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PROBLEMS WITH TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND

COLLABORATORS IN SECURING BIOLOGICAL DATA

Researchers may often encounter problems when deploying technical assistance or collaborators in the acquisition of biological data. Especially without constant supervision the assistance of a person not thoroughly knowledgeable in an experiment can produce conflicting results. Several examples of actual conflicts clarify the problem:

1. While comparing the effects of various lethal compounds on wheat field populations of the brown wheat mite in Idaho and Utah the assistance of a graduate student in counting mite numbers on specially processed samples resulted in a discrepancy when checks were made by the project leader. However, as the use of a binocular microscope was required the counts might vary with the nearsighted student and far sighted project leader.

2. Comparisons of herbivorous fish for aquatic weed reduction in experimental ponds at the University of California could not be made because the technician began to feel sorry for the fish that had consumed most of the vegetation in some pond replicates. He had therefore supplied them with catfish pellets as food without informing the project leader.

3. A several year study of field populations of a species of Matsucoccus mite on pinyon pine in California involved taking yearly samples during the late winter months when the mites were in hibernation. This mite had no known natural enemies to regulation its population. Samples consisted of twelve inches of terminal shoots, which were taken to the laboratory where the number of mites present on the first six inches of each shoot were counted by the project leader and a technical assistant. All of the data was provided to a graduate student who expanded the study to obtain a Masters Degree. However, the student received erroneous information from the technician involved in counting the samples who told him that all mites on twelve inches of a sample were counted.

4. California cultures of gregarious and solitary races of a parasitic insect on house fly, Musca domestica in South America were provided to a laboratory in Europe for further study. The California cultures that had been maintained for several years by various technicians eventually became mixed so that the experiments in Europe revealed some differences from previous published results. Acquisition of new cultures from the field in South America also differed to some extent. Nevertheless, some differences were blamed on procedures used in the original studies.

5. The introduction of Australian natural enemies of the pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella, were made in a purchased cotton field in Western Arizona that was to receive no insecticides. A graduate student assigned to the project while taking cotton samples in the field observed an airplane spraying the entire field with insecticides.

6. The successful establishment of Goniozus legneri on Navel orangeworm, Amyelois transitells, in California involved field liberations of the natural enemy at multiple statewide sites to guarantee survival. One collaborator at Chico, California who had a mature almond orchard that he no longer wanted to keep had the whole orchard cut down just before samples were to be taken to appraise the results. When he was asked why the researchers were not notified before the removal, he replied that he was not satisfied with the number of parasitic insects that were released in his orchard. A second orchard in the Chico area nevertheless produced positive results for the establishment of the parasite.