NEWSLETTER

AWARDS

Several students were recognized at the Florida Entomological Society Annual Meeting in Clearwater Beach, Florida. Winners of the $500 Scholarships were Juan Villanueva-Jimenez, Wendy Meyer, and Dini Miller. Winners of the Student Paper Contest were: First Place: Robin Goodson, "Effects of Different Hydrilla Strains on the Biology of the Biological Control Agents Hydrellia pakistannae and H. balciunasi (Diptera: Ephydridae), Second Place: Denise Johanowicz, "Studies of Wolbachia in the predatory mite Metaseiulus occidentalis and the twospotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae, Third Place: Dini Miller, "Effects of Adhesive trap position on the ability to adequately estimate German cockroach Blatella germanica population size and structure".

FES MINI-GRANTS

Ten, $100 Mini-Grants were awarded by the Florida Entomological Society. The recipients were: Denise Johanowicz, Kevi Vulinec, Julieta Brambila Coulliette, Wayne Grush, Jaw-Ching Liu (Leo), Dini Miller, Marco Toapanta, Dina Richman, John Petti and Andrew Rasmussen. FES also awarded Travel Grants of $160 to Julieta Brambila Coulliette, Rejane De Moraes, Dina Richman, Tonya Van Hook and Kevi Vulinec.

BLOOD DONOR AWARD

Dr. John Foltz received a 10 galloneer donor award from CIVITAN. He made 40 donations in a period of 19 years. He advises everybody to donate blood, "it makes you stronger and eliminates the excess iron in men".

NEW GRADUATES

Miguel Quesada finished his M. S. degree under the direction of Dr. Grover Smart. The title of his thesis was" Use of an Entomopathogenic Nematode to Control Corn Earworm, Helicoverpa zea". He is going back to Costa Rica where he will be working on teaching and research at the University of Costa Rica.

Bob Stewart completed his Ph.D. this summer and graduated last Saturday, August 10th. On Sunday he flew to Morocco where he has taken a position at the Casablanca American School. His address is Casablanca American School - Rue de la Mecque - Lot. Ougoug, Q. Californie - Casablanca, Morocco.

FACULTY, STAFF AND STUDENTS NEWS

Homero Calderon, OPS for Thomas Fasulo, has been hired as a full time employee by GIE Publishers of Cleveland, Ohio. GIE publishes magazines in several different industry fields, two of which are urban pest control and lawn and ornamentals. Two of the magazines in the urban pest control field are Pest Control Technology and Service Technician. Calderon will continue working under Fasulo's direction as Fasulo is receiving a grant from GIE to develop six computer-verified training tutorials on pesticide use.

Christopher Tipping will present a poster session at the Annual Peanut Field Day at the North Florida Research Center at Marianna, Florida on August 22. The title of his presentation is "A New Entomopathogenic Nematode Found Infecting Tobacco Thrips (Frankliniella fusca). This nematode shows potential as a biocontrol agent of F. fusca, which is a vector of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus.

Dr. Myoung-Rae Cho from the National Horticultural Research Institute Suwon, Korea, will return to Korea on 17 August, after working at Dr. Dickson's lab as a visiting scientist. He worked on biocontrol of Root Knot Nematode using Pasteuria penetrans and screening for best host for mass production of P. penetrans.

Dini Miller is leaving this Friday to attend the XX International Congress of Entomology in Florence, Italy. Dini will be presenting her work on trail following behavior in the German cockroach. On the way over she will stop by Casablanca to spend a week with Bob Stewart before continuing on to the conference.

Jaw-Ching Liu (Leo) has been invited by the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center to participate in the Advanced Sequence Analysis Workshop, to be held from August 25 to 28.

Julieta Brambila Coulliette returned from a two-week course on biology and taxonomy of spiders in the Highlands Biological Station, North Carolina.

Dr. Freddie Johnson is the Acting District III Extension Director. He will provide administrative support to 13 counties from the northeast coast and central Florida area.

Marjorie Hoy will attend the International Congress of Entomology in Florence, Italy, where she has organized a symposium "Molecular Genetics and Evolution in Transgenic Arthropod Population Dynamics". in a symposium entitled "Culture of parasitoids in vitro" at the combined World Congress on Tissue Culture and International meeting of Invitro biology in San Francisco, California in June. Her talk was entitled "Influence of Host- and parasite-derived factors on the culture of insect parasites in vitro".

Debbie Matthews Lott and Dale Habeck attended the Lepidopterists Society annual meeting in June. The meeting was hosted by the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. John Watts who received his M. S. in 1987 from our department is the Lepidopterist at the Butterfly Center. A poster entitled "Pupal Morphology of Neartic Pterophridae" was presented by D. Matthews Lott, D. Habeck and Margo Duncan.

NEMATOLOGISTS NOW SPEAK FRENCH, HURRICANE, AND EARTHQUAKE

UF/IFAS nematologists who recently attended the Third International Nematology Congress (THINC) at Gosier on the island of Guadeloupe, French West Indies, were treated to an excellent conference with unexpectedly rich natural entertainment. THINC had over 450 people from 65 countries registered as full participants, making it the largest single gathering of our small discipline that anyone could recall; families brought total attendance to well over 600. Since the organizing committee had planned everything on a basis of about 300-350 attendees, nearly every session was packed full, and there were little knots of worm-herders to be seen nearly everywhere. Hurricane Bertha was aimed right at Guadeloupe, predicted to strike the island about 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 7. At the last minute, she decided to go slightly north, so we got some wind and water, but just enough to encourage those at the Congress to actually attend the technical sessions rather than explore the beaches. In addition, wake-up for the sessions on Monday morning was provided by a small earthquake, just enough to shake beds noticeably. The technical program was crammed full of every aspect of nematology, ranging from molecular biology to classical taxonomy to nematode control with natural products to many aspects of entomophilic nematodes. The program consisted of 27 symposia, 8 workshops, 9 discussions sessions, 3 video sessions, 3 special sessions on Russian nematology, and 290 posters. Since there was such a large gathering of nematologist from so many countries at the Congress, including several retirees, the Congress provided a wonderful opportunity to greet former friends from around the world as well as to make new ones.

Florida was well-represented at THINC with the following participants: Regina Carneiro, Don Dickson, Larry Duncan, Bob Dunn, Robin Giblin-Davis, Tom Hewlett, Renato Inserra, David Kaplan, Bob Kinloch, Paul Lehman, Joe Noling, Luis Payan, Jimmy Rich, Cecilia Ritzinger, Grover Smart, and Elke Weibelzahl-Fulton.

The formation of an umbrella organization, an International Federation of Nematology Societies, was approved at the Congress and that body will be responsible for organizing future International Congresses.

GRAD STUDENTS HOME PAGE

Thomas Fasulo recently gave a four hour presentation on computer software to fifteen managers of a large national corporation who visited the department. Part of Tom's presentation was the department's WWW home page, and all the information that Dr. Skip Choate has made available there. One of the managers asked if any of our graduate students had home pages. So Tom showed them the list of our students on the department's WWW site. Another one of the managers asked to see Dini Miller's page. Fortunately, Dini is one of only three of our graduate students who have taken advantage of the opportunity to do a WWW page on themselves. Several of the managers remarked that they have WWW access and like to look at student's WWW pages when making hiring decisions. As you know, competition for entomology and nematology positions is fierce. If you don't have a WWW page then you're entering the job market with one hand tied behind your back. Why? Because a lot of departments at other universities have most, if not all, of their students represented by a page on the WWW. Creating a WWW site is easy. Dr. Skip Choate and the ENSO officers have a template already created for word processors.

WEED BIOCONTROL WORKSHOP

Dr. Gary Buckingham and Dr. Jim Cuda organized and participated in the first International Organization of Biological Control, Neartic Region Section, Biocontrol of Weeds Working Group Workshop. This IOBC meeting convened in Billings, Montana during the week of 22 July and was held in conjunction with the USDA, ARS Weed Biological Control Workshop. The purpose of the joint meeting was to promote open discussion on critical issues important to the future success of North American weed biological control programs. One of the highlights of the meeting was a field trip to Lewistown, Montana, to observe the impact of the Aphthona spp. beetles on leafy spurge, one of this country's most severe rangeland weeds. The results were spectacular. The root-feeding larvae severely damage the weed and reduce its competitiveness to the extent that native grasses and forbs have recovered following the release of beetles. The complex of Aphthona beetles has been extremely effective in controlling leafy spurge on rangelands all across the Great Plains, and represents a recent success story for our discipline. This program would not have been possible without international and interagency cooperation, especially the efforts of Dr. Peter Harris, Agriculture Canada, Dr. Bob Pemberton USDA/ARS, and USDA/APHIS personnel. Incidentally, Dr. Pemberton was involved in the initial screening/releases of Aphthona beetles in Montana during the late 1980's, and is now located at the USDA/ARS facility in Ft. Lauderdale. Congratulations, Bob!

PUBLICATIONS

McMichael, M. and Hall, H. G. 1996. DNA RFLPs at a highly polymorphic locus distinguish European and African subspecies of the honey bee, Apis mellifera L. and suggest geographical origins of New World honey bees. Molecular Ecology 5:403-416.

Johanowicz, D.J. and M. A. Hoy. 1996. Wolbachia in a predator-prey system: 16S ribosomal DNA analysis of two phytoseiids (Acari: Phytoseiidae) and their prey (Acari:Tetranychidae). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Amer. 89(3): 435-441.

ONLINE DATABASE

Nematologists Robert Dunn and Grover Smart of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, posted a file to PEST ALERT on pesticide compatibility of beneficial nematodes. It lists bioinsecticides, IGRs, insecticides, miticides, fungicides, herbicides, and fertilizers and their effects on beneficial nematodes and when they can be applied in relation to applications of these nematodes.

The Pest Alert and Florida Insect Management Guide databases are also available on the home page (under Publications) of the University of Florida's Department of Entomology and Nematology.

FREE DISKETTES

Thomas Fasulo has hundreds of 5.25" diskettes that are FREE to whoever is willing to stop by his office and ask for some. For those receiving this newsletter by e-mail who are in the IFAS system, just send him a message requesting them.

BUG MOVIE

A number of people have seen the movie short "Joe's Apartment." This is a movie about a guy who lives with cockroaches who offer their support when he brings home a girl friend. For those of you who want more, there's the Joe's Apartment WWW site.

DISKETTES WANTED

You know those 3.5" diskettes with bad sectors that you normally throw away? Don't! Instead give them to Tom Fasulo or put them in his mailbox. He needs them for some strange reason. This is a long-term request.

SCHMIDT BOXES FOR SALE

Thomas Fasulo has a limited quantity of handmade, wooden Schmidt boxes for sale. $10 each. Stop by his office to see them.

HOME PAGES

A great WWW page with information and links to many other sites is http://www.pestweb.com/. The emphasis is on urban pest control but there are links to other insect information including Tom Walker's FES journal site, our department, IFAS, FAIRS WWW pages, plus lots of other useful info for agricultural surfers.

Drs. Phil Koehler and Jim Hoy have a WWW site on their Animal Movement Anaylsis Software. The site was designed by Andy Miller, who worked for Thomas Fasulo, and now works for Exxon.

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 Monday, September 17. Deadline for contributions is Wednesday, September 12.

Editor: Enrique Perez

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

August 1996. Updated March 2003.