Research Focus and Interests

Richard Mankin - Research and Personal Interests Page

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Research

 
• Development of acoustic methods for detection and identification of citrus, surgarcane, and turf soil insect pests

 

 
Examples of recently developed acoustic detection methods:

This is how researchers sampled for soil insects in 1951 (Photo courtesy of James Fisher)

Here is an example of how how we sampled for soil insects in 1999.  Everett Foreman listens to Diaprepes root weevils using an accelerometer in an orange grove at the IFAS Citrus Research Station, Lake Alfred, FL

This is a way we have sampled for insects since 2002.  Everett Foreman is holding an AED2000 portable insect detector at the University of Puerto Rico Adjuntas Experiment station.  The page at the right is from GEO-Korea magazine, p. 152, 2002 #2.

• Detection of  invasive pest insects in trees

 

Acoustic sensors were attached to the base of a dead coconut palm tree  on Guam to assess for presence of larvae of an invasive pest, the coconut rhinoceros beetle.  No insects were detected acoustically, and the prediction is being confirmed by pulling down the trunk and inspecting by hand.

• Bioacoustics and animal communication

 

An accelerometer (vibration sensor) was attached to the base of a citrus tree to examine acoustic communication in the psyllid pest, Diaphorina citri. A duetting pair is shown (male outlined in blue and a female in pink).

 

Microphones were used to detect defensive stridulations produced by two suspended pupae that were agitated by squeezing gently with forceps

 

• Development of methods for detection of stored product insects, including development of acoustic technology for counting and monitoring insect populations

 

Sitophilus oryzae adult on wheat	Technicians Everett Foreman (left) and Cornelius Dunmore (right) holding an Acoustic Location Fingerprinting Insect Detector in the CMAVE anechoic chamber)
	Photo by Keith Weller

 

• Development of the World Wide Web as a tool for scientific communication
• Florida Entomological Society Web Site

Other Interests

• Science as a Philosophical Journey and an Extender of Human Capabilities

    "Science is an adventure of the whole human race to learn to live in and perhaps to love the universe in which they are.  To be part of it is to understand, to understand oneself, to begin to feel that there is a capacity within man, far beyond what he felt he had, of an infinite extension of human possibilities . . ." -- I. I. Rabi

•  Science Education Outreach and Workforce Diversity
• Entry Point (link to employment program for Students with Disabilities in Computer Science and Engineering)
• Foundation for Science and Disability
• Primary Web site
• Local reference

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