NEWSLETTER

GRADUATES MOVING ON:

Yasmin Cardoza, former M.S. student with Dr. McAuslane, obtained a full-time position with Dr. Jim Tumlinson in the Insect Chemical Attractants Laboratory at the USDA-CMAVE here in Gainesville. Dr. Tumlinson's team of researchers work on evaluating the biochemistry of a tritrophic system of plants, insect herbivores and the insect parasitoids. Yasmin is researching the effects of different light regimes and other growing conditions on the ability of corn and cotton plants to produce volatile compounds in response to different insect herbivore damage.

AWARDS

There are four USPS employees in the department that will receive their Service Pins at an award ceremony on Thursday, September 24 at 8:15 am in room 1031. Those receiving pins are:
Judy Gillmore - 20 years
Sharon W. Hoopaugh - 15 years
Deborah A. Hall - 5 years
Susan A. Wineriter - 5 years

Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to attend this ceremony to show support for these employees who have given so many years of continous service to the University of Florida. Refreshments will be served.

Florida Entomological Society

Congratulations to the winners of the Florida Entomological Society student paper competition in Sanibel, Florida.

1st Place-Dini Miller, "Trail Pheromone Enhancement of German Cockroach Monitoring Stations." 2nd Place-Barbara Larson Vasquez, "Evaluation of Alternative Small-scale Corn and Bean Cropping Systems in the Guatemalan highlands."
3rd Place-Dina Richman, "Knockdown of German Cockroach, Blattella germanica, by Heat Treatment."

Chris Tipping presented a paper titled "Population dynamics of the tobacco thrips Frankliniella fusca and a parasitic nematode Thripenema fuscum, occuring in peanut." Chris was awarded a student scholarship ($500) and a mini-grant ($100). Travel grants were awarded to Chris Tipping and Dina Richman.

Entomological Society of America

Dini Miller is the 1998 John Henry Comstock Award recipient for the Southeastern Branch of the ESA. The award is based on student scholarship, leadership and contribution to science.

MEETINGS

Mirian Hay-Roe attended the 3rd International Butterfly Ecology and Evolution Symposium in Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado, USA sponsored by The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, August 15-19, 1998. She presented a seminar on the "Life history studies of two races of Heliconius erato which differ in body size". Mirian received a travel grant from: IFAS, the Entomology Department, Student Council and ENSO.

Dr. Tom Sanford was invited speaker for the joint meetings of the XII American Beekeeping Seminar and the VI Ibero-Latinoamericano Apicultural Congress in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, August 17-22, 1998.

Dr. James P. Cuda attended the 81st Annual Meeting of the Florida Entomological Society held at the Sundial Beach Resort, Sanibel Island, 3-6 August 1998. He gave a poster presentation entitled, "Biology of Cricotopus sp. (Diptera: Chironomidae), A Potential Biological Control Agent for the Aquatic Weed Hydrilla verticillata (L.f.) Royle (Hydrocharitaceae).

Dr. Cuda also attended the Threatened and Endangered Species of Florida workshop held at the UF TREEO Center, Gainesville, September 15 and 16. The two-day workshop focused on federal and state policies and regulations for specific protected plant and animal species in Florida. The information presented pertains to current and future classical weed biological control research activities. For example, weed biological scientists must consider potential impacts of introduced bioagents on plant species that are protected by the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the Florida Endangered and Threatened Species Act of 1977.

NATURAL AREA TEACHING LABORATORY

A new permanent kiosk (=information board) has been erected at NATL's east gate. Constructed by staff of the Florida Museum of Natural History, this sturdy, roofed structure replaces a temporary board put in place last June. The kiosk's main display is a 4x8 ft., plexiglass-protected case that will contain text and picture describing NATL's history and the management plans for NATL's principal ecosystems: hammock, upland pine, old-field succession, and wetlands. On the back of the kiosk is a 4x4 ft., plexiglass-protected case that will house a display featuring the Stormwater Ecological Enhancement Project (SEEP). The remaining 4x4 ft area is a bulletin board where rules for using NATL and other information will be posted. Document holders will offer maps of NATL and pamphlets describing NATL and SEEP.

Now that NATL's retention basin has been recontoured, the Wetlands Club is introducing the native wetland species that are characteristic of the varied hydrological cycles that the recontouring established. So far the Club has made plantings in the treatment wetlands areas and on the tree island.

Activities planned for SEEP this fall include construction and placement of a weir within the forebay berm so that control of hydrology can be implemented as originally designed. Two additional small plantings will be conducted by the Wetlands Club to further stabilize the forebay and diversion berms and to establish submerged aquatics within the deeper water areas. Later this fall, the Club will host a meeting of interested faculty, staff and students to discuss long-term research within SEEP. The outcome of this meeting will be a long-term research plan for SEEP, a methods manual for long-term studies, a plan for information dissemination and a course of action for the implementation and management of proposed long-term research at SEEP.

PUBLICATIONS

Moraes R. R. de, J. E. Funderburk and J. E. Maruniak. 1998. Polymerase chain reaction techniques to detect multiple-nucleopolyhedrovirus in Anticarsia gemmatalis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and predator populations in soybean. Environ. Entomol. 27: 968-975.

Moser B. A., J. J. Becnel , J. Maruniak and R. S. Patterson. 1998. Analysis of the ribosomal DNA sequences of the microsporidian Thelohania and Vairimorpha of fire ants J. Invertebr. Pathol. 72: 154-159.

VOLUNTEERS

Section C (ESA) still needs nine more volunteers to help judge student papers and posters at this year's annual meeting. Teams of three are assigned to each session. The student papers generally are scheduled so that there are no conflicts with other events. One orientation session for all volunteers is usually held on the first day or evening of the annual meeting. Faculty members who are ESA members in Section C and who plan to attend the meeting, please help!

WEBCRAWLING

The Florida Butterfly #1 tutorial is now available from the UF Buggy Software WWW site at: http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/pests/software/
This butterfly tutorial was developed for students and the general public. It includes 10 full-color photographs and text on a larva and adult of each of five species. Jane Medley and Tom Fasulo developed this tutorial, with Jane doing most of the work.

E-publication of journals

Dr. Tom Walker has an article on "Free Internet Access to Traditional Journals" in the current issue of American Scientist (Sep-Oct, pp. 463-471). The article is also on the Web at http://www.amsci.org/amsci/articles/98articles/walker.html

In the article Walker uses the Florida Entomological Society as an example of how a society can make articles in its journal immediately accessible (toll-free) on the Web at very low cost and with little or no impact on library subscriptions.

The American Scientist September Forum is based on the article and thus far has 122 subscribers and 15 "threads" of discussion.
Instructions on how to participate in the forum, by Web or by e-mail, are at: http://www.sigmaxi.org/amsci/editors/forum.html

Featured Creatures

Located at: http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/

Choate, P.M. and R.A. Dunn. Land planarians, Bipalium kewense Moseley and Dolichoplana striata Moseley.

Stange, L.A. The bumble bees of Florida, Bombus spp.

Weissling, T.J., B. Ferster and M.Carpio. White-footed ant, Technomyrmex albipes (Fr. Smith).

Hall, D. Regal moth, Citheronia regalis (Fabricius).

Creature Citations

To save space in the newsletter, the citations for Featured Creatures are not listed exactly as they should be referenced in a list of publications. The correct, complete citation is: Author(s). (date). Title. UF/IFAS Featured Creatures. EENY-##. URL

CEU/Training Tutorials

The Department has released three new CEU/Training tutorials. These tutorials are authorized for one (1) CEU each for recertification for Florida Certified Pesticide Applicators.
Turfgrass Insects 2 SW-127
Mulch and Moisture Pests SW-129
Wood-Destroying Insects SW-128

Details on the tutorials, and the other five in this series, are available on the UF Buggy Software WWW site at:
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/fasulo/pests/software/

Dr. Wayne Dixon (FDACS, DPI), Dr. John Foltz (UF) and Jim Meeker (FL Division of Forestry) have posted a file to Pest Alert on "Insects and the Wildfires of 1998: Risk of Additional Losses and Management Strageties for Recovery."

Pest Alert is available on the WWW at:
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/pestalert/

Occasionally the lights in the bathroom, room 1031 and other rooms have been found left on overnight. When leaving the building at night please turn off the lights.

There is an ENSO meeting in the conference hall on September 29th at 12 PM. Meetings take place on the last Tuesday of every month. Pizza and refresments will be provided.

ENSO is looking for a new GSC representative.

The Department of Entomology and Nematology is putting a float together for the homecoming parade.

ENSO T-shirts are still available in the front office.

A hard copy of this newsletter is given to department members in Building970 only. All others can obtain an electronic subscription by sending arequest to listserv@lists.ufl.edu and in the text of the message type:

Turn off any signature file, if you have one. You will receive instructionsfor confirming your subscription and further information on the rules forthe list server.

The next newsletter will be published Thursday, October 22th. Deadline for contributions is Monday, October 19

Editor: Michael Patnaude

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

September 1998. Updated March 2003.