Photos from the WFIWC Archives:
Mexico
From left: Rodolfo Campos, Steve Wood, Tom Atkinson, Oscar Estrada and Mal Furniss
2nd National Symposium on Forest Parasitology, 1982. The second symposium was held in Cuernavaca, Morelos, during February 17-20 at the Hotel Casino de la Selva. Dignitaries included the presedent of the entomological society of Mexico and the undersecretary of Forestal y de la Fauna. Again, Hawkswoth, Wood and myself were invited to present papers as at the first symposium. William F. Barr, University of Idaho, was also invited and spoke on the Cleridae and Bupretidae of Mexico. As mentioned in my 1981 account, two papers dealt with the Dendroctonus rhizophagus: One on biology by Oscar Estrada and David Cibrián, and one by me and Rodolfo Campos on comparative anatomy in relation to D. valens with which it had been synonymized by Wood. The information in those papers had been brought to Wood's attention in 1981, resulting in resurrecting D. rhizophagus in Wood's 1982 monograph. Again, David Cibrián was involved with numerous papers as was Thomas H. Atkinson who was then at the Postgraduate College at Chapingo.
Standing from left: Mal Furniss, Tom Atkinson, David Cibrian, Steve Wood, Student, Student, Bill Barr. Kneeling: Jaime Flores, student.
Bill Barr, discussing Mexican clerids and buprestids with a student at the 2nd symposium.
At conclusion of the meeting, we all were taken by bus on a field trip. Several of us Americanos thought the purpose was to collect insects, which we did with the usual zeal. That is, until two guys showed up toting rifles wanting to know what we were doing. It turned out to be some sort of park. Bill Barr was the one who blew our cover with his conspicuous net and beating sheet.
Steve Wood, left, and Tom Atkinson with pine infested by Dendroctonus rhizophagus, Guerrero, Mexico, 1982.
Still telling tales out of school: Thereafter, Wood, Atkinson, and I, went on a scolytid collecting trip southward to Guerrero state. Everyone scattered like leaves in autumn. Then we reassembled and displayed our catch. Wood, who likes to gather infested wood to scrutinize in detail back at the car, held up a small pine that he had pulled out of the ground, roots and all. The point of his interest being some Pityophthorus in the stem. About then, I noticed the tell-tale pupal cells of D. rhizophagus in the roots! This unexpected find extended the beetle's known distribution by hundreds of miles. -- Malcolm M. Furniss
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