Volume 12, Issue 1
Tom Holtzer, Head, Department of Entomology and Interim Head, Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Science
In the last newsletter, we announced that the Department of Entomology and Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Science had embarked on a plan to merge into a single administrative unit. Since then, we have made a great deal of progress toward implementing that decision. Our merger has been approved by the College of Agricultural Sciences and the University Faculty Council, and it has been sent on for final approval by the university governing board.
In the request we sent forward through university channels, besides addressing the merger itself, we proposed the name of the new unit as the Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management. We also proposed (with the Dean's support and encouragement) the transfer of the interdisciplinary, undergraduate Bioagricultural Sciences Major from the Dean's office into our new Department. The Bioagricultural Sciences Major has four concentrations: entomology, plant pathology, crop protection, and agricultural biotechnology. We are committed to reinvigorating this undergraduate program and to expand it to include other interdisciplinary foci.
As I moved around the hallways at the ESA National Meeting in Las Vegas, a number of people came up to me to convey some sense of loss about our restructuring. I suppose this reflects a normal response to change. I must admit I also was quite negative to this particular change when it first surfaced, several years ago. However, the sense of loss that was expressed also seemed to stem from equating two issues that I believe are quite distinct: the strength and vitality of entomology as a discipline and the existence of academic departments of entomology.
Certainly, we live in a time when our country is questioning its commitments to many institutions that profoundly affect the well-being of entomology -- higher education, science and agriculture -- to name a few. All of us would do well to become more involved in efforts to shore up national, state and local commitment to these values. Entomology will benefit from efforts to bring about such changes. However, I do not agree that the strength of entomology rests on our ability to preserve existing university administrative structures.
"Transitions" was the theme president Eldon Ortman selected for the Las Vegas ESA meeting. While entomology at Colorado State is in transition, it is a transition that I fully expect to lead to strengthening of the discipline at our institution. We are reorganizing the administrative structure of our College in a way that I believe will enable our new unit to have a far greater presence within the CSU system than the component parts ever could have had as separate departments.
Rest assured, we will continue our long and proud tradition, fulfilling the Land Grant mission of excellence in entomological teaching, research and extension. We will continue to graduate students pursuing B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees who will be able to clearly identify themselves as entomologists. The Department will always be "home" to all our entomological alumni -and all our colleagues and friends will be very welcomed to visit and participate in the science of Entomology at Colorado State.
However, we also are looking forward to the synergism and excitement that will occur as we strengthen our collaborations with our new departmental colleagues who are plant pathologists and weed scientists. Together we have identified three, broad interdisciplinary areas which will become departmental areas of emphasis in our teaching, research, and outreach. These programs of emphasis are: Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Ecology and Biodiversity, and Integrated Pest Management. The united department already has significant strength in these program areas, and we anticipate enhancing all three in the near future.
Does entomology continue to need departments of "Entomology" in universities across the country? It may; and certainly in some universities preserving the departments of entomology may provide the best administrative structure for many years into the future. But entomology may also thrive in different administrative structures. As a model, consider the discipline of ecology which has thrived despite there being few departments of ecology in our universities.
At Colorado State, we have chosen a future that emphasizes development of strong linkages across the disciplinary boundaries that have divided academia for too many years. The new department embraces the opportunities that this will provide.
I believe the future we have chosen is bright and exciting. Clearly, it is not a future for the faint hearted -- but what future worth having is?
Department Bachelor Marries! A highlight of the year was the October wedding of Boris Kondratieff and Nancy Lorenzon. Nancy, a post-doc in the Anatomy and Neurobiology Department met Boris at the gym (what a 90s kind of date!). Nancy also is mother of a wonderful 4-year old daughter, Rachael, which brings Boris the novel experience of instant fatherhood as well. Although the loss of the formerly eligible Department hunk may be mourned by some, it may be some solace that Sylvester Stallone and Brad Pitt are still available.
Boris more recently also received some other good news his promotion to Full Professor has been accepted by the Provost and is being forwarded to the Board of Agriculture for final approval. Although his promotion was no surprise to all who appreciate his hard work and amazing productivity, it is nice to have this official acknowledgement. (And maybe some extra $$ to support his new family??)
The Cover Guy. What is that knockout image gracing the March cover of Parasitology Today? Why it's a repeating pattern of Aedes aegypti with its metaphase chromosomes created by Dennis Knudson, accompanying an article that he, Susan Brown, and Martin Ferguson published in the journal. Dennis also created the February cover for Insect Molecular Biology, a FISH digital image of Aedes aegypti, which relates to recently published work that he, Susan, Barry Beaty and other colleagues collaborated. This cover will be used in future issues of the magazine as well.
Lou Bjostad became the first repeat winner of the College of Agriculture/NACTA Award for Meritorious Teaching. This award is directed towards faculty that show particular innovation in teaching something that very well describes Lou's approach to the classroom on and off campus. Lou had earlier received this award in 1988, a few years after he came on board at CSU.
Once again the Gillette Entomology Club stunned the crowds of the Homecoming Parade, winning its traditional first place in the novelty division. This year's theme, "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" (based on the 125th Anniversary of the University) was interpreted originally by the members of the Club (the oldest student club on the campus). The paleodictyopteran (Paleoaaronus spriggius), inspiringly played by Aaron Spriggs, was a highlight representative of historical insects. An insect of the future (Matt Malick) featured a cockroach dressed for work at the office, complete with briefcases. Caterpillars, cockroaches and butterflies (Sara Simonson, Phyllis Pineda, Carol Gibson, Mia Peters), and a few microarthropods (Bill Cranshaw, Rachael Shaw) filled out the rabble. The Precision Sweep Net Team (Toben LaFrancois, Casey Sclar, Boris Kondratieff, Lou Bjostad, Ron Weeks) was unusually animated and even, on occasion, somewhat synchronized. The float consisted of conversion of Whitney Cranshaw's old Ranger (1984-1996) into a lady beetle, with moving legs powered by Jason Bishop. Being a concept developed by committee, the cruising lady beetle also was transfixed with a giant insect pin, giving it an interesting, if somewhat gruesome, effect.
The World-Wide Web sites developed and nurtured by members of the Department continue to attract favorable attention. In late January the professional editorial team of the McKinley Group awarded the "4-Star" rating to both the site maintained by Lou Bjostad and to the one maintained by Martin Ferguson and Dennis Knudson. This is the highest rating that an Internet site can achieve in Magellan, McKinley's comprehensive Internet directory of over 1.5 million sites and 40,000 reviews.
For those of you who have still not checked out the entomology site run by Lou it is at:
http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Entomology/ent.html
and for those who want to investigate the Mosquito Genomics WWW server it can be reached via Mosaic, or any other WWW browser, at:
http://klab.agsci.colostate.edu
(On a more limited and substantially less flashy electronic communications note, Whitney Cranshaw and Casey Sclar have established an email discussion group PestTalk. This is a discussion group dedicated to pest issues and plant health concerns related to horticultural crops/plants in Colorado trees, turfgrass, vegetables, flowers, etc. Things began getting starting up in midApril and any one in the state who might want to offer observations about state insects is invited to join. Just drop an email note to: wcransha@ceres.agsci.colostate.edu)
In the March 24 Insight section of the Ft. Collins Coloradoan the publisher wrote a commentary "Living Legends Act as Role Models". Included in this "top ten list of local female living legends who have made a positive difference in our world" Mary Alice Evans.
Dennis Knudson deserves a big round of applause for his success in writing a grant that was used to purchase a scanner for color photos, which he has installed in the shared lab for the entire Department to use. Any Department member who wishes to convert a photo into an electronic format (such as TIFF, JPEG, etc.) can use this valuable new resource.
A major grant ($99,319) was received by Dennis Knudson to support his work with the Aedes aegypti Genomics Database. This funding was received from the The MacArthur Foundation and runs through 1998.
Department Sports Fan #1, Elaine Roberts, was again on the bench, this time guest coaching the men's football team. (This is a real honor. This honorary position is not announced in any way and the football team is not even informed.) For reasons that remain inexplicable, the team (which ultimately went on to win the WAC) failed to win this one, despite Elaine's efforts. Elaine is now 02 on the guest coach circuit, but at least avoided having opposing players fall into her lap as occurred during her first coaching job, with the women's basketball team last season.
The annual WRCC-66 (Biology and management of cereal aphids) meeting was held in Fort Collins on January 25 and 26. Frank Peairs was in charge of local arrangements (but Terri Randolph did all of the work). There were about 28 participants representing 10 states and 1 foreign country (South Africa). Major discussion topics included biological control, host plant resistance, aphid biotypes, and aphid management. A good time was had by one and all to the point that the group voted for Fort Collins as the site for next year's meeting.
In the last newsletter we reported Tom Holtzer had set a new department record for most number of Co-PI s (29) on a single grant. Amazingly, this proposal received funding from the USDA/CSREES/Western Regional IPM Special Research Grants program, and lead to a two day conference held in Fort Collins this January. The conference theme was IPM in Dryland Cropping Systems. A proceedings is being prepared (Warning: Tom is on the prowl for reviewers for the various chapters).
Bagging Big Bugs, the book written by Whitney Cranshaw and Boris Kondratieff and released last spring, received a nice recognition from the Young Entomologists Society. It was given the "Y.E.S. Award of Excellence" (along with A Look Inside Spiders and Scorpions) as "one of the World's Best Books on Minibeasts". This was only the 14th book to have received this award since it was first established in 1992.
And Paul Opler has helped write and produce an excellent videotape the Audobon Society's Butterflies for Beginners. The tape runs about one hour and has great footage of butterflies in various stages of development as well as an extensive section on the distribution and biology of 32 of some of the more common and wide-ranging species found in North America. (ISBN 1-55919-201-1)
After a year as program chair for Sigma Xi, Elaine Roberts was elected to vice chair for 1996.
Elisa Bernklau and Ron Weeks were both second place winners (and thus $70 richer) for the oral presentations they made at the Graduate Student Symposium on Ecological Research at CSU. Ron was entered in the Landscapes section, presenting How does microlandscape structure affect grounddwelling spider (Arachnida: Aranae) community organization on shortgrass steppe?: An experimental approach. Elisa addressed the Individuals and Populations session, presenting a paper Responses of first-instar western corn rootworm larvae to corn volatiles in a glass bead bioassay.
Colorado likely will soon join the ranks of the majority of states with formal recognition of a state insect. In this case it will be the Colorado Hairstreak, a native butterfly, largely restricted in range to the state, that develops on oakbrush. There is little disagreement among entomologists that this choice for a state insect would propel Colorado to the #1 position among state insects in the US. (Almost all states that have addressed this issue have defaulted to mundane choices such as the "ladybug" or honeybee.)
This effort has been propelled by fourth-graders throughout the state, coordinated by the unflagging efforts of Melinda Terry and the students at Wheeling Elementary in Aurora. After years of development the bill finally made its way to the State House, via the Senate Agriculture Committee, late January.
Although the bill to confirm the Colorado Hairstreak as the State Insect has been long developed, things got interesting with a last minute challenge to substitute the honeybee. This was largely promoted by a former Republican gubernatorial and State Treasurer candidate, who also happened to be on very good terms with the head of the committee overseeing the bill. At this very last point it became a debate whether the honeybee or the Colorado Hairstreak would be the state insect. (But interestingly, not whether there should be a state insect.) During this first hearing the elementary students made the day, giving a series of solid presentations on the appropriateness of the Colorado Hairstreak as a State symbol and providing an exemplary exercise in civic involvement. A few Department associates were also involved. Mike Weissmann was the first to speak on the merits of the Colorado Hairstreak as a state insect. He was followed by (a very nervous) Whitney Cranshaw who stammered out arguments on why the honeybee was inappropropriate. Paul Opler helped to conclude the meeting with slides and discussion about the insect. Paul had been the individual who originally pointed out the appropriateness of the Colorado Hairstreak as a state symbol.
The bill was amended in committee to recommend the Colorado Hairstreak as the State Butterfly, rather than the state insect. This decision was reversed when the bill hit the Senate floor, which reinserted the State Insect designation.
Late Breaking Flash! Governor Roy Romer yesterday (April 18) signed the bill making the Colorado Hairstreak the official state insect of Colorado!
A number of students have recently finished their studies at the Department and have moved on:
Francine Magloire finished her MS, titled Integrated Pest Management in Apple Orchard Systems in Western Colorado. Francine is now working as a Research Scientist in her native Belize. Rick Zimmerman and Boris Kondratieff helped advise Francine while she was at CSU.
The Saudi contingent of the Department shrank a bit with the successful graduation of two Ph.D. candidates. Azzam Al-Ahmed completed his dissertation, Effect and interaction of predation: Intra and interspecific competition on the population dynamics of container-breeding Aedes (Advisors: Chet Moore, Boris Kondratieff). Saleh Al-Dosari ("Dr. Thrips") defended his research, Development of an IPM system for onion thrips (Thrips tabaci Lindeman) as a pest of bulb onions (Advisor: Whitney Cranshaw). Both Azzam and Saleh have returned home where they will be on the faculty in the Department of Plant Protection at King Saud University.
Marc Dolan completed his MS (Ecological and biological dynamics of Ixodid tick and Borrelia burgdorferi interactions) (Advisor: Joe Piesman) and was able to produce three publications by the time it came to defend his research last fall. Marc continues to work at the foothills campus of the Centers for Disease Control.
Biology and ecology of desert rock pools, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah was the M.S. thesis of Toben LaFrancois (Advisors: Jill Baron and Boris Kondratieff). Toben continues to work for the National Biological Service, and works at a local microbrewery on the side.
Dayna (Scale Queen) Cooper completed her M.S. Thesis, Urban conifer scale pests of the northeastern Front Range (Advisor: Whitney Cranshaw). Dayna is currently working with Bill Brown on projects related to the IPM program.
Meg Donohue successfully defended her thesis in December, "Influence of croppings system on the establishment of natural enemies of the Russian wheat aphid". (Advisor: Frank Peairs). Meg is polishing off the manuscript and plans to pursue a career as a physician's assistant.
Several new faces have also showed up around the building:
A number of new faces are around the Knudson Laboratory these days. Since last September Matt Lorenz and Lee Anne Kempton, both Juniors from Biology, Shaun Deeney, a Wildlife Biology Freshman, and John Harris, a Senior in Computer Science have been hard at work in the lab. Working with the team is Susan Wood, a new Research Associate, who joined in December. Susan replaces Ann Hochworter (nee Hamilton), who married last August and left in November to work as a landscape manager.
Nehad Ali-Barkey is a new Ph.D. candidate from the Zagazig University of Cairo. Nehad is working with Dennis Knudson on projects related to chromosomal evolution in mosquitoes.
Kelly Miller is a new MS student working with Boris Kondratieff. Kelly will be working on a revision of the dytiscid Liodessus affinis complex. Two students have joined Whitney Cranshaw's lab. Jason Bishop, a recent CSU grad, will be taking over a project involving the biology and management of dusky sap beetle, a pest of West Slope sweet corn. Dan Gerace, recently graduated from the University of Colorado (but we won't hold that against him) will be working on projects related to greenhouse and bedding plant pest problems.
Jianguo Fan who completed his Ph.D. program in 1994 with Elaine Roberts has returned after spending a year in "gloomy" Seattle. Fan is currently a postdoctoral associate with Rajinder Ranu in the Plant Pathology component of the department.
There has also been a great number of deeply felt tragedies these past few months, as several muchloved members of the Department have passed away:
"Lily" Yuchang Li died March 2 after a long and heroic fight with cancer. Lily was a graduate student in Elaine's lab, who had worked at CSU on a great many projects, most recently hormonal effects on Russian wheat aphid sex determination and migration. Lily's warmth and smile will always be very fondly remembered by those of us who were lucky to have known her.
Bob Simpson, an emeritus professor who, with his wife Annabelle, kept up a very active life since his retirement, died in December. Bob's long entomology career spanned a wide range of subjects, from biological control to beekeeping, and he left a legacy of grateful and productive students. In recent years Bob has been particularly active in beekeeping, both through contributions to the local industry and his regular presence at local Farmer's Markets.
And then last October Karl Kinney died, very unexpectedly. Karl had only recently moved to Colorado, arriving a year ago with his wife, Lynne Rieske. Karl had been hired as the entomology associate working with Frank Peairs on research and Extension projects. During that time Karl had become a very well liked and respected member of the Department, his easy going manner and sense of humor enjoyed by all. Karl also became a father for the first time while at Colorado State, his daughter being born in July.
An "Ag in the Classroom/Colorado Reader" entitled Insects and Spiders Helping Humans written and produced by Whitney Cranshaw and Gayla Horvath was recently released. This was an 8 page publication (with an accompanying teacher's guide) that is being distributed to 75,000 4th and 5th graders around the state. (If you want a copy, give Whitney a call.)
In late January Boris Kondratieff was an invited speaker to the 22nd Annual Carolinas Area Benthological Workshop, where he discussed the stoneflies of North and South Carolina. Not one to miss a collecting opportunity, he and Ralph Kirchner then hit the streams for several days searching for winter stoneflies.
The Discovery Program, a summer internship program to increase multicultural understanding and to prepare multicultural students for careers in agriculture, was funded for two more years by USDA Higher Education Programs. Elaine Roberts will continue to coordinate the program and mentor former interns when they become graduate students at Colorado State.
Paul A. Opler helped host the Sixth Annual meeting of the High Plains Lepidopterists at the University of Colorado. Boris Kondratieff was involved in the organization of the 9th Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology, held on campus during early June.
Richard Johnsen was the Entomology representative at the College's "Opportunity Days" for High School students as well as for the 1995 "Agricultural Career Fair" at Lory Student Center. Dick also coordinated the United Way Campaign for the Departments of Entomology and Plant Pathology & Weed Science, which was very successful and managed to exceed its goal.
Late Fall and Winter was once again the busiest season for Whitney Cranshaw. During this time he has had to address a steady series of meetings to Master Gardener, nursery, arborist, turf care, and potato and onion grower groups. Often putting his talks together at the last moment, he was particularly tested when he accidentally dumped his entire carousel of 70 slides on the floor 10 minutes before he had to speak at the Rocky Mountain Turfgrass Conference in December. He made it to the talk with about 2 seconds to spare and every slide was in correctly.
Last July 29th, Tom and Irene Holtzer hosted the first ever joint summer picnic of the Department of Entomology and the Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Science. Highlights included the volleyball game and the corn brought in special (thanks to Bob Hammon) from the West Slope. With all the cool wet weather, no corn could be found till later in August near Fort Collins!
Boris Kondratieff was again asked to work with a very wide group of audiences. During July he participated in a workshop entitled "Islands in the Clouds: A Workshop in Alpine Ecology" and over the summer he assisted with the Fort Collins Library Summer Reading Program. He and Scott Hoffman assisted with the Fort Collins Children's Water Festival in May. During October, Trout Unlimited of Boulder asked him to speak on "Mountain Stream Insects of Colorado". Since then he has been giving additional workshops this past winter to angler audiences regarding the taxonomy of Colorado trout stream insects.
A very good time was had by all at the Annual Christmas party. Once again this was graciously hosted by Richard and Esther Johnsen.
As county and state fairs rolled around during summer, Boris Kondratieff (Larimer County) and Dayna Cooper (Boulder County) helped out. At the State Fair, judged by Frank Schweissing and Whitney Cranshaw quality was again exceptional, with some of the younger participants taking top honors.
Efforts of the Knudson lab continue to show up across the country. Dennis Knudson was an invited participant to the MacArthur Foundation Network on the Biology of Parasite Vectors held June 15-18 at the Inverness Conference Center in Englewood CO. Two months later he spoke at the Thirtieth Joint Conference on Parasitic Diseases/USJapan Cooperative Medical Program held in Cleveland, OH. The subject of both conferences involved Aedes aegypti genomics which he has conducted with Susan Brown and Martin Ferguson. Last January, Nora Lapitan of Soil and Crop Science gave a presentation "Gene Organization in Barley", that was co-authored with Dennis and Susan.
Several collecting expeditions punctuated the season. One particularly memorable trip was to the Canyon Lands National Monument in July, involving Paul Opler, Eve Buckner, David Leatherman, Lou Bjostad, Bill Painter, Boris Kondratieff and Gene Nelson. The trip started off a bit rough with an unplanned vehicle breakdown on I25 near Eagle. While arranging for replacement vehicles, Paul, Eve and Dave collected many sweet insects for several hours on the roadside, getting many "interesting" looks from passing cars. Even the State Police did not stop to help, probably because everyone looked so happy with all the insects! The team had to spend the night in Grand Junction. However, light trapping in Big Wash resulted in several new Colorado state records including the owlfly Ululodes arizonensis Banks.
Perhaps pressed a bit too close to Christmas, a somewhat thinner group trouped off to the National Meetings, held December 17-20 in Las Vegas. However, together with Biology, the Department helped start festivities along early in the week by hosting a CSU breakfast on the 18th with over 20 in attendance. The success of this first one ever is likely the start of a tradition.
Presentations made by entomologists throughout the University included (presenter's name in bold):
Al-dosari, S.A. and W.S. Cranshaw. Seasonal shifts in insecticide resistance among Thrips tabaci in field populations
Bernklau, E.J. and L.B. Bjostad. A glass bead bioassay for responses of neonate western corn rootworms to corn semiochemicals.
Bjostad, L.B. and E.J. Bernklau. Chemical characterization of corn semiochemicals for western corn rootworm larvae.
Black, B. Applications of single strand conformation analysis in population genetics, taxonomy and intensive mapping of insect genomes
Bradbury, A.F., K.K. Kinney and F.B. Peairs. Effects of sucrose spray for biological control of alfalfa weevil.
Brase, J. and F.B. Peairs. Evaluation of insecticidal control of adult western corn rootworm by means of egg recovery.
McIntyre, J.A., W.S. Cranshaw, and D.A. Hopper. Managing thrips migration into greenhouses with reflective surfaces.
Nelson, E.E. and W.S. Cranshaw. Dusky sap beetle as a pest of western Colorado sweet corn.
Nunamaker, R.A., S.E. Brown and D.L. Knudson. Physical mapping of complex traits in an arthropod vector of animal diseases: Culicoides variipennis and the bluetongue viruses.
Randolph, T.L., M.K. Kroening and F.B. Peairs. Augmentative releases of commercial biological control agents for control of Russian wheat aphid.
Rieske, L.K. and K.F. Raffa. Effects of thrips-induced bud injury on subsequent micronutrients and influence on gypsy moth success.
Sclar, D.C. and W.S. Cranshaw. Seasonal biology and management of honeylocust spider mite in Colorado.
A particularly big splash at the meeting were several presentations by current and former Department members involving the World Wide Web. In the informal conference "World Wide Web: Introduction to Pest Management on the Information Superhighway", Lou Bjostad gave an invited presentation The World Wide Web What's Out There?. A second conference, organized by Ian MacRae, "Providing Pest Management Information on the World Wide Web" included presentations by both Lou (Setting up World Wide Web Sites: A case history) and Ian (Existing and planned sites: What is and may be). Mark Carter, now working with a North Carolina company developing WWW sites, also was deeply involved, giving talks at both conferences.
Another highlight was the receipt by Lynne Rieske of the John Henry Comstock Award for outstanding Ph.D. research. This was based on her work at the University of Wisconsin with thrips feeding on host plant chemistry and subsequent effects on gypsy moth.
Meanwhile, back at the casino, Elisa Bernklau amazed everyone at lunch the last day in Vegas with a highly detailed discourse on the fine science of shooting craps. (Although she was unable to successfully transfer her expertise to Terri Randolph). A Vegas regular with her husband Randy, she knows all the points and percentages from snake-eyes to boxcars. Elisa wouldn't say how she did at the tables, but was later overheard whispering to a croupier, "Would you please put that in new $1,000 bills, a hundred to a package?" (On a related note, Matt Carroll, now at Montana, was also seen winning $100 at blackjack during the meeting.)
Mary Kroening writes that she recently accepted a position working with the wheat breeding program in the Agronomy Department at the University of Missouri. Initially her responsibilities will be implementing the variety testing program for soft red winter wheat, greenhouse and field variety crossing, and identifying the presence/absence of rye chromosomes in wheat varieties. Mary indicates she is enjoying her new challenge of learning to think like an agronomist.
Michael Weissmann reports that over 105,000 people had visited the Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center by January 1, only 5 and 1/2 months after it opened in July. The facility has gotten rave reviews in local press and in short order established itself as a major draw in the Denver area. Bookings for school groups for the entire year were filled by last fall. Mike has also been working with Gary Dunn of the Young Entomologist's Society to set up a site on the World Wide Web for K-12 entomology education. They can be reached at their home page address of: www.tesser.com/minibeast Wendy Meyer has headed "up north" (to Gainesville from Homestead) to pursue graduate work at the University of Florida. For the past couple of years Wendy has been working in southern Florida and Guatemala on studies involving fruit flies.
Our newest faculty affiliate, John Polhemus has been making great contributions to the Museum. He has donated several reprints to the reference collection and assists with the aquatic Heteroptera. John also arranged a very sizable donation of specimens from the collections of the late C. McKinnon.
As usual, Howard Evans, Dave Leatherman, Richard Durfee, Scott Fitzgerald and Paul Opler have been adding thousands of quality specimens to the C.P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity. The collection has grown to 1.3 million specimens, with a large majority of the specimens identified to species. Two new cabinets were recently added (on personal funds of Boris) and were quickly filled.
Entomology Associates Terhune Dickel, Richard Beal, and Charles Slater have added many specimens and curated large sections of the collection. Paul Opler has collected and mounted a "mountain" of boxes including some 9,801 Lepidoptera and 2,804 "other" insects. Dan Heffern has also donated thousands of "sweet" beetles. And Dave Leatherman almost single handedly kept Howard busy identifying wasps all summer and fall, including many new state records, particularly among the Ichneumonidae.
Al-dosari, S.A., W.S. Cranshaw and F.C. Schweissing. 1996. Effects on control of onion thrips from co-application of onion pesticides. Southwestern Entomol. 21(1) 49-54.
Armstrong, J.S., S.D. Pilcher, and B.C. Kondratieff. 1995. Two chloropid flies (Diptera: Chloropidae) infesting proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) in northeastern Colorado. J. Kansas Entomol. Soc. 68: 478-480.
Bjostad, L.B., Jewett, D.K., Brigham, D.L. 1996. Sex pheromone of the caddisfly Hesperophylax occidentalis.(Banks)(Trichoptera: Limnephilidae). J. Chem. Ecol. 22: 103-122.
Breed, M.D., Page, R.E., Hibbard, B.E., Bjostad, L.B. 1995. Interfamily variation in comb wax hydrocarbons produced by honey bees. J. Chem. Ecol. 21: 1329-1338.
Breed, M.D., Garry, M.F., Pearce, A.N., Hibbard, B.E., Bjostad, L.B., Page, R.E. 1995. The role of comb wax in honey bee nestmate: genetic effects on comb discrimination, acquisition of comb cues by bees, and passage of cues to individuals. Animal Behaviour 50:489-496.
Vaughn, T.T., Antolin, M.F., Bjostad, L.B. 1995. Behavioral and physiological responses of Diaeretiella rapae to semiochemicals in its environment. Entomologia experimentalis et applicata 78: 187-196.
Jewett, D.K., Brigham, D.L., Bjostad, L.B. 1996. Hesperophylax occidentalis (Banks)(Trichoptera: Limnephilidae) sex pheromone structure-activity study with electroantennograms. J. Chem. Ecol. 22: 123-138.
Brown, S.E. and D.L. Knudson. 1995. Colitvirus Infections. pp. 329-342. in Exotic Viral Infections. ed. J.S. Porterfield. Kass Handbook of Infectious Diseases. Series eds. J. Sanford, D. Tyrell and T. Weller. Chap 17. Chapman and Hall Medical. London.
Brown, S.E., J. Menniger, M. Difillipantonio, B.J. Beaty, D.C Ward and D.L. Knudson. 1995. Toward a physical map of Aedes aegyptii. Insect Molecular Biol. 4: 161-167.
Cranshaw, W.S., D.C. Sclar and D. Cooper. 1996. A review of 1994 pricing and marketing by suppliers of organisms for biological control of arthropods in the United States. Biological Control 6: 291-296.
Cranshaw, W.S. and J.A. Reinert. 1995. Clover and Other Non-eriophyid Mites. pp. 42-46. in Handbook of Turfgrass Insect Pests. eds. R.L. Brandenburg and M.G. Villani. Entomological Society of America. Lanham, MD. 140 pp.
Cranshaw, W.S., C. Welty and R. Bessin. 1995. Chapter 7. Peppers and Eggplant. in Vegetable Insect Management; with Emphasis on the Midwest. ed. R. Foster and B. Flood. Meister Publishing Co. Willoughby, Ohio. 206 pp.
Cranshaw, W.S. 1996. Healthy Home Orchards. National Gardening. 19(2): 44-48.
Elliott, N.C., J.D. Burd, J.S. Armstrong, C.B. Walker, D.K. Reed and F.B. Peairs. 1995. Release and recovery of imported parasitoids of the Russian wheat aphid in eastern Colorado. Southwest Entomol. 20: 125-129.
Evans, H.E. 1995. A reconsideration of the cylindricus group of the genus Anoplius (Dufour) (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae). Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 97: 757-766.
Evans, H.E. 1995. Notes and descriptions of Nearctic Ageniella (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae). J. Kansas Entomol. Soc. 68: 451-460.
Evans, M.A. 1995. Checklist of the Odonata of New Mexico with additions to the Colorado checklist. Proc. Denver Museum Nat. Hist. Series 3 (8). 6 pp.
Ferguson, M.L., S.E. Brown and D.L. Knudson. 1996. FISH digital imaging microscopy in mosquito genomics. Parasitology Today. 12: 91-96.
Fitzgerald, S.J. 1996. Notes on Nearctic Bibio (Diptera: Bibionidae). Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 98(1) 50-54.
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The Gillette Entomology Club has been very active over the past few months. Fall started with the election of new officers:
President: Ron Weeks
Vice President: Allen Bradbury
Treasurer: Casey Sclar
Within days they were off and running with the Cockroach Races at the AgDay 1995 Celebration. Huge crowds gathered as the thoroughbred racing roaches competed, promoted by shameless hucksterism by the club members ("Everybody's a winna"). Only one casualty was reported, which Casey insists was due to self-defense. A display at Centertainment and a crowd-pleasing presentation at the Homecoming Parade (see above) followed.
The Club then headed off to the Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Museum. Although someone should have told Boris that this wasn't a collecting trip, everyone had a great time.
The Club has also started a Creature Feature symposia, a chance for people to show off their favorite arthropod. Paul Opler initiated the event with "Butterflies of Rocky Mountain National Park", followed by Lou Bjostad discussing "Roots and Wings: Life History of the Western Corn Rootworm". Boris Kondratieff covered the topic "Maggots Can Be Helpful" (a look into the science of forensic Entomology) and Howard Evans gave a March 7 presentation on "Beewolves".
In a more social vein several members of the Club undertook the 1st Annual Blue Lake "Cross-country Ski and Snow Flea Census" near Cameron Pass. Allen Bradbury showed special vigor in the censusing, regularly examining newly formed depressions as the group moved along.
The spring field trip was to the May Museum of Natural History, where they were given a special off-season tour of the collection by the daughter-inlaw of Museum's founder. Since it was not officially open, the heating was not on during a very cold day in March. However, the "warmth" of the attendees interest in entomology more than compensated for the chilly indoor conditions. Furthermore, the Club has had an exceptionally active involvement in bringing in outside speakers, either specifically for the Club or in conjunction with other student groups. Among the visitors hosted during the past year, and their topics, were:
October 2 Dr. Barbara Peckarsky, Department of Entomology, Cornell University "Alternative predator avoidance syndromes by stream-dwelling mayflies"
November 27 Dr. Michael Dickinson, Department of Anatomy, University of Chicago "The Aerodynamics, physiology and biomechanics of fly flight"
November 6 Dr. Max Bothwell, National Hydrology Research Institute, Environment Canada. "Global ozone depletion and ecosystem level impacts of UVB"
March 16-20 Dr. Rick Butts, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge, Alberta "Cold tolerance and overwintering of aphids with special reference to the Russian wheat aphid", "Insect pest management of canola"
March 25 Dr. Jeff Lockwood, Department of Plant Soil and Insect Sciences, University of Wyoming "Grasshoppers in space: GIS and remote sensing as tools in pest management"
And today the Club is working on a presentation for Earth Day activities in Ft. Collins!