Jim Cuda Hosts Chinese Entomologists
Dr. James P. Cuda, a UF/IFAS faculty member with the Entomology and Nematology Department, understands the importance of biological control strategies, for which he is well known internationally. Cuda has traveled the globe looking for insect species that offer biological control of invasive species, including plants.
Cuda, along with Drs. Oscar Liburd, Howard Frank, Christine Miller, Marc Branham, and Michael Scharf, hosted a group of Chinese entomologists that toured the department on October 31st. The four-member delegation from the Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University in Yangling, Shaanxi, China, visiting Canadian and US institutions to initiate collaborative research and student exchange programs.
There is great interest in China for collaborative projects with American land-grant universities. Such collaborations benefit both U.S. and Chinese populations, providing potential solutions for problems in both nations.
An example would be invasive plants, which are a problem in China and a serious threat in Florida. Invasive plants are destroying or severely damaging Florida’s ecosystems, affecting wildlife, crowding out native plants, and impacting the livelihoods of many Floridians.
The invasive plants impact livelihoods when they destroy or severely damage pasturelands, commercial forests, and natural areas that provide jobs and income to Floridians through cattle ranching, forestry, and ecotourism, as well as production agriculture.
Cuda, his UF/IFAS colleagues, and now these potential new collaborating Chinese scientists are searching the globe for natural predators of invasive species, hoping to locate natural enemies to control the most devastating of these human-introduced, invasive species. That strategy has given Florida some successes, such as the insect natural enemies of alligatorweed and melaleuca that have been introduced and are reducing the populations of these invasive plants. Hopefully this new collaboration will provide additional beneficial biological controls on invasive species in both Florida and China.
Contact: James Cuda
