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Announcements Are you producing a newsletter, holding a meeting, running an organization or rearing a natural enemy that you want other biocontrol workers to know about? Send us the details and we will announce it in BNI. First International Symposium on Biological Control of ArthropodsThe first international symposium dedicated exclusively to biocontrol of arthropods, will be held on 17-21 September 2001 in Honolulu, Hawaii. It will bring together biological control practitioners from around the world to discuss international issues relating to the use of parasites and predators against pest mites and insects. Biological control of arthropods, while in increasing demand, faces a series of challenges that, unless addressed, will lead to a substantial reduction in such work. Better communication is needed among scientists working in this area. Until now there has been no meeting that regularly brings this group together in an atmosphere conducive to focused exchange of information. The Symposium on Biological Control of Arthropods has as its goal to provide for such meetings. Symposia will be held every 4 years, using the same style as the highly successful meetings held by weed biocontrol workers over the last 40 years. The meeting will be limited to 250 people, so that the group is small enough to meet as a whole body. The organizers hope to attract largely if not exclusively people actually conducting programmes of arthropod biological control. The focus on applied pest control projects is meant to differentiate this meeting from more basic research on natural enemy biology, such as is presented in the Entomophagous Insects Workshop. Focus will also be limited to the work on the use of parasitoids and predators, to the exclusion of pathogens. This is largely to permit the assembly of a smaller group. A full day will be given to address pertinent aspects of each of the following major topics: 1. Classical biological control: Key issues in the future expanded use of classical biological control; Better methods for colonization, evaluation and monitoring of new natural enemies; Applications of molecular methods to the processes of classical biological control; Modelling and theory as tools to clarify causes of success or failure of biocontrol projects. 2. Augmentative biological control: Successes in augmentative biological control; Economics of production and use of reared natural enemies (including storage and shipping); Post-release dispersal, distribution, and impact of augmented natural enemies in field crops; Survey of actual and potential use in outdoor crops. 3. Conservation of natural enemies in IPM systems: Nectar feeding by parasitoids; Alternative hosts and habitat refuges for parasitoids; Effects on natural enemies of using Bt crops in IPM systems; Pesticide effects on natural enemies. 4. International examples of recent, important projects of classical biological control, and monitoring for effects of biocontrol agents on nontarget organisms. International focus is vital, and regional coordinators have been identified who will promote awareness of the meeting among biological control workers in specific geographic areas. Regional contacts: North America (including Mexico): South and Central America: China: Dr Da-Wei Huang Australia, New Zealand and Oceania: Middle East: Moshe Coll Africa: Peter Neuenschwander Volunteers are being sought as regional coordinators for Japan, Southeast Asia and Southern Asia (contact Roy Van Driesche, details below). Further information: ❑ Biocontrol Meeting Focuses on EducationAn international symposium 'The Practice of Biological Control: Importation and Management of Natural Enemies and Agents' will be held on 2-5 August 2001 at Montana State University in Bozeman, USA. The symposium is intended for practitioners in all disciplines of biological control, and is being sponsored by: the International Organization for Biological Control, Nearctic Regional Section (IOBC-NRS), the Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy (ESCOP-BCWG), and the National Biological Control Institute (UDSD-APHIS-PPQ-CPHST). The science and application of biological control are the focus of greater public appreciation and scrutiny than ever before. To develop and implement biological control programmes, practitioners must be able to present the activities and goals of their discipline to diverse audiences, and hence the focus of this symposium is on education: what we have learned from the past century of biological control efforts, and how we can apply this knowledge. It will emphasize: a renewed focus on why biological control should be of major consideration in pest control; development of effective education programmes about biological control that target diverse audiences; a new set of biological control case histories that illustrate important successes; and a discussion of the issues that promote and challenge the practice of biological control. Keynote sessions will cover: the need for biological control; challenges to biological control; success in biological control; approaches to biological control of invasive species; conservation of natural enemies and antagonists; augmentation of natural enemies and antagonists; size, accountability and coordination of biological control programmes. Panel discussions will cover: challenges to biological control; systematics and biological control; approaches and methods used in applied biological control; and coordinating biological control activities. Posters may be on any biological control topic. Contact: Tim Kring, ❑ Aphelinid and Trichogrammatid MeetingThe systematics and biology of Aphelinidae and Trichogrammatidae will be the subject of a symposium to be held at the University of California, Riverside, USA on 18-19 June 2001. The symposium will bring together more than 20 of the world's leading systematists, behaviorists and biological control specialists from China, India, England, Europe, Canada and the USA. The meeting will promote an exchange of ideas across disciplines, stimulate greater interaction among participants and, perhaps most importantly, provide a single venue for training students from various disciplines interested in these parasitic wasps. Parasitizing scale insects, whiteflies, aphids, leafhoppers, Lepidoptera, and several other groups of insects, for biocontrol purposes these wasps rank among the top ten most important taxa. While trichogrammatids are important for augmentative control programmes, aphelinids are primarily used for classical biological control. The taxonomic diversity and relationships of both groups are poorly understood. Trichogrammatidae are represented by 75 genera and 675 valid species, and Aphelinidae have 38 genera and more than 975 valid species. However, little is known about species of either family in most habitats. Knowledge is especially poor in tropical regions, where, it has been suggested, microparasitic wasps attacking early or cryptic life stages may be the dominant fauna. Both families exhibit peculiarities in behaviour associated with host choice, competition and sex ratio distortion, which have made them model organisms for numerous studies. Contact: Phyllis Crabtree, ❑ Fifth International Conference of HymenopteristsThe 5th International Conference of Hymenopterists will be held in Beijing, China from 22-26 July 2002. Nominations are sought for plenary speakers, and also ideas and organizers for symposia and specialist discussion groups. Contact: Chao-dong ZHU, ❑ African Entomology CongressThe 13th Entomological Congress, organized by the Entomological Society of Southern Africa in association with the University of Natal, will be held in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa on 2-5 July 2001. This will provide a forum for exchange of information and ideas relevant to entomologists of all persuasions and with particular emphasis on the needs of Africa. Symposia will be held on a number of topics including: biodiversity and insect conservation; biotechnology, insects and plants; entomology and sustainable development; forensic entomology; Hymenoptera; and insect pathology. The following workshops are also planned: Final workshop of the Southern African Stem Borer Management Project; Insect rearing; Permits and legislation for collection of invertebrates; and Spatial data and the African entomologist. Contact: Professor Denis J. Brothers, ❑ Fungal and Bacterial Plant PathogensThe seventh workshop of the IOBC/WPRS Working Group 'Biological Control of Fungal and Bacterial Plant Pathogens' will be held at Kusadasi, Turkey, in May 2002, organized by the Ege University at Izmir. The meeting will focus on the 'Influence of abiotic and biotic factors on biocontrol agents'. Factors emphasized will include: microclimate, soil/substrate/crop/fertilization, chemicals, saprophytes/nontarget microorganisms, and mesofauna, their effects on and interaction with the population dynamics/survival of antagonists, on their biocontrol activity and on the economics of biocontrol. Contact: Yigal Elad, ❑ Weed Biocontrol PublicationsThe USDA Forest Service has produced two books on weed biological control that are now available to interested individuals. Book 1: 'Weed biocontrol: extended abstracts from the 1997 Interagency Noxious Weed Symposium' (58 pp.). This covers the following aspects of weed biological control: History of weed biological control (articles by J.R. Coulson and L.A. Andres); Regulation (articles by R.E. Pizel, G.P. Markin and S. Stenquist): Safety (articles by Q. Paynter & J.L. Littlefield, J.K. Balciunas, and P.B. McEvoy); Implementation (articles by A. McClay, R.W. Hansen, E.M. Coombs et al., B. Villegas), and Monitoring (articles by M.J. Pitcairn and D.A. Pyke). Websites for weed biological control are also provided. Book 2: This 95 pp. publication comprises the proceedings of the session: 'Host specificity testing of exotic arthropod biological control agents - the biological basis for improvement in safety', which was held during the X International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds, Bozeman, Montana, USA, July 1999 (eds: R. G. Van Driesche, T. Heard, A. McClay & R. Reardon). It covers: (1) Concepts of insect-host plant selection behaviour and application to host specificity testing (T.A. Heard); (2) Physiological issues in host range expansion (D.W. Tallamy); (3) The influence of time dependent processes on the outcome of bioassays (T.M. Withers et al.); (4) Evolution of host range in herbivorous insects (D.J. Futuyma); (5) Host specificity testing - why it is done and how it can be improved (R. Dekker van Klinken); (6) Evaluting host ranges - rationale, methodology and interpretation (D.P.A Sands & R.G. Van Driesche); (6) Host specificity assessments - case studies (U. Kuhlmann et al.). 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