And Frank's long-term commitment to host plant resistance development appears to be on a roll. Also during the past 6 months a resistant experimental corn inbred has been proposed for release as 'TAM Mite 1' by Tom Archer (Texas A&M University), Frank Peairs, and John Mihm (CIMMYT). Problems with corn spider mites have been an acute concern in the state, particularly due to their track record of developing resistance to most pesticides.
In what must be one of the all-time best ways to avoid your final exam, Terri Randolph chose to give birth to Christine Marie on September 20, the day scheduled for her seminar and grilling. Christine came in at 6 lbs 3 oz/1-ft 7-in. Smiling is one of her better developed skills to date and she also helps Terri counting - and when available, eating - aphids.
Although it didn't allow them to get out of finals, there were two other births in the Department in late August. Ahmed Mohammed now has a new daughter, Rayan and one day later (!), the wife of Ahmed Al-Jaber gave birth to a son, Abudelah.
(Vibrations emanating from this current wave of fertility may have some long-range effects as well since both of Dick Johnsen's daughters are expecting early next year - which will make him our first Department Grandfather.)
Talk about exquisite timing. Grant DeJong's article, "Insect Cartoons: When Do They Appear in Newspapers and Magazines", appeared in the Fall issue of American Entomologist, just a few week's before the tragic announcement of Gary Larsen's impending retirement. Grant had documented seasonal occurrence of entomology-based cartoons and had commented on the extraordinary contributions of Mr. Larsen. Grant's review was subsequently quoted from by several national commentators discussing the retirement and what it meant - a seminal article!
Unusual ways to get into the news. Through rain, sleet, hail and snow, recent graduate Mike Doyle was headed to Denver last month in his truck, going to a job project involving aquatic insects. The early morning weather was foul, an unusual combination of fog and ice, and a few hot-shot cars managed to shoot by his "vintage" vehicle. A short while later Mike came onto a record Colorado pile-up on I-25, 65 cars, which he barely had managed to avoid. (The speeding cars that passed him were not so lucky.) As a survivor, and all-round good looking guy, Mike was interviewed by the local television media and this was subsequently carried by the network and beamed throughout the country. (Moral: Have a slow truck in bad weather.)
Two new courses are now being offered by the Department, a result of efforts by Dennis Knudson. Molecular Entomology, cross listed with Microbiology, will be offered in alternate years, beginning this spring. This team taught course will "introduce students to the application of meolectular technologies and biotechnologies to traditional entomological topics". Also starting up this spring is EN576, Technical Computing in Molecular Entomology. Dennis will teach this, with Bruce Golden of Animal Sciences, entirely on the network (i.e., no class meetings!). This course will "introduce students to the resources of internet, to technical computing across platforms, and to Unix software tools for molecular analysis".
The Colorado Association of Partners in Education named Nancy DuTeau, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health, Volunteer of the Year for Congressional District 4 for volunteer work at Dunn Elementary School. Nancy was recognized for improving hands-on science and accountability at the school. During the course of this work she managed to bring in a few Department members to talk about bugs including Boris Kondratieff, Whitney Cranshaw and - of course, husband and faculty associate Bill Black.
If it appears that Elaine Roberts has grown recently, that is due to a new bolt job she had done on three of her vertebrae over the summer. The operation was a complete success and she gained valuable experience in understanding insect systems, having to live in an exoskeleton for six weeks.
Elaine continues to work in the Dean's office, one quarter-time now, with responsibilities for student retention and diversity. She is also on the Council of Assistant and Associate Deans and has returned to a full teaching load.
Tom Holtzer was elected to the Governing Board of the Entomological Society of America as the representative of Section C - Biology, Ecology, and Behavior. His term will begin at the close of the ESA Annual Meeting in Dallas this December and run for three years. Tom said he feels honored to have been chosen.
Whitney Cranshaw was contacted in August by the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment to prepare a report on the subject Biologically-based Technologies for Pest Control: Urban and Suburban Environments. Completed in October, this was a review of biologically-based technologies (bio-controls, pheromones, etc.) used to manage arthropods, plant diseases and weeds in urban/suburban settings. In addition to summarizing the current status of this field the report also addressed current limits to its further expansion and suggested policy changes that could accelerate desirable changes in use of these technologies.
September was a real milestone for Tom and Irene Holtzer. They sent their last kid off to college. For reasons Tom and Irene only dimly understand, both kids chose colleges in Minnesota. Abra Holtzer (now a junior) is at Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter and Caleb Holtzer (the freshman) is at Macalester in St. Paul. It has been a real adjustment for Tom and Irene - but they have noticed that they get no sympathy from anyone who still has child restraints in their car.
Visiting Scientist Mohammed Sanusi bin Jangi (Professor of Microbiology at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), joined the Knudson Laboratory in November 1993, and returned to Malaysia last August. Sanusi keeps in touch with the laboratory personnel via email.
John Benedict, an applied ecologist from Texas A&M working with transgenic insect- resistant crops, has been taking up temporary residence while on sabbatical. His time here has been spent teaching, reading, sitting in on courses, and writing publications. He initiated a course, taught in cooperation with CSU faculty, "Use of Transgenic Plants in Agriculture", which has been very well received by students and faculty alike. He has also finished writing and editing a book Use of Vegetable Oils with Agrichemicals, a review of vegetable oils as adjuvants, diluents, and carriers of herbicides, insecticides, antimicrobials, etc. In his spare time he has been learning the art of mountain biking. Although his wife says he really is too old for this, John loves leaving those knobby tire tracks along mountain trails and across prairie dog towns. Before he leaves in December he will be giving a Department seminar on his research, if his students let him survive the semester.
Over the summer, Casey Sclar and Dayna Cooper were able to make some additions to the Collection of Great Excuses for Failed Experiments. One plot, involving honeylocust spider mite, was compromised when a week- long carnival set up in the middle of the site. (Random introductions of cotton candy and the Tilt-a-Whirl rides can wreak havoc on interplot variability!) Later, they managed to lose an entire 60-ft American elm in Denver, although after considerable search they eventually managed to find a small pile of sawdust where the escaped tree had once stood.
During Fair-time several Department members were sucked into participation. Boris Kondratieff was the interview judge for the Entomology/Bees at the 1994 Larimer County Fair, while Dayna Cooper covered Boulder County and Jeff Brase filled in at Weld County. Whitney Cranshaw did State Fair judging in Pueblo where he was pleased to note a decided increase in entomology 4-H entries compared to last year.
Paul Opler and Boris Kondratieff hosted the Fifth Annual meeting of the High Plains Lepidopterists at the University Park Holiday Inn, Fort Collins. Thirty-five people attended this meeting, coming from as far as South Dakota and Nebraska. An open house and identification session was held on October 29 from 8:30-12 noon at the C.P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity. During paper sessions Amy Seidl presented an excellent accounting of the conservation status of Boloria acrocnema. Mike Weissmann was the banquet speaker who spoke on one of his favorite subjects - butterfly houses.
While on vacation in northern Minnesota, Whitney Cranshaw was particularly impressed with the intensity of the mosquitoes he encountered and even developed a new art form- "Mosquito Art". This is achieved by selectively spraying screens with DEET so that the landing mosquitoes form patterns with their bodies. Shortly after returning he was interviewed by a Denver radio station regarding a considerably more modest mosquito problem in Denver. Although providing the basic background on mosquito biology and control his assessment of the situation apparently surfaced as the interviewer signed off with the summary "CSU professor calls us weenies".
Notes From Frank's Corner: Mike Doyle and Scott Armstrong have finally finished all of their requirements for the M.S. and the Ph.D., respectively. Setting a new personal record, I signed their signature pages one hour apart.
Sue Blodgett and Mary Kroening made good on their threats, so Sue is now at Montana State University and Mary is working for the Cadmus Group in Columbia, Missouri. Almost as devastating was the departure of long- time lab grunt Carol Simmons for a masters program with Pedigo and Wintersteen at Iowa State. Sue will be replaced in January by Karl Kinney, currently at the University of Wisconsin. Mary will be replaced, also in January, by Terri Randolph (in spite of Terri's radical efforts to avoid her M.S. exam by having a baby).
Chuck Hawley has returned to CSU after 10 years spent mostly doing mission work in Latin America. He will be working on the expression of resistance in 'Halt', the new Russian wheat aphid resistant variety released in August.
Janice Moore-You are in the Newsletter!
Notes from the Holtzer Lab: Well, the summer was a success for the Holtzer Lab Crew (also known as 'The No Wimps Field Team') - nobody got hit by lightning or bitten by snakes.
On the up side, the aerial sampling for Russian Wheat Aphid was an unparalleled success with RWA being recovered from a number of flights, one at 5K ft! The helicopter got caught in an updraft and the pilot radioed in hoping we didn't mind some high altitude sampling as he had little choice in the matter at the time! Rick (the pilot) thinks that 10K feet above sea level might be some kind of record for the little Hiller helicopter he was flying.
The rest of our field season was also a success, with good sampling weather and high grasshopper populations giving us lots of data. Add to this several great pictograph locations shown to us by Tim Burton, and it can be called a good season overall. - Ian MacRae
Earlier in the season, several Department members were invited to speak to the Rocky Mountain Butterfly Consortium including Boris Kondratieff ("Neat Aquatic Insects"), Whitney Cranshaw ("Life Styles of the Swift and Vicious") and Lou Bjostad ("Insect Chemical Communication").
Lou Bjostad was invited to set up a new Entomology WWW Virtual Library site at http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Entomology/WWWVL-Entomology.html, as part of the Biosciences section of the WWW Virtual Library, which is maintained at Harvard University. The WWW address for the Biosciences WWW Virtual Library is http://golgi.harvard.edu/biophages.html.
Our IPM WWW site is an on-going concern, with the most recent addition being Coop Extension's Pest Alert. We are presently working on getting the Extension CD (or its IPM related pieces anyway) onto the site as well. If you have anything you'd like to submit for inclusion on an IPM WWW site, please contact Ian MacRae, (macraei@bugs.agsci.colostate.edu).
(However, earlier in the summer another contingent of racing roaches met with disaster. Sent to Chaffee County to assist a fund raising project for the local 4-H clubs, they all mysteriously perished during midday (too many corn dogs?) after completing only one of three scheduled races. The Mountain Mail of Salida reported on the disaster under the headline "Oh! Mournful day! Roaches succumb, races canceled" and the 4-H club members held a brief, but tasteful, requiem for the martyred roaches.)
Fund raising activities once again included the ever-popular bake sale, with contributions from Dayna Cooper, Howard Rhodes, Toben LaFrancois, Yuchang (Lily) Li, Meg (we're still waiting for the oreo cookie bar recipe!) Donohue, Hassan Al-Ayedh, Elisa Bernklau, Nina Pokrios, Jeff Brase, Allan Bradbury, Simone Milsapp, and Boris Kondratieff. Considerably more lucrative have been slide sales from the Gillette Entomology Slide Collection. This was recently expanded and scores of catalogs distributed, spurring hundreds of dollars in sales profits. Stay tuned for future fund raising projects including Insect Flash Cards, CD-ROM, and other entomological paraphernalia.
In early November the Club took an evening trip to the Denver Museum of Natural History to get a private tour of Backyard Monsters, a traveling exhibit running from mid-October through early January. Ric Piegler, entomologist for the Museum and Department affiliate, arranged a private tour for the Club, after which they heard a lecture on African (aka "Killer") bees by Dr. Orly Taylor. Stimulated by the exhibit, insects have been big in the news lately, including a two week series of features on "Backyard Insects" run on Channel 4.
The Gillette Club has also been very active in sponsoring a large number of excellent speakers for the fall seminar program. The guests and their seminar topics included:
Dr. Douglas Futuyma, Department of Forest and Environmental Sciences, S.U.N.Y. Stonybrook, "Integrating population biology and evolutionary history: The evolution of host associations in some herbivorous insects" "The unsolved problem of ecological specialization, as illustrated by herbivorous insects".
Dr. Brian Croft, Department of Entomology, Oregon State University, "Assessing roles of species in a predaceous mite complex using life history traits of adults and immatures" ,"Spatial aspects of dispersal of Amblyseius fallacis".
Dr. John Trumble, Department of Entomology, UC Riverside, "Implementing environmentally-friendly pest management practices in large scale commercial agriculture" ,"Opening Pandora's box: Linear furanocoumarins and insect-plant inter actions".
Dr. Edward "Ted" Evans, Department of Biology, Utah State University, "Lady beetles and Utah alfalfa: Implica tions of the arrival of the Seven-spot Ladybird", "Interactions among phytophagous insects in agroecosystems: Linkages through natural enemies".
The chance to informally meet and talk is perhaps the best part of these invited speaker programs. Special thanks are due to Dayna Cooper, Ian MacRae and his wife Colleen MacRae, and Boris Kondratieff for hosting socials for the visitors. Casey Sclar, Hassan Al-Ayedh, Dayna, Boris, and Ian also coordinated local arrangements.
Later, Boris Kondratieff and Mike Kippenhan met up with Al Hook (a legendary former "wild" student of Howard E. Evans now teaching at St. Edwards University) for an awesome nine days of West Texas collecting in late June. Most of the time was spent at a Nature Conservancy property, The Devils River Preserve, which is in a region of West Texas is remarkable for its natural beauty and biodiversity. Approximately, 3,500 specimens of insects were collected, including many sweet tiger beetles and flies. However, Texas in June is not for the weak as every day air temperatures exceeded 1000F - and the air conditioning of the rental vehicle stopped working after the second day!
Recent out-of-state travel by Frank Peairs has included trips to Lubbock, Texas (mite resistance), Indianapolis (ESCOP/ACOP Leadership course), and Kansas City (Farmland Seminar).
Howard Evans, Boris Kondratieff, Chris Dietrick, and Whitney Cranshaw once again made pilgrimage to the entomologically-active southeast corner of the state in July. Evenings spent in distant canyons were spent chasing fireflies and chasing the wily Amblycheila cylindriformis, our largest species of tiger beetle. They highly recommend evening visits to the bathrooms at John Martin Reservoir for finding sun spiders.
Elaine Roberts was in Washington D.C. during the first week of November serving on the Peer Review Panel for the USDA Multicultural Scholars Program.
Several awesome collecting trips were taken to Capitol Reef National Park, Canyon Lands National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah. From June 2-9, Paul Opler, Gene Nelson and Boris Kondratieff collected in these Parks (of course with a Permit!). Toben LaFrancois, always the gracious host, even offered his last precious drinking water and trail mix. All day hikes were taken in the 1100F desert every day and Paul ran light traps well after midnight every night. (During a later visit Hassan Al-Ayedh showed them all of them how it is possible to survive in the desert on a pint of water a day.) So many sweet species were collected that it would take hours of emotional verbiage. During another outstanding trip, Boris, Bill Painter and Toben spent 23-25 September in Capitol Reef National Park collecting at Toben's research sites. Approximately 6,000 insects have been collected this summer from the above Parks.
Tom Holtzer presented an invited symposium paper at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Agronomy in Seattle, 14 November 1994. The symposium dealt with Cropping Systems in the Great Plains. Tom and his co- authors (Randy Anderson, an ARS weed scientist in Akron, CO, Marcia McMullen, a plant pathologist from North Dakota State University, and our own Frank Peairs) were asked to cover Integrated Pest Management in Dryland Systems -- arthropods, weeds, and diseases -- all in 20 minutes. Tom set a new personal record for number of slides in a 20 minute presentation (54), but he is still far short of the Departmental Record held by Whitney Cranshaw (3 carousels/hour). Tom said it was great to have such knowledgeable co-authors, and that he will be pleased if the audience got half as much out of listening to the presentation as he got out of preparing for it. There are plans to publish the symposium contributions in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Production Agriculture.
The week before the Agronomy meetings Tom was also out-state, attending a regional meeting in Chicago on insect dispersal. This combination of meetings resulted in a fairly extended absence. When he finally got back to town his coffee cup had developed a crust of fungus that would challenge control by the best plant pathologists. Elaine Roberts spent two days in Baton Rouge, LA working with Dr. Bobby Phills, Dean of Agriculture and Home Economics at Southern University on collaborative programs.
From the 16-28 August, Boris Kondratieff joined Dr. Richard W. Baumann, Brigham Young University, for a trip to Mexico City and surrounding states of Mexico, Puebla, Hidalgo, and Veracruz for collecting specialized aquatic habits. We were joined for a week by the internationally renowned Heteropterist, Dr. Harry Brailovsky, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. From the spectacular mountain peaks to a city of 20 million people in the middle of a national election made this trip unforgettable!
Lou Bjostad traveled to Corvallis in late September in association with his committee work with WRCC-82, the Committee on Natural Products Chemistry as a Resource for Biorational Methods of Insect Control. While there he made a presentation on "Semiochemicals for insect pest management".
Whitney Cranshaw made two out-of-state meetings this fall. First was a trip to Purdue for NCR-98, his favorite regional meeting which brings together workers on shade tree and turfgrass pests. Returning for classes he then went to Minnesota to speak to the annual conference of Extension horticulturists. Since this was his old stomping grounds he stayed an extra day living with an old friend on a house- boat in the middle of St. Paul. (P.S. Houseboat life in St. Paul proved nothing like you find in a steamy John MacDonald novel.)
At the Chemical Ecology Society meetings in Syracuse, Darryl Jewett presented a paper "Synthetic attractants for western corn rootworm larvae". Apparently the Society is not one to be satisfied with ordinary background elevator music and instead had the poster sessions serenaded by a Pink Floyd concert next door. (Darryl ended up attending both concert and meeting.)
Elisa Bernklau hosted a meeting on biocontrol issues for the Colorado Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey in Palisade, CO in November. This meeting brought together all the workers in the state involved in biological control activities. One of the hits of the meeting was Elisa's use in her presentation of Elaine's projector connected to a portable computer. By the end of the talk, most of the participants were crowded behind her, trying to figure out how she did it.
Barry Beaty reports that the MacArthur Foundation has renewed their five year grant to the Arthropod-borne Infectious Disease Laboratory (AIDL) as a member of the MacArthur Foundation's Vectors of Parasitic Disease Network. The Knudson Laboratory research program receives grant support through this program as an AIDL participant.
A grant of $7,260 to develop a publication on Insects of Dinosaur National Monument was recently awarded to Boris Kondratieff by the National Park Service.
Recent grants received by Whitney Cranshaw included an interdisciplinary grant from the Experiment Station to demonstrate IPM principles on onion and State IPM funds to work in teams to establish programs in vegetable IPM and Nursery/Landscape IPM (two separate grants). He also received an Extension Initiative Grant, with Nancy Zuschlag, to develop a Colorado Reader project on biological control for grades 4-5.
Cranshaw, W.S. and M.G. Klein. 1994. Chapter 45. Microbial Control of Insect Pests of Landscape Plants. In IPM of Turfgrass and Ornamentals. ed. A. Leslie. Lewis Publishing. Boca Raton, FL. pp 503-521.
Cranshaw, W.S. 1994. Chapter 20. Use of Attractants in Control of Insect Pests of Landscape Plants. In IPM of Turfgrass and Ornamentals. ed. A. Leslie. Lewis Pub lishing. Boca Raton, FL. pp 337-346.
Cranshaw, W.S. 1994. Natural Pesticides. in Natural Insect Control. ed. Warren Schultz. Brooklyn Botanic Garden Handbook No. 139. Brooklyn, NY. pp. 95-103.
Cranshaw, W.S. and L.G. Skoglund. 1994. Pest Management for Colorado Gardeners. In Successful Gardening for Colorado. ed. Carl Anderson. Denver Post Lawn & Garden Section publication. pp. 154-173.
Cranshaw, W.S. 1994. Grasshoppers. Na tional Gardening. 17(5): 60-63. (with a feature photograph by John Capinera!)
Durfee, R. and B.C. Kondratieff. 1994. New additions to the inventory of Colorado may flies (Ephemeroptera). Entomol. News 105: 222-227.
Eckberg, T.B. and W.S. Cranshaw. 1994. Larval biology and control of the rabbitbrush beetle, Trirhabda nitidicollis (LeConte) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). Southwestern Entomol. 19(3): 249-256.
Kippenhan, M.G. 1994. The tiger beetles (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) of Colorado. Trans. Amer. Entomol. Soc. 120: 1-86.
Kondratieff, B.C. and R. Durfee. 1994. A new species of Paraleptophlebia from Tennessee (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae). Entomol. News 105: 259-261.
Kondratieff, B.C. 1994. Book Review: Trichoptera of the Levant Imag ines . Fauna Palaesti na. L. Botsaneau. Ann. Entomo l. Soc. Ame r. 87: 978 .
Kroening, M.K., R. Hammon, S. Armstrong, F. Peairs, and J. Quick. 1994. Economic impact of Russian wheat aphid on resistant and susceptible wheats in Colorado. Pp. 143 - 8 in F. Peairs, M. Kroening, and C. Simmons, compilers. Proceedings 6th Russian Wheat Aphid Workshop, Fort Collins, CO. January 23 - 25, 1994.
Kroening, M.K. and F.B. Peairs. 1994. Economic impact of the Russian wheat aphid on susceptible and resistant varieties in Colorado. Pp. 156 - 158. In Bohmont, B. ed. Proceedings 23rd Annual Colorado Crop Protection Institute, 4 - 5 Nov. 1993. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. 191 pp.
Peairs, F.B. 1994. Western corn rootworm adult management and pollinator protection. Pp. 152 - 155. In Bohmont, B. ed. Pro ceedings 23rd Annual Colorado Crop Pro tection Institute, 4 - 5 Nov. 1993. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. 191 pp.
Randolph, T., T. Holtzer, F. Peairs and J. Quick. 1994. Tritrophic relationships: A comparison of TAM 107 and CORWA1 winter wheat varieties with Russian wheat aphid and Hippodamia variegata. Pp. 238 - 241 in F. Peairs, M. Kroening, C. Simmons, compilers. Proceedings 6th Russian Wheat Aphid Workshop, Fort Collins, CO. January 23 - 25, 1994.
Walker, C. and F. B. Peairs. 1994. Cultural control of Russian wheat aphid. Pp. 42 - 51 in, F. Peairs, M. Kroening, and C. Simmons, compilers. Proceedings 6th Russian Wheat Aphid Workshop, Fort Collins, CO. January 23 - 25, 1994.
Boris Kondratieff invitations have included talks on forensic entomology to the 1994 Colorado's Coroner's Training Conference (held in Colorado Springs) and at the Elderhostel at Colorado State University during the summer. Aquatic insects were featured during presentations to the American Fisheries Society and a few months later to the American Water Resource Association at Colorado State University. Both Boris and Whitney (along with recently-returned-local-boy-turned- entomologist Frank Stonaker) have also helped provide training for the newly developed Master Naturalists Program produced by the Natural Resources Division of the City of Ft. Collins.
Two graduate students, Amy Seidl and Toben LaFrancois, presented talks at a Symposium entitled "Ecological Research at CSU and the Conservation of Biological Diversity", sponsored by the several Departments and organizations on campus October 28.
Gene Nelson, Rick Zimmerman, Boris Kondratieff, and Chris Dietrick all helped out with the 4-H Natural Resources Camp, organized by Lance and Barbara Earley in Montrose. This annual meeting appears to be having definite effects of further stimulating 4- H interest in entomology as local chapters on the West Slope are always at or near the top during the State Fair.
Boris Kondratieff taught a Division of Continuing Education course from 11 July to 14 July entitled "Creepy Crawlies!" Introducing the Interesting World of Insects and Related Arthropods. This class was designed for Grades 4-6. And demand continues to increase for more insect stuff among the Elementary school set. Boris alone has given 11 presentations to local school groups on insects and other arthropods since August. Approximately 300 children have held Rosie (our Tarantula) and Big Mack (our whip scorpion) in the last several months. Allan Bradbury, Howard Rhodes, Dayna Cooper, Whitney Cranshaw and long- time Department friend Linda Jefferies have also provided over a dozen recent out-reach programs to schools. Additionally, Boris was asked to present a two-hour program during prime time (Halloween day!) - on insects and spiders for the Discovery Center, a hands-on science and technology museum in Fort Collins. A universal comment by teachers regarding these programs has been: "Thank you for sharing your joy and enthusiasm with our kids."
Richard Durfee has completely curated our dytiscid beetles, adding numerous new records from the San Luis Valley. Charles Cole, from Texas A&M, visited during midsummer and revised much of our thrips collection. In addition, during his brief visit he took a collecting trip during which he discovered numerous new state records and provided samples of all for the Museum. Chris Dietrick, a post- doctoral fellow working with Bill Black and all-round membracid expert began curating the material for these taxa. Chris also had a chance to do some collecting of his favorite group including a memorable trip to the West Slope where treehoppers abound in the scrub oak. Entomology Associates Bob Parks, Terhune Dickel, Richard Beal, and Charles Slater all made visits to the Collection, adding numerous specimens and curating large sections related to taxa of their interests. Predictably, Paul Opler continues to collect and catalog the Lepidoptera mounting a "mountain" of boxes in the past months. For example our Noctuidae collection alone now contains over 800 species filling 85 Cornell drawers. Helping in a big way to keep on top of all this activity, Elisa Bernklau has spent a lot of time in preparing specimen labels. She is a 1 billion on a scale of 1 to 10.
The following donations were received by the Museum in the past months: From Don Baumann, 60 rare species of Lepidoptera, all new to the Collection; from James K. Adams, 67 uncommon species of Lepidoptera; and from Dan Heffern, 1025 specimens of very nice Coleoptera.
The Museum has also been enlivened with the move into it of Fran Lechleitner. Fran is a retired former member of the Department of Biology, perhaps best known as "Ms. Termite" due to her life-long studies of subterranean termites. Fran can be found several days a week working away at her desk in the midst of the Museum.
And, in perhaps the most significant recent acquisition (aside from Fran), Boris Kondratieff and Paul Opler purchased (for $5000 - with personal funds!) the outstanding Stephen Stone collection of silk moths, including most western North American species. This unique collection adds 1500 specimens, including many rare species.
In a related development, the Colorado Heritage Program of the Nature Conservancy has located on campus. Chris Pague, Director, is now depositing insect specimens in the C.P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity and there appear to be numerous opportunities where our Department can productively work closely with this organization in the future.
Rich Durfee and Mike Kippenhan were formally recognized as Museum Associates at the November 29, 1994, Faculty Meeting.
Bruce Winder, 1989 graduate of Entomology, is now working on dinitrobenzene toxicity in the Department of Environmental Toxicology at UC Davis.
Amy Siedl will be working for Tree Top Explorations, Inc. (TTE) as research coordinator and guide/naturalist. TTE is a non-profit organization which builds platforms in tropical rainforest canopies of Costa Rica (in particular near Corcovado National Park). The platforms are used for scientific research education and ecotourism. Anyone interested in visiting or conducting research at TTE should contact Amy at (303) 498-0122 before December 10.
Adios!
