Robert (Bob) E. Wharton (Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA)

Current projects: Bob received a NSF grant to fund the efforts of the Parasitic Hymenoptera Advanced Research Team, which is composed of 7 principle investigators: Kees van Achterberg, Jim Johnson, Paul Marsh, Donald Quicke, Mike Sharkey, Scott Shaw, Bob Wharton and Jim Whitfield. together, under the direction of Bob and Paul Marsh, the team is preparing an illustrated key to the genera of New World Braconidae. This will be in a similar format to the key produced by Marsh, Shaw and Wharton which dealt with the braconid fauna of America north of Mexico except that there will be a subfamily key included and more in the way of text to outline the diversity and biology of the Braconidae. According to commitments made to NSF the project is to be completed in August of 1996 and one can reasonably expect a published product a year thereafter. As part of the NSF funding, Dr. Wharton is committed to presenting several courses on the identification of the Braconidae. In August he travelled to a research station near Chamela which is several miles from the Pacific Ocean in the state of Jalisco, Mexico (along with yours truly, MJS) to give a course to a group of Mexican students and professionals. The research Station is surrounded by seasonally dry deciduous forest and is a great place to collect. There are inexpensive and high quality accommodations and meals to be had right at the reserve. For information the interested reader can write to Felipe A. Noguera, Estación de Biologia, UNAM, Apartado Postal 21, San Patricio, Jalisco 48980, México.Besides his responsibilities with PHART, Bob is continuing some studies on Australian Braconidae and remains busy with his non-braconid research on endangered birds and fruit flies.