This story is of special interest to South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba.
Newswise — Professor Billy Fuller works in a world where hideous creatures wage war against each other and compete with humans, where monsters sometimes turn out to be allies.
Take the ground beetle Calleida decora, for example. Fuller, an entomologist in South Dakota State University’s Department of Plant Science, has done the work quantifying its role as a predator that feeds on soybean pests — a friend to humans, in other words. Fuller is happy to roll out on his computer screen one of his own photographs of Calleida decora enjoying a gruesome lunch in a soybean field to show why it’s such a terror to soybean pests.
It’s because of such work that Fuller’s peers in the Upper Midwest have voted him president-elect of the North Central Branch of the Entomological Society of America. He will begin important administrative duties this year and will serve as president of the regional organization in 2012.
It’s the first time a South Dakota State University scientist has headed the North Central Branch. The regional organization includes the states of South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba.
“Dr. Fuller’s election by his peers demonstrates the high regard that he enjoys and the prominence of SDSU entomology program in the North Central region,” SDSU Plant Science Department Head Sue Blodgett said.
Fuller said the Entomological Society of America, through its regional organizations, knits together researchers, students and industry people who study the biology and management of insects — partly because insects are fascinating in themselves, partly because they are relentless competitors. Insect species adapted to certain plant species thrive on monocultures where humans devote large acreages to growing a single crop. But importantly, for humans, insects also exploit each other.
One of Fuller’s early accomplishments involved successfully relocating red imported fire ant colonies and assessing their predatory potential against moth larvae that feed on crops.
“Investigating the role of natural enemies against major insect pests has been an important area of my research during my entomological career,” Fuller said.
He also established the first economic threshold for managing sugarcane borers in sweet sorghum and made a comprehensive assessment of the beneficial arthropods that keep pests at bay in sweet sorghum — notably the red imported fire ant, the most dominant predatory insect in sweet sorghum.
Some of his work over the years investigated improved rangeland grasshopper management using non-traditional alternatives. This included evaluating the effects of Beauveria bassiana, a fungus found in soils that acts as a parasite of arthropods, and diflubenzuron treatments on rangeland non-target organisms. He co-directed cooperative research with federal Agricultural Research Service scientists on biological and chemical control of cereal grain pests. Early in his career, he was a lead scientist on a regional study evaluating use of reduced rates of insecticide for controlling corn rootworms.
“I still work a lot with pesticides are in some cases the only answer that is available to farmers and producers, but I still try to look at ways to use those pesticides so that they don’t harm the natural or biological control agents that we may be able to employ,” Fuller said.
Fuller said from ancient times, insects have benefited from human activities such as trade to establish a foothold in new environments. Just as American colonists faced a new threat from the Hessian fly in the years immediately after the American Revolution, producers in the Upper Midwest are still learning to deal with new threats such as soybean aphids — an Asian insect that was first documented in North America in the state of Wisconsin in the year 2000. That’s why the work of organizations such as the North Central Branch of the Entomological Society of America will continue to be important.
But Fuller adds that it’s a two-way street. Insects from North America have also caused problems as invasive species in Europe and Asia. And the future will bring more of the same sort of challenge — winged, creeping or crawling — for producers everywhere.
“Insects have been a major competitor against man and his food supply for as long as people know,” Fuller said. “If you look at the way insects are able to adapt and their ability to exploit almost every niche on the planet, it’s very similar to the way the human populations have moved around and taken over different habitats. They come along with us, and they compete quite well.”
Fuller has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Auburn University, a master’s degree in entomology from Clemson University, and a doctorate in entomology from Louisiana State University.
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