ANNUAL PEPS CARVED PUMPKIN CONTEST! FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, NOON IN GILMORE 302

We don't have pumpkins to give out this year, so it is BYOP (Bring Your Own Pumpkin)! But, pumpkins are pretty cheap this year!

Bring your carved pumpkin to GILMORE 302 between 11:30 and 12:10. Judging will be between 12:10 - 12:30, with the winners announced right after that. EVERYONE in PEPS and CTAHR Administration (our neighbors in Gilmore) is welcome to bring a carved pumpkin! Also, ANYONE who walks in the room is welcome to judge by choosing your favorite!

Come one, come all! Pizza will be supplied too.

BOO!

It’s time again for the University of Hawaii 2009 Food Drive, to benefit the Hawaii Food Bank. We encourage your participation in this very worthy cause that helps serve the needs of Hawaii’s children, elderly, homeless, disabled and working poor families, and those needing temporary assistance.  Please bring (or send) a check made out to “Hawaii Food Bank” to Lydia in the department office, or bring in some food (checks preferred though, if possible).

This is a GOOD cause! Everything goes to help the hungry right here in Hawaii. If you’ve been reading the economic news, then you know that there are people who really do need your help. It’s a fact that most Americans are only one or two paychecks away from being homeless. So, please help those around you who are hungry and in need.

The five most wanted foods:
Canned meats or tuna
Canned meals like spaghetti, chili, and corned beef hash
Canned soups
Canned vegetables and fruit
Canned beans

Also, GREAT T-shirts for only $12-14 and Aloha Diners Club Books full of great savings for only $14. Please see Lydia to place your orders. Order and payments are due to the PEPS office on March 12, 2009. Distribution on March 23-27, 2009.

PLEASE GIVE NOW! FINAL DEADLINE FOR FOOD DRIVE IS APRIL 17, 2009.

Thanks for your kokua.

Will Haines

Entomology (PEPS) graduate student Will Haines received the first-place President's Prize for his display presentation in the plant-insect ecosystems section of the Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America last month in Reno, Nevada. The ESA is the largest society of entomologists in the world, with over 3,000 in attendance at the meeting.

Will's winning poster in the student competition, co-authored with his advisor Dan Rubinoff, was entitled "Outbreaks of the Hawaiian geometrid caterpillar Scotorythra paludicola Butler, and defoliation of koa forests (Acacia koa): A historical perspective." Haines and Rubinoff found that weather was not necessarily a predictor of moth outbreaks, and they also reared three non-native parasitic wasps from moths collected from a recent outbreak on East Maui.

Announcing the Third (sometimes more than) Annual University of Hawaii Insect Museum
Insect Sorting Event

What is it? An insect sort becomes necessary as specimens accumulate through field collections. Until an organization event, these insects are not easy for experts studying different groups to locate in the museum. During a sort, labeled insects are categorized with the other insects to which they are closely related. Then they are placed in their proper spot in the museum collection where experts can find them and identify them in more detail. The UH Insect Museum is a research museum in the Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

Who should come? Anyone interested in learning more about the insects of Hawaii. If you can tell a moth from a beetle, you can make a contribution!

Why should I go? It's a great chance to learn a little bit about a lot of different groups of Hawaiian insects in a casual atmosphere, and to see what the Museum is about and has to offer. We'll be sorting specimens from all the Main islands and a few of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands this time.

How much time will it take? You can stop by for a few minutes to have a look around, come and go, or stay for the whole time we are sorting. We hope to finish in one day

When is it? Wednesday December 10, 1pm until 6pm.

Where is it? The sort will be held in the UH Insect Museum Room 607A Gilmore Hall.

Questions? Contact Dan Rubinoff: rubinoff@hawaii.edu 
or Jesse Eiben: eiben@hawaii.edu or visit the UH Museum Website:
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/peps/museum/index.htm

Congratulations to Entomology PhD student William P. Haines on his selection as the first recipient of the D. Elmo Hardy Student Award! The award was recently established by Mrs. Illse Hardy and other donors in memory of Emeritus Professor D. Elmo Hardy, who passed away on October 17, 2002. Dr. Hardy has been referred to as the father of evolutionary biology in Hawaii. In his 235 papers and books on Hawaiian Diptera, he described nearly 3000 new fly species; and over 50 species were named in his honor by other researchers. Appropriately, the award gives preference to entomology grad students working on projects involving systematics. Will's high scholastic standing and his research on the evolution of native Hawaiian Lepidoptera in Dan Rubinoff's lab makes him a great first recipient of this award.

PEPS may be just one of 6 academic units in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, but a recent survey by Associate Dean C.Y. Hu found that PEPS faculty authored over 38% (270) of the refereed journal publications reported from the college since 2005. This was based on early 2008 data too, so it's already out of date! Next on the list was Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering (MBBE), with 151 refereed articles.

Windward Oahu Extension Agent Jari Sugano has an interesting article in The Honolulu Advertiser, Nov 21 2008, on the importance of bees to Hawaii agriculture, and the varroa mite management research underway by researcher Ethel Villalobos, extension specialist Mark Wright, and technician Scott Nikaido - Link to article.

In cooperation with the State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture, the researchers are focusing on eradication of mite-infested wild hives, new methods of excluding mites from managed hives, and bee management techniques to minimize the negative impacts of mite infestation.

Entomology PhD students Adam Vorsino and Roshan Manandhar were recently selected as this year's recipients of the Minoru Tamashiro Award in Entomology. This award for a graduate student with a GPA of at least 3.50 specializing in urban or agricultural entomology honors Emeritus Professor Minoru Tamashiro, insect pathologist and termite control researcher. Adam is working on the evolution of a parasistoid introduced for biological control, while Roshan is investigating the use of cover crops in pest management. Congratulations to both deserving awardees!

PEPS weed management researcher James Leary and NREM's Jody Smith have premiered three episodes of a "Video Log" of Dr. Leary's weed control research on YouTube (Google "youtube herbicide ballistic technology"). These three episodes document in a very user-friendly fashion the development and testing of Dr. Leary's "Herbicide Ballistic Technology" (HBT) using a paintball gun and paintball encapsulation technology to selectively apply herbicides in the field. James is a natural as the host, and the fun he has doing research with HBT just may convince you to be become a weed scientist! These three videos join an earlier YouTube production by Dr. Leary and colleagues on hands-free herbicide spraying in Koa corridors. HBT is garnering some serious commercial interest for selective (and fun) weed control. Contact Dr. Leary or the Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development (OTTED) if you would like more information.

Mike Melzer (Hu lab) placed first in the PEPS Pumpkin Contest with his finally carved rendition of the creature from the film "Pan's Labyrinth" (or E.T. if you don't look too closely). In second place was "Iron Man", etched on one of the world's biggest pumpkins by Chris Kadooka (Uchida lab); while third place went to the unique "pumpkin juice" dispensing kegger pumpkin created by Ming-yi Chou and Allison Lee (Mau lab).

Strong runner-ups were creations by Will Haines, Janice Uchida, and two more pumpkins by that crazy Chou / Lee carving team. Congratulations to our winners, and thanks to everyone for creating such unique and stylish pumpkins! You set a high bar for next year's contestants!

Photos

Congratulations to Mari Kohara, PEPS major (senior) and recipient of this year's Wallace C. Mitchell Scholarship Award! This endowed scholarship was established by the Mitchell family in honor of Dr. Wally Mitchell, who was a professor emeritus in agricultural entomology in our department prior to his passing in 1996. Dr. Mitchell joined UH in 1962, taught general entomology and other courses for many years, supervised a many graduate students (including Drs. Barry Brennan and Ron Mau), and served as Department Chair for 10 years, and as Acting Dean and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Mari is a fitting recipient of the award, with a 3.8 GPA. She has assisted with research in several department labs, including those of Dr. Janice Uchida and Dr. Mark Wright, interned this past summer with the Plant Pest Control Branch of the Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture, and received the award for best PEPS Undergraduate Poster Presentation this spring in the CTAHR Student Research Symposium. 

Congratulations to students and faculty honored at this year's college awards dinner this past spring!

PEPS faculty honored were Dr. Sabina Swift with the 2008 Award for Excellence in Extension, and Dr. Ken Grace with the 2008 Hoku Award. See http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/banquet/awards.asp for information on these and other CTAHR awards.

PEPS Students recognized for their presentations in the CTAHR Student Research Symposium were:
CTAHR Best PhD Student Oral Presentation - Mike Melzer (Advisor, John Hu)
CTAHR PhD Student Oral Presentation Award of Merit - Mathews Paret (Advisor, Anne Alvarez)
PEPS Best Entomology Graduate Student Poster Presentation - Roshan Manandhar (Advisor, Cerruti Hooks)
PEPS Best Tropical Plant Pathology Graduate Student Oral Presentation - Cristita Verna Subere (Advisor, John Hu)
PEPS Best Undergraduate Oral Presentation - David Simmons (Advisor, Janice Uchida)
PEPS Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation - Mari Kohara (Advisor, Janice Uchida)

Dr. Anne Alvarez also mentored three other students recognized for their quality work:
CTAHR MS Student Oral Presentation Award of Merit - Peter Toves (TPSS)
Gamma Sigma Delta PhD Student Poster Presentation Award of Merit - Kevin Schneider (MBBE)
MBBE Best MS Student Poster Presentation - Glorimar Marrero (MBBE)

Dr. Sabina Swift was promoted to Associate Extension Specialist in July. Dr. Swift works with non-English proficient, and largely immigrant, farmers on issues of pesticide safety and risk management.

The multi-talented Dr. Swift is also an expert on mites, and worked for the Bishop Museum for two decades before joining our faculty in 1999.

Recent articles in Environment Hawaii (environment-hawaii.org) and The Honolulu Weekly (Oct 22, 2008) describe the continuing threat represented by ohia rust (Puccinia psidii) in Hawaii (certainly not many rose apples left), with interviews and information from PEPS student David Simmons and APT Chris Kadooka. Check it out at: http://honoluluweekly.com/feature/2008/10/not-fade-away/ 

Manoa scientists have identified a species of butterfly in Waikiki previously unknown in the islands or the U.S. This new arrival has been determined to be Zizina otis, the Lesser Grass Blue, widely known throughout Asia and the Pacific and in some parts of Africa. Associate Professor Daniel Rubinoff contributed to the investigation and identification process.

Rubinoff comments that there are only two species of butterfly native to the Hawaiian Islands, but new arrivals do show up from time to time—some brought in on purpose for biological control purpose, but more commonly by accident with airline or ocean shipping traffic from the Asia-Pacific region or from Southern California. The butterflies appear to be dependent on Mimosa pudica, more commonly known in Hawai‘i as "sleeping grass," and some female butterflies were observed laying eggs on the plant

"We think this particular species came to O'ahu by some human-assisted means rather than by natural dispersal," says Rubinoff. "Since it appears to be attracted to Mimosa pudica—which is common in lawns, roadsides and pastures on all major islands except Moloka'i—we expect that it will eventually spread pretty much statewide."

News release

"Not since actress Janet Leigh lathered up at the Bates Motel in the movie 'Psycho' has a taking hot shower been such a scary prospect. "But thanks to Arnold Hara, an entomologist and extension specialist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, a hot shower can be fatal -- not to humans, but to invasive species such as coqui frogs, little fire ants and stinging nettle caterpillars." John Burnett, Hawaii Tribune-Herald

For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/articles/2008/09/01/local_news/local02.txt 

Dr. John J. Cho was recently awarded the Editor's Choice Medal of Excellence for breeding and innovation with the Royalhawaiiancolocasias marketing program based upon his breeding of ornamental elephant ears (Colocasia esculenta) and marketing by PlantHaven, Inc. See www.royalhawaiiancolocasias.com for the program information.

The award was conferred last week at the Medal of Excellence Awards Ceremony during the OFA Short Course in Columbus, Ohio. This award is an annual award and given by the editors of Greenhouse Growers Magazine (http://www.greenhousegrower.com). See http://onlocationshortcourse.blogspot.com/2008/07/and-winners-are.html for information on this award and winner for this year's Editor's Choice award. Geoff Needham (president of PlantHaven, Inc.) accepted this award on behalf of the University of Hawaii at the awards ceremony.

This award is a huge one since Dr. Cho had to compete against large floricultural international breeding companies, including nominees such as Goldsmith Seeds in California, Benary in Germany, Proven Winners in the USA.