Cover photograph (Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.): A weanling southern elephant seal on the subantarctic Macquaire Island, which lies some 2,000 km south of the Australian mainland. These animals are infested with the species-specific bloodsucking louse, Lepidophthirus macrorhini, shortly after birth. A new alphavirus was isolated from these lice, and nearly all the seals tested were seropositive for this new virus. This represents the first arbovirus of marine mammals and illustrates that alphaviruses also inhabit Antarctica and that Anopluran lice can transmit virus. Whether this virus contributes to seal pathology or the global decline in seal numbers has yet to be established. (See related article on page 4103.)