbrovirus Summaries

Did you know that eastern equine encephalomyelitis (EEE) virus and West Nile virus (WNV) activity is far greater in Florida this year than last? Did you know that there are at least three cases of malaria confirmed in the state? You would if you subscribed to the UF/IFAS Pest Alert listserv. The Florida Department of Health Arbrovirus Summaries and Medical Alert press releases for WNV and EEE are posted weekly to the UF/IFAS Pest Alert Web site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/pestalert/.

Newsletter Minutia

The newsletter is edited by Thomas Fasulo. Please send submissions to him at fasulo@ufl.edu. Issues will be published about the middle of each month. Printed copies will only be distributed to those in Bldg. 970. A short notice is sent to all those on the UF-Bugnews-l listserv when HTML and PDF copies are posted on the UF/IFAS Entomology and Nematology Newsletter Web site at http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/news/. The site contains instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing to the listserv. Andy Koehler does the coding for the HTML version.

During the 12-month period ending 31 August 2003, the UF/IFAS Entomology and Nematology Departmental Newsletter Web site recorded 30,515 distinct visits and 48,565 page views. Not bad for a newsletter about creepy crawlies and the people who work with them. In addition, the UF-Bugnews-l listserv has 220 subscribers.

September 2003.