Entomology Newsletter 2000 Contents Message from the Head..................................................................2 Faculty ...........................................................................................4 Staff .............................................................................................10 Affiliates and Other Academics ....................................................11 UIUC Entomologists in the News ...............................................20 Department of Entomology on the World Wide Web ..................21 Off-Campus Colloquium Speakers ..............................................21 Ellis MacLeod Memorial Lecture .................................................22 Entomology Graduate Student Association ..................................23 Graduate Students........................................................................24 Recent Graduates .........................................................................31 Awards and Recognition ..............................................................32 The Insect Fear Film Festival .......................................................35 Insect Expo ..................................................................................37 Linnaean Games ..........................................................................37 Beekeeping Short Course .............................................................38 Entomology Alumni ....................................................................38 Necrology ....................................................................................45 This newsletter is published annually by the Departmental Donors ..................................................................46 Department of Entomology, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 320 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801 USA. Front cover photograph: James Sternburg Editor: Tish Cundiff Design: Jana Waite Entomology Newsletter 2000—1 Message from the Head FOR the first time since I’ve been home unit of that instructor. So, department head, mercifully little even with the loss of the rubric, we of the news revolves around reor- may actually be better off in terms ganization. The new integrative of instructional unit/faculty teach- biology curriculum, as well as a ing equivalent (IU/FTE) ratios, proposal to begin a new program that kabbalistic number that has so in Ecology and Evolutionary Biol- much impact on deans and mem- ogy, actually made it through the bers of the Illinois Board of Higher Faculty Senate, as did the adminis- Education. trative restructuring, which means that the School of Integrative Another part of reorganization is Biology and the School of Molecu- restaffing. Although our efforts last lar and Cellular Biology began year to hire a molecular systematist His international stature in insect their official existence in July 2000. were unsuccessful, we made up for molecular systematics is established it this year by hiring two—Jim beyond doubt. Current faculty Part of reorganization is restruc- Whitfield and Sydney Cameron. A members and affiliates with inter- turing the undergraduate curricu- nationwide search at the assistant ests in Lepidoptera (hosts of his lum and one consequence of that or associate level identified three microgastrines), coevolution, and restructuring is that there will no top candidates, two of whom, biological control enthusiastically longer be any departmental course fortunately for us, happened to be await his arrival in August 2001. rubrics—all courses offered by the married to each other. School of Integrative Biology will Dr. Sydney Cameron has a long carry an “IB” rubric and all courses Dr. Jim Whitfield is more than and distinguished record of achieve- offered by the School of Molecular just a Hymenoptera systematist; he ment in the field of behavioral and Cellular Biology will carry a has demonstrated a single origin of ecology and evolution. She has “MCB” rubric. The ENTOM polydnaviruses in braconid wasps, amassed an impressive publication rubric will be retained only for authored a widely cited review of record that includes papers in the ENTOM 499, which is required the phylogeny and evolution of the top journals in the field, including for the entomology doctoral degree. host/parasitoid interaction in Nature and the Proceedings of the Hymenoptera, and provided com- National Academy of Sciences. Her I’m not ecstatically happy about prehensive keys to the genera of all expertise is in the application of the loss of the rubric on general New World Microgastrinae, im- phylogenetic theory and analysis to principles but this change is for the portant biological control agents. the study of social insect evolution better in one respect—our depart- Moreover, he has demonstrated and her main research focus is on ment has a long and infuriating the phylogenetic utility of the the corbiculate bees of the family history of not receiving credit for commonly used 16S mitochondrial Apidae. Her interests in compara- teaching courses under the BIOL RNA gene, analyzed patterns of tive chemical ecology of bees add rubric and we have received variation that can lead to phyloge- depth to our program and her ex- assurances from the Division of netically misleading biases, and tensive experience conducting field- Information Management that used both nuclear and mitochon- work throughout Central and instructional units will, from this drial gene sequences to demon- South America (and elsewhere in point on, be tracked by the princi- strate a rapid early evolutionary the world) brings a new interna- pal instructor and accredited to the radiation of the microgastrine wasps. tional dimension to the department. 2—Entomology Newsletter 2000 A note: the addition of Drs. alumni (i.e., within the last two feelings of camaraderie and loyalty Whitfield and Cameron brings the decades) is that, after 17 years, in this department and we all thank total number of faculty to 10—a Dorothy Houchens, our adminis- her profusely for her extraordinary 25% increase in a single year. And trative secretary extraordinaire, left term of service. with Dr. Cameron on our faculty, our department for an administra- the proportion of female faculty tive position with the Department On the up side, however, to members in the Department of of Agricultural and Consumer replace Dot we succeeded in hiring Entomology will increase to 40%, Economics, a department with an old friend, Jackie Bowdry (née a proportion that I would suggest more secretaries than we have Smith). Former students from the could serve as a model for efforts to faculty. early 1980s will remember Jackie; improve the status of women on I remembered her especially for campus, particularly in the sci- Dot’s loyalty being the first secretary who could ences. Moreover, it’s my educated and tenacity actually decipher my handwriting guess that this is the highest pro- have been a (which has been bad ever since portion of women in the depart- tremendous fourth grade, when Mr. Parker ment since it all started 91 years ago. gift to our made me stay in during recess to department. practice the spelling word “brick,” In other faculty matters, Dr. Sam Her phe- which he read and marked wrong Beshers was reappointed as a visit- nomenal as “buck.” Not that that incident ing lecturer to teach BIOL 120 recall of past was traumatic or anything…). and taught ENTOM 301 for the history, her ability to monitor cur- Jackie has adjusted remarkably second consecutive summer. Dr. rent developments throughout the smoothly to our peculiarities—in Lee Solter taught insect pathology School, and her absolute familiar- fact, it’s as if she never left! We to 9 people (and Lee will continue ity with university rules and prac- hope she likes it here enough to to offer a Midwest Summer Institute tices were a godsend that spared stay 17 years, as her predecessor did! in insect pathology, with students me as department head hours and from such far-flung midwestern hours of fruitless phone calls. Were For whatever it’s worth, I’m in venues as Utah). Dr. Rob I to describe in detail all of the things my ninth year of service as depart- Wiedenmann taught biological Dot has done for the department, ment head; this means I’ve been a control with the assistance of it would probably sound like we department head longer than I was campus visitor Dr. Rami Kfir, were exploiting her. Nowhere in an undergraduate, a graduate stu- Research Scientist, Plant Protection her contract, for example, did it dent, a mandolin-player in a blue- Research Institute, Pretoria, South specify that she has to fill in for the grass band, a horse owner, and a Africa, whose visit was funded by part-time insectary staff, going to member of the Jewish Vegetarians the International Council. We also the grocery store to buy 40 pounds of America Society (I’m still Jewish welcomed Dr. Kevin Johnson as a of pork liver for the blow fly colony, and a vegetarian, but the Society new affiliate; Dr. Johnson, recently or grabbing a dozen cockroaches seems to have folded). I won’t say hired at the Center for Biodiversity from the rearing room to assist an that it defines my existence but at the Illinois Natural History Sur- undergraduate on a research pro- being the head of this particular vey, is interested in the systematics ject. I can’t imagine that there are department of entomology is an and coevolution of lice (among the many secretaries on this campus important