- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ant specialists and other researchers also hone in on big-eyed ants for their relationships with plants.
Those attending a UC Davis seminar this week on big ants will learn all about them, including the phylogenetic morphology.
Brendon Boudinot, a Ph.D. candidate in the Phiil Ward lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will speak on "Phylogenetic Morphology of the Big-Eyed Tree Ants and Kin (Formicidae: Pseudomyrmecinae)" at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 28 in 122 Briggs Hall.
This is one of the seminars hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology for the winter quarter.
"Like their closest relatives, the infamous bulldog ants of Australia, the big-eyed tree ants have a nasty sting, but this isn't what draws our attention to them," he says. "Rather, many species of big-eyed ants have intimate relationships with plants. In the most extreme cases, the ants act as the plants' personal body guards, raining down upon perceived threats as a deluge of stings, and even pruning away competitive vegetation, forming eerily still 'satan's gardens' in South America.'
"In some cases, the plants contribute to the social wellbeing of the ants by investing in public housing, with the ants making their nests in preformed cavities within the plants, such as in the swollen thorns of various Acacia," Boudinot points out. "Indeed, these same Acacia provide the sole nutrition for their protectives ants, in the form of small, yellow, protein-rich food bodies at the tips of their leaves---in other words, the ants have become full vegans. Current evidence suggests that these tight relationships have evolved perhaps a dozen times within the big-eyed ants. However, the adaptations of these ants to living in state-sponsored societies is uncertain. It is one of the objectives of the present research to understand how the bodies of big-eyed ants have transformed over time, allowing the ants to optimize their relationship with plants."
Boudinot will be illustrating his seminar with stunning photos of big-eyed ants, the work of Alex Wild, who received his doctorate in entomology from UC Davis (studying with Phil Ward). Wild is now curator of entomology, University of Austin, Texas.
The UC Davis Entomology and Nematology's series of seminars for the winter quarter are coordinated by assistant professor Rachel Vannette; Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño and Brendon Boudinot.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Distributed throughout South and Central America, orchid bees are easily distinguished by their brilliant metallic coloration, primarily green, gold and blue, says researcher Santiago Ramirez, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology.
He'll discuss "The Evolution and Chemical Ecology of Orchid Bees" at the fourth annual UC Davis Bee Symposium: Keeping Bees Healthy on Saturday, March 3 in the UC Davis Conference Center. His talk begins at 10:15 a.m.
“Insects rely more on chemical signals than on any other sensory modality to find, identify, and choose mates,” Ramirez points out. “Euglossine--or orchid--bees constitute a diverse group of conspicuous insect pollinators from tropical America. Male euglossine bees do not produce their own pheromones, but instead gather and accumulate perfume compounds from orchid flowers, fungi, and other resources, to subsequently present to females during courtship display.”
"They are extremely charismatic organisms," he says.
"Male-gathered perfumes are stereotyped, species-specific, and divergent among closely related taxa, suggesting that they play a key role in maintaining, and possibly originating, reproductive isolation among lineages."
Ramirez says that “Most insects rely on chemical signals (semiochemicals) to gain precise information on the location, identity, and quality of potential mates. Despite the ubiquity and importance of semiochemicals across the insect phylogeny, the underlying genetic and molecular mechanisms that control signal chemistry and signal detection remain poorly understood. Moreover, whether insect sex semiochemicals mediate reproductive isolation, speciation, and lineage diversification remains surprisingly unexplored given the vast diversity and ecological dominance of insects on Earth.”
His research involves integrating diverse techniques from multiple disciplines, including behavioral ecology, chemical ecology, population genetics, functional genomics, and neuroethology “to answer specific questions about the genetic basis, function, and evolution of chemosensory communication in arguably one of the most important groups of insect pollinators in the American tropics.”
Ramirez received his bachelor's degree in biology, with honors, from the Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) in 2001, and his doctorate in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University in 2008. He served as a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley from 2008 to 2012 before joining the UC Davis faculty in 2013.
The symposium is sponsored by the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine and Food Science, and the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Keynote speaker at the symposium is noted bee scientist/professor/author Tom Seeley of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., who will speak on "Darwinian Beekeeping."
The daylong event "is designed for beekeepers of all experience levels, including gardeners, farmers and anyone interested in the world of pollination and bees," said Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center. "In addition to our speakers, there will be lobby displays featuring graduate student research posters, the latest in beekeeping equipment, books, honey, plants, and much more."
To register, access the Honey and Pollination Center website. For more information, contact Amina Harris at aharris@ucdavis.edu or Liz Luu at luu@caes.ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 31 percent of all American farmers are women, contributing $12.9 billion to the agricultural economy, says Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center and coordinator of the fourth annual UC Davis Bee Symposium, set Saturday March 3 in the UC Davis Conference Center. Quoting from an article in Bee Culture magazine): "In national beekeeping groups women represented less than a third of leadership positions."
Statistics from Bee Culture also indicate that of the
- national/regional beekeeping/pollinator groups: 30.4 percent are women
- state beekeeping associations: 30 percent are women
- local beekeeping clubs: 42 percent are women
Beekeeper Sharon Schmidt of Phoenix, Ore., who founded the Cascade Girl Organization-Oregon Honey Festival, will shed light on the subject during the Bee Symposium's lightning round on "Women in Beekeeping."
She'll focus on "Women in Beekeeping: Past Accomplishments and Future Pathways."
"I believe we are observing a phenomena among women in which it appears that we are beginning to value ourselves and our skills and becoming more willing to learn from each other," Schmidt says.
Schmidt, who maintains bee hives in Phoenix, at a winery in Ashland, and a nursery in Central Point, traces her interest in bees to her beekeeper grandmother. "And my father passed my love of bees and probably more importantly--my understanding of them--along to me. I come from a long line of Wisconsin farmer-cheese makers."
Schmidt founded and directs the non-profit Cascade Girl Organization, which advocates "Healthy Pollinators, Flowers, Landscapes, People." The group sponsors the annual Oregon Honey Festival, which takes place in Ashland on Aug. 18. She serves on the executive board.
Looking back, Schmdit commented: "I became actively involved in learning about bees as both my attraction to them and my increasing sense of alarm about the environment. The alarm was triggered by my observation of the concurrent and ongoing upward trend in morbidity and mortality among both people and pollinators. I felt and still believe that there is a common denominator."
Registration is still underway for the all-day UC Davis Bee Symposium, Harris says. The event, open to all interested persons, features keynote speaker Tom Seeley of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., who will discuss "Darwinian Beekeeping."
Seeley, a bee scientist, professor and author, is the Horace White Professor in Biology, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, where he teaches courses on animal behavior and researches the behavior and social life of honey bees. He's the author of Honeybee Ecology: A Study of Adaptation in Social Life(1985), The Wisdom of the Hive: the Social Physiology of Honey Bee Colonies (1995), and Honeybee Democracy(2010), all published by Princeton University Press. His books will be available for purchase and signing at the symposium.
The symposium is sponsored by the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, part of the Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine and Food Science, and the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The daylong event "is designed for beekeepers of all experience levels, including gardeners, farmers and anyone interested in the world of pollination and bees," says Harris. "In addition to our speakers, there will be lobby displays featuring graduate student research posters, the latest in beekeeping equipment, books, honey, plants, and much more."
At the close of the symposium, a reception will take place in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus.
(Editor's note: Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño and her lab teach beekeeping courses at UC Davis and also offer the California Master Beekeeper Program.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Quick question:
What was diagnostic parasitologist Lauren Camp of the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital wearing on her head as she talked about the nematode collection last Saturday at the seventh annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day?
“The hookworm in that image is a parasite of dogs,” explained Camp, who received her doctorate in entomology in 2016 from UC Davis, studying with major professor Steve Nadler, chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology. “This nematode lives in the small intestine of dogs, and is pretty small, at around 14-16 mm. Dogs can have no symptoms from this parasite, but the parasite can be fatal in some cases. Some of the hookworm samples I showed on Saturday were red because hookworms eat blood from their hosts in addition to eating the intestinal lining. Importantly, Ivana Li made the hat for me using papier mache!”
That would be entomologist Ivana Li, a UC Davis biology lab manager who received her bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Davis in 2013.
Among nematologists staffing the collection, displayed from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Sciences Laboratory Building, were graduate students Corwin Parker and Chris Pagan, who study with major professor Steve Nadler.
Camp, who hails from rural northern Indiana, first became interested in parasites as an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago, where she received her bachelor's degree in biology in 2005. She went on to earn her master's degree in biology from Wake Forest University in 2007 and her doctorate from UC Davis in December 2017. Her doctoral research focused on the genetic characterization of raccoon roundworm, a zoonotic nematode, in North America.
Camp joined the Clinical Diagnostic Laboratories Parasitology Lab in August 2017. Her responsibilities include looking through feces to find and identify parasites. “Many of these parasites are nematodes,” she points out.
"My specific interest in nematode parasites developed when I read some of Dr. Nadler's work on the evolutionary relationships of nematodes for an invertebrate biology class," she related.
Nematologists are accustomed to answering "What's a nematode?"
In one word, "worms."
“Nematodes are an amazing phylum of organisms--they exist in almost every known environment on the planet, and different species eat everything from bacteria and fungi to plant and animal tissue," Camp told us back in 2017, prior to setting up a display at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on Parasite Palooza. "I find parasites particularly fascinating, because they are dependent on another organism (or organisms) for part or all of their life cycle."
Camp appeared Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017 on Good Day Sacramento's "Parasite Palooza" show with entomologist Jeff Smith, curator of the moth and butterfly specimens at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. They shared and showed specimens and live insects. Camp mentioned a 30-foot-long whale nematode. (See http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/category/spoken-word-good-day/3610653-parasite-palooza/). Her public service activities also include speaking to Capital Public Radio. (See http://www.capradio.org/88726.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
As temperatures climbed into the seventies last Saturday, honey bees foraged in the California native plant, Brandegee's sage (Salvia brandegeei). and pollinated the almond blossoms.
It seemed like spring.
Nearly 600 visitors crowded into the half-acre bee demonstration garden, the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven during the seventh annual UC Davis Biodioversity Museum Day. The haven was one of 13 museums or collections offering special activities.
Visitors learned about bees, engaged in a catch-and-release bee activity with a vacuum device and made "feed-the-bees" seed cookies to take home.
The haven, part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is located on Bee Biology Road, next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. A six-foot-long bee sculpture, Miss Beehaven, by artist Donna Billick, co-founder and co-director of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, anchors the garden. Other art, coordinated by entomology professor Diana Ullman, co-founder and director of the Art/Science Fusion Program, and Billick, also graces the garden.
The haven, installed in the fall of 2009, was named for its principal donor, the premium ice cream brand, Häagen-Dazs. Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology serves as the faculty director of the haven, and Christine Casey, academic program management officer, serves as the staff manager.