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The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) is an insect native to tropical and subtropical regions in Asia, which has spread into most citrus producing regions around the world.  The main concern with ACP is the spread of Huanglongbing (HLB), a disease vectored by the psyllid. The volume of citrus shipments from Mexico into the U.S. prompted questions about the risk of moving ACP and HLB on this pathway.  Our goal was to determine temperatures at which ACP would be active and thus fly to lighted sticky traps inside a transport trailer.Our results found that temperature significantly affected the number of adults captured.  No psyllids were recovered on the traps at 12˚C (53˚F), which is the average temperature of citrus shipments crossing the border.  This is compare with an average capture of 43, 47, and 42% of the released adults at 24, 28, and 32°C (75, 82, and 90°F), respectively.  Only 1%, 2% and 18% were captured at 18, 20 and 22°C (64, 68, and 72˚F), respectively.  Given that the average temperature of limes arriving at the border is 12˚C, it is unlikely that ACP adults would fly to a lighted sticky trap placed inside a refrigerated trailer.  In addition, the majority of the packing houses in Mexico place the fruit into coolers prior to loading. We believe a lighted sticky trap would not be effective in detecting ACP within refrigerated citrus shipments for the period of time from loading at the packing house to trap recovery at the border crossing.

Describes the programming interface and implementation of the repository engine and the Open Information Model for Microsoft Repository, an object-oriented meta-data management facility that ships in Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft SQL Server. Discusses Microsoft's component object model, object manipulation, queries, and information modeling. (Author/LRW)

Predator-prey dynamics are an important concept in ecology, often serving as an introduction to the field of community ecology. However, these dynamics are difficult for students to observe directly. We describe a methodology that employs model caterpillars made of clay to estimate rates of predator attack on a prey species. This approach can be implemented as a field laboratory in almost any natural or seminatural setting, and is designed to allow educators to pursue any number of student-generated hypotheses representing varying degrees of scientific sophistication ranging from middle school to college level. Key Words: Ecology; predation; caterpillar; camouflage; field experiment; hypothesis testing., High school classes can benefit tremendously from the inclusion of experiments that allow students to build a solid understanding of the scientific process. Hands-on experiments reinforce topics learned in the [...]

Field capture of boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis Boheman, in pheromone traps adjacent to fields of cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., and along fence lines and roads is an important tool used by Boll Weevil Eradication Programs to monitor abundance of the insect pest. For quality control, previously collected and frozen boll weevils are marked with fingerprint powder. Program supervisors randomly spike boll weevil traps with marked boll weevils to monitor recovery by program trappers. One problem, however, is that dead boll weevils placed in traps desiccate rapidly, rendering them fragile and prone to breakage, which makes identification difficult. This study evaluated methods for marking and rehydrating desiccated boll weevils by measuring the length of time boll weevils remain pliable and intact. An alcohol-based hand sanitizer was used for rehydration, and three fluorescing markers were tested to determine the duration of boll weevil pliability and fluorescence. Boll weevils treated with hand sanitizer were pliable significantly longer than were dried weevils, P < 0.0001, and remained intact 2 to 4 days longer All boll weevils retained the three applied fluorescent markers throughout each experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a study to determine the fortuitous establishment of Rhyzobius lophanthae and Aphytis lingnanesis in South Texas on the cycad aulacaspis scale, Aulacaspis yasumatsui. Field data of the research suggest that cycad aulacaspis scale populations are variable throughout the year. The data also propose that the establishment and abundance of A. lingnanensis and R. lophanthae on cycad aulacaspis scale are contributing to this variability.