STRI news
 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panam?        www.stri.org        November 1, 2002
Panamanian legislators
visit STRI
Five Panamanian legislators from the Panama Canal
Affairs and Foreign Relations commissions visited STRI
on Tuesday, October 29. Present were legislator Julio
C?sar Castillo, president of the Canal Affairs commission
(with deputy director Cristi?n Samper in the photo below)
and the commission secretary Hayd?e M. De Lay. Also
present were legislator Marco Ameglio, president of the
Foreign Relations commission (with director Ira Rubinoff in the photo at right), commission vice-
president Len?n Sucre and El?as Castillo. Advisors to the National Assemby Roberto Monta?ez,
Dionisio M?dez, Luz Marina Navarro, Dionisio M?ndez,
Lucila Cisneros, Gilberto C?rdenas and Ramiro Franceschi,
also attended the event. Rubinoff, Samper and Elena
Lombardo, from the Office of External Affairs briefed the
visitors on STRI research activities in Panama. 
Cinco legisladores paname?os de las comisiones de
Asuntos del Canal de Panam? y Relaciones Exteriores
visitaron STRI el martes, 29 de octubre. Estuvieron
presentes el legislator Julio C?sar Castillo, presidente de la
Comisi?n de Asuntos del Canal (con el subdirector Cristi?n
Samper, en la foto a la izquierda) y la secretaria de la
comisi?n, Hayd?e M. De Lay. Tambi?n nos visitaron el
legislator Marco Ameglio, presidente de la Comisi?n de
Relaciones Exteriores (con el director Ira Rubinoff, en la foto a la derecha) el vice-presidente de
esta comisi?n Len?n Sucre, y El?as Castillo. Roberto Monta?ez, Dionisio M?dez, Luz Marina
Navarro, Dionisio M?ndez, Lucila Cisneros, Gilberto C?rdenas y Ramiro Franceschi, asesores de la
Asamblea Legislativa, tambi?n estuvieron presentes en el evento. Rubinoff, Samper y Elena
Lombardo, de la Oficina de Asuntos Externos, dieron una introducci?n sobre las actividades de
investigaci?n de STRI en Panam?. 
U.S. army visit to Naos
Ira Rubinoff explains the operation of the Sea
Water System at Naos to visitors from the U.S.
Army, on Tuesday, October 29. Rubinoff keeps
live specimens of the Pacific yellow-bellied sea
snake Pelamis platurus in these facilities. This
species was essential to Rubinoff in the 1970's,
when he evaluated the possible effects of
constructing a sea-level canal in the Isthmus of
Panama that would connect both oceans.
Tupper seminar
Tuesday, November 5, noon
seminar speaker will be
Egbert Giles Leigh, Jr., STRI
Two islands and one black
hole
Two Bambis
Tuesday, November 5, there
will be a special Bambi by
Tupac Otero, University of
Puerto Rico
Specificity of tropical
orchid mycorrhizae
Thursday, November 7,
Bambi seminar speaker will
be Sarah Godsey, University
of Cincinnati
Runoff generation on BCI
Arrivals
Camilo Salazar, Universidad
de los Andes, Nov 2 - Dec 2,
to do DNA mitochondrial
and nuclear genealogies as
part of STRI/UNIANDES
Bridge Program, at Naos.
Jodi Grayson, Bamfield
Marine Station in Canada,
Nov 2 - Feb 28, to work with
David Kline, on the role of
environmental and
anthropogenic stresses in
emerging coral diseases, on
Bocas del Toro.
Stephane Jansegers, Catholic
University of Louvain La-
Nueve, Belgium, Nov 2 - Jan
15, to study the parasitoid
guild of tropical beetles
(Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae)
from Panama, in Gamboa.
Lynn Atkinson and Benjamin
Wolsieffer, University of
Connecticut, Nov 4-25, to
study the causes and
consequences of variation in
colony structure in the
termite Nasutitermes corniger, at
Galeta.
Gabriela Jones
leaves STRI
Effective Thursday, October 31, Gabriela
Jones, facility secretary of STRI?s Center
for Tropical Palaeoecology and
Archaeology at Ancon since January, 1997,
left STRI, to accept a position in Florida
State University in Panama, as assistant to the University?s
vice-dean. We wish her luck in this new phase of her career.
A partir del jueves, 31 de octubre, Gabriela Jones, secretaria
del Centro de Paleoecolog?a y Arqueolog?a Tropical de STRI
en Anc?n desde enero de 1997, dej? a STRI para aceptar una
posici?n en la Universidad del Estado de Florida en Panam?,
como asistente del vice-decano. Le deseamos mucha suerte
en esta nueva etapa de su carrera.
II Encuetro de
PRORENA
El Proyecto de
Reforestaci?n con
Especies Nativas
(PRORENA) de STRI,
invita a la comunidad de
STRI a participar en el II
Encuentro Anual de
Reforestadores con
Especies Nativas, que se
llevar? a cabo el viernes 15
de noviembre en el Centro
de Conferencias Tupper,
de 9am a 5pm. El
Encuentro tiene como
objetivo promover el intercambio de experiencias y
conocimientos entre los interesados en el uso de especies
nativas en programas de reforestaci?n. Se contar? con
exposiciones de Gerardo Budowski de United Nations
University of Peace, Richard Condit, STRI, Jaime Orozco,
C?mara Forestal de Panam?, Luis Carles, Ecoforest, y otros
especialistas. Confirme su asistencia con Emilio Mariscal, tel.
212-8235, e-mail: mariscal@prorena.org
Flu-shot afternoon at
Tupper
The Human Resources Office
organized a flu-shot afternoon at
Tupper for all employees. In the
photo, marine biologist D. Ross
Robertson is one of the 32 staff
members that received the one-year
vaccination.
La Oficina de Recursos Humanos organiz? una tarde de
vacunas contra la influenza para todos los empleados. En la
foto, el bi?logo marino D. Ross Robertson, es uno de los 32
miembros del personal que recibieron esta vacuna de un a?o.
More publications
Dudley, T. Robert, Srygley,
Robert B., Oliveira, Evandro
G., and DeVries, Philip J. 2002.
"Flight speeds, lipid reserves,
and predation of the migratory
Neotropical moth Urania
fulgens (Uraniidae)." Biotropica
34(3): 452-458.
Fortunato, Helena. 2002.
"Understanding and conserving
biodiversity." In Association,
Eurocoast-Portugal (Ed.),
Littoral 2002, 6th International
Symposium Proceedings, 22-26
September, Vol. II: 53-59. Porto,
Portugal: European Coastal
Zone Association for Sicence
and Technology and EUCC.
Heckadon Moreno, Stanley.
2002a. "Thomas Selfridge: de
Col?n a Bah?a Caledonia, 1870."
"Epocas" Segunda Era (Supplement
to La Prensa) 17(8): 2-3.
Miranda, Roberto J., Quintero,
A. Diomedes, and Almanza,
Alejandro. 2002. "House dust
mites from urban and rural
houses on the lowland Pacific
slopes of Panama." Systematic
and Applied Acarology 7: 23-30.
Van Borm, Steven, Billen,
Johan, and Boomsma, Jacobus
J. 2002. "The diversity of
microorganisms associated with
Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants."
BioMed Central Evolutionary
Biology 2(1): 9-20.
Ventocilla, Jorge. 2002. ?Buen
a?o para el 'mam?n chino'?. La
Prensa (Octubre 27): 8B.
Miscellaneous
For sale: 1997 Lada Niva 4x4.
Air conditioning, AM/FM
cassette radio. The body,
engine, tires, etc. are in great
shape. We will be leaving STRI
in mid-November and have to
sell the car. Asking $2200.
Please call Tom or Lili Duda at
tel. 260-8394.
More arrivals
Christoph Rothenwohrer and
Nina Becker, University of
Ulm, Nov 5 - Jan 3, to work as
volunteers with Luis D?Croz, at
Naos.
Departures
David Roubik, Nov 8-30, to
Kyoto, Japan, to attend the
Biodiversity Symposium at
Kyoto University, then to
Cambodia, to do bee research
with colleagues.
STRI in the news
?Killer bees and coffee: the
connection.? 2002. Smithsonian
Today Summer/Fall: 3.
?La realidad sobre los
murci?lagos? por Errol E.
Caballero. 2002. La Prensa
(October 26): 1B.
?Una especie irremplazable?
por Errol E. Caballero. 2002.
La Prensa (October 26): 2B.
?Del bosque al matraz? por
Eva Aguilar. 2002. La Prensa
(October 28): 1B
New publications
Chave, Jerome, and Leigh, Jr.,
Egbert Giles. 2002. "A spatially
explicit neutral model of b-
diversity in tropical forests."
Theoretical Population Biology
62(2): 153-168.
DeWayne Shoemaker, D.,
Machado, Carlos A., Molbo,
Drude, Werren, John H.,
Windsor, Donald M., and
Herre, Edward Allen. 2002.
"The distribution of Wolbachia
in fig wasps: correlations with
host phylogeny, ecology and
population structure."
Proceedings of the Royal Society
(London) B 269(1506): 2257-
2267.