By Suzette Cook
On an early spring evening a handful of entomology scientists and student researchers gathered in the forest and stood around a cake decorated with a beetle drawing.
“Thank you for your support,” University of Florida Forest Entomology Lab Manager and Associate Professor of Forest Entomology Jiri Hulcr, Ph.D. said as he handed the cake over to retired Associate Research Scientist at University of Texas Thomas Atkinson, Ph.D.
And then the group, with lights on their foreheads, went on a hunt for beetles deep in woods at UF/IFAS Austin Cary Forest in Gainesville.
The celebration marked a $100,000 donation made by Atkinson to support visiting researchers to Hulcr’s program which is housed at the UF/IFAS School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences (SFFGS). Atkinson is UF alumnus earning his Ph.D. in entomology and nematology from UF in 1979.
Atkinson said his goal for the funding is, “To take what’s already an international program and make it more so.”
He added that his contribution will serve as a reliable, non-grant driven source of support for forest entomology projects.
“It’s for bringing outside scientists in and possibly sending UF students or research associates to other places.”
Atkinson recently moved to Gainesville and said he wanted to support things that are of interest to him and, “Things that weren’t available when I was younger and doing this.”
Hulcr said he will oversee making sure the funds are used to “Nurture the next generation of beetle experts.”
This is the second contribution that Atkinson has made to the UF Forest Entomology Lab in the last year. In December 2025, SFFGS announced the launch of the world’s largest database of bark and ambrosia beetles.
The site: Bark and Ambrosia Beetles of the World, contains 15,778 specimen records, 32,403 images, and 7,987 species – all of the world’s species of bark and ambrosia beetles. Despite the two names, these are one group of insects, but bark beetles live under bark of dead trees, ambrosia beetles burrow deeper in the sapwood and inoculate it with symbiotic fungi which they then eat.
Studying forest insects is important not only because some of them are notorious economic pests, but increasingly because most species are becoming rare as natural forests disappear.
Atkinson provided his database to the UF lab in 2024.
The implementation was funded by the 2024 Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation through a grant from the Florida Forest Service to the UF/IFAS Forest Entomology Lab (https://pitchtube.org/).
“I have been working on this database for nearly 20 years, starting very small and simple and growing in size and complexity ever since,” said Atkinson about the original site.
Atkinson said he chose to turn over his database to UF because he has been working with Hulcr and his students for over 10 years.
“I wanted to see the database survive and get some institutional support from someone younger who is still actively involved,” he said. “Jiri managed to come up with a budget to modernize the web interface, as well as speeding up response time and fixing broken features,” he added.
“The combination of Jiri’s energy and institutional support from UF and IFAS were big factors. This is not a one-time event. Over the coming years we anticipate updates and upgrades. Now that I am a Gainesville resident, this is a very exciting prospect.”
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