"Vector-borne diseases remain a key threat to human health, wildlife, and plants, in part, due to the multitude of factors that influence their transmission," says biologist A. Marm Kilpatrick, assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UC Santa Cruz.

What does climate have to do with it? And other factors?

Kilpatrick will present a seminar, hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, on "Climate, Chemicals and Evolution in the Transmission of Vector-Borne Diseases" at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 7 in 122 Briggs Hall.

"I will integrate findings from multiple systems, including West Nile, Zika and dengue viruses, and mosquito communities more generally, to explore the role of climate, insecticides, host-pathogen interactions, and evolution in driving spatio-temporal patterns of transmission, and the impact of vector borne diseases on their hosts," he says.

Kilpatrick says "the globalization of trade and travel will continue to move viruses, vectors and hosts to new continents and result in the emergence of vector borne diseases, as exemplified by Zika, Chikungunya and West Nile viruses. A sound understanding of the ecology and evolution of these systems is needed to address this challenge."

Kilpatrick received two bachelor's degree from UCLA (one in mechanical engineering and the other in philosophy), a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in zoology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He joined the UC Santa Cruz faculty in 2008 after working as a senior research scientist in the Consortium for Conservation Medicine in New York.

"My research unites theory and empirical work to address basic and applied questions on the ecology of infectious diseases as well as population biology, evolution, climate, behavior, genetics, and conservation, and I would be excited to develop collaborations and advise graduate students in any of these areas," Kilpatrick says on his website. "A key aim is to understand the underlying drivers of pathogen transmission and the impacts on host populations. My general research philosophy is to begin each project by developing a model of the system to generate hypotheses and then test these hypotheses by gathering empirical data. My current research can be divided into three general areas:

• Local determinants of pathogen transmission,
• The impact of disease on animal populations, and
• The spread of pathogens to new regions.

He focuses much of his current work in disease ecology on West Nile virus, "a mosquito-transmitted pathogen that currently causes thousands of human cases each year, as well as affecting millions of animals. However, I also work on several other pathogen systems including chytridiomycosis, Lyme disease, Brucellosis, and avian influenza."

The American Ornithologists' Union awarded him the Ned K. Johnson Young Investigator Award in 2008. The award recognizes outstanding and promising work by researchers early in their career. "Kilpatrick's research on avian influenza ("bird flu") has led to predictions about the global spread of the virulent H5N1 strain of the virus," according to a UC Santa Cruz news story. "His research on West Nile virus includes a recent study on the effects of higher temperatures on transmission of the virus by mosquitoes. He has also shown a connection between increases in human infections and dispersal of American robins, the preferred host of a mosquito species that is an important vector of West Nile virus."

The Kilpatrick seminar is part of the winter quarter schedule of seminars coordinated by assistant professor Rachel Vannette; Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño and Brendon Boudinot.

It's beginning to look a lot like...almond pollination season in California. Almonds usually begin blooming around Valentine's Day, but it's often earlier, depending on where you look or live.

Take Benicia, Solano County. Its little hot spots near the Carquinez Strait--think trees growing near sun-warmed asphalt--yield early almond blooms, often as early as New Year's Day.

At the Matthew Turner Park in Benicia, today, honey bees buzzed around the almond blossoms, gathering pollen and nectar. But the honey bees were not alone.

Yellow-faced bumble bees, Bombus vosnesenskii, were foraging, too.  It's always a treat to see honey bees in the almonds, but it's a double treat to see a bumble bee.

Pollination of California's almond acreage is as intense as it is huge. The 2016 almond acreage totaled 1.2 million acres--940,000 bearing and 300,000 acres non-bearing, according to a report issued in April 2017 by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, in cooperation with the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This year, California has more than a million acres of bearing almonds, and each acre requires two bee hives for pollination.  The leading almond-producing counties? Kern, Fresno, Stanislaus, Merced and Madera.

Solano County, of course, doesn't make the list, but when you want to see the early almond blooms, it's the place to "bee."

Which reminds us of the research, Synergistic Effectgs of non-Apis Bees and Honey Bees for Pollination Services, published by an international team of scientists in the Jan. 10, 2013 edition of The Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The researchers, including pollination ecologist Neal Williams of UC Davis,  found that honey bees are more effective at pollinating almonds when other species of bees are present.

When blue orchard bees and wild (non-managed) bees such as bumble bees, carpenter bees and sweat bees, are foraging in almonds with honey bees, the behavior of  honey bees changes, resulting in more effective crop pollination, said lead author Claire Brittain, then of the Neal Williams lab. She earlier worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. 

“These findings highlight the importance of conserving pollinators and the natural habitats they rely on,” Brittain told us in a news release. “Not only can they play an important direct role in crop pollination, but we also show that they can improve the pollination service of honey bees in almonds.”

 Agroecologist Alexandra-Maria Klein, now a professor at Leuphana University, served as the project lead while a postdoctoral fellow in the UC Berkeley lab of conservation biologist/professor Claire Kremen.  In fact, Klein and Kremen initiated the project in 2008 and continued working on the project together in 2009 and 2010. Williams joined the team in 2010.

Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, now a distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis,  identified 50 different species that the team found. They included bumble bees, small carpenter bees, sweat bees, digger bees, mining bees and blue orchard bees.

Take a look around you during the almond pollination season. The honey bees are not alone. 

Would you like to design and plant a bee friendly garden?

Do you want to attract such pollinators as honey bees, bumble bees and butterflies?

World-class garden designer and avid pollinator advocate Kate Frey of Hopland will be among the speakers at the the fourth annual UC Davis Bee Symposium: Keeping Bees Healthy, set Saturday, March 3 in the UC Davis Conference Room on Alumni Drive. It's sponsored by the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center of the Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine and Food Science, and the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

Frey will speak at 2:45 p.m. on "Designing Bee-Friendly Gardens."  Highly sought for her expertise, Frey won two gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show in London, a rare honor for an American designer. She is the co-author (with professor Gretchen LeBuhn of San Francisco State University) of the award-winning The Bee-Friendly Garden,  published in 2016 by Ten Speed Press. The  American Horticultural Society selected the book as one of the best gardening books of 2017.  

Among Frey's credits: designing and managing the pollinator garden in the Fetzer Vineyards, Hopland; the privately owned and expansive Melissa Garden in Healdsburg; and the gardens at Lynmar Winery, Sebastopol. Her work can also be seen at the Sonoma (Calif.) Cornerstone, where she designed and maintains a pollinator garden. She launched her newest educational venture, The American Garden School, in 2017.  

Kate, who holds a bachelor of arts degree in English, summa cum laude,  currently writes two gardening columns for the Press Democrat newspaper.

Keynote speaker at the UC Davis Bee Symposium is noted bee scientist/professor/author Tom Seeley of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., who will speak on "Darwinian Beekeeping" at 9:15 a.m. Seeley 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 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."

Graduate students throughout the country are invited to submit their research posters. The winners will share $1800 in cash prizes. Applications must be submitted to Liz Luu at luu@caes.ucdavis.edu, by Feb. 12. For the rules, see this web page.

The conference begins with registration and a continental breakfast at 8:30 a.m., with welcomes and introductions at 9 a.m., by Amina Harris and Neal Williams, UC Davis professor of entomology and faculty co-director of the center. Seeley's keynote address follows. 

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.

It's about value. It's about respect. It should not be about fear.

UC Davis entomology major Lohitashwa “Lohit” Garikipati, who will be displaying his praying mantis collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology during the seventh annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day on Saturday, Feb. 17, is keenly interested in sharing information about insects.

“Every organism on the Earth has value, and we should respect that,” says Garikipati, a third-year entomology student who rears praying mantises. “Regardless of its appearance, its lifestyle, or its behaviors, all the life that we see here on Earth is the result of change billions of years in the making. There's nothing that is scary, or disgusting; fear is taught, and the sooner we stop fearing and start appreciating, the sooner we can save as much biodiversity on the Earth as we can. It only takes one second to decide you care enough to stop fearing, so why not start now?”

Lohit (pronounced “Lo-Heat”)  serves as secretary of the UC Davis Entomology Club, which is advised by forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

“What I like most about mantids, besides their amazing appearance, is how charismatic they are compared to other insects,” says Lohit. “Their behavior varies between species, but all have this awareness that most other insects lack, which make them fun to interact with and study. Their predatory behavior is also interesting.”

Garikipati, a native of Pleasanton, Calif., says he's been interested in praying mantises since elementary school. “I started rearing native species in the 5th grade,” he recalled. “I kept a Mantis religiosa (European mantis) and hatched the ooths she laid. Since then I've had in my collection over a dozen species throughout that time. There wasn't any one species that I ended up consistently rearing, as I would get nymphs, rear them ‘til I got a second generation, then trade or sell them to get a new species. I will definitely be keeping orchids as long as I can though!”

Currently in his collection:

• Two adult female orchid mantises (Hymenopus coronatus)
• A pair of male and female adult Australian rainforest mantises (Hierodula majuscula)
• A pair of male and female 4th instar ghost mantises (Phyllocrania paradoxa)
• A 5th instar female African spiny flower mantis (Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii)
• Three third instar Decimiana bolivari (there's no agreed upon common name, but they can be called South American dead leaf mantises, he says).

Why should people like praying mantises? “For a group of insects that's very widely known, there unfortunately is not much scientific work done on them,” says Garikipati. “They've been mostly neglected which is pretty sad to see for such gorgeous insects. From a non-scientific standpoint, mantises can be incredibly interesting to observe, due to their awareness, and their generally curious nature. I've definitely had individuals reared from the hatchling stage that get so comfortable with you they'll just lay in your hand, which is crazy to think that an insect would do such a thing. They have quite the personality! One thing that is rather unfortunate is that the media likes to play up the mantis eating hummingbird brains angle, to get attention, and unfortunately that has given the mantis a negative stigma. While they do eat hummingbirds and many other small vertebrates, the number is astoundingly low compared to the number of animals humans, or even pet cats kill every year. They're generalist predators, meaning they'll eat anything they can catch.”

Lohit traces his interest in all insects to early childhood. “I've had an innate interest in animals in general as long as I can remember, insects just happened to be the most fun and most easy to find and study! The thing that fascinates me most about insects is their massive diversity and the ability insects have to surprise us by breaking what we think an animal can do. For example, wasps photosynthesizing.”

He is interested in enrolling in graduate school, “possibly in Davis--I'm not quite sure yet. Currently, my career plans involve doing research on mantis ecology, as well as updating taxonomy. Many genera need a lot of work and updated descriptions for the species they contain. I would like to be a professor as well!”

When he's not working with insects, Lohit enjoys “playing guitar, going to the gym, or trying to climb the mountain of homework or studying I have!”

Meanwhile, visitors can see learn all about praying mantises--and hold and photograph them--from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Feb. 17 at the Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, Crocker Lane. The Bohart, directed by entomology professor Lynn Kimsey, is the home of a global collection of nearly 8 million insect specimens, and a live "petting zoo," comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas.  Also on Feb. 17, highlights at the Bohart Museum will include the 500,000-specimen butterfly/moth collection, curated by entomologist Jeff Smith; and an insect collection display by Smith and fellow Bohart Museum associates Fran Keller and Dave Wyatt from their latest expedition to Belize. "You'll be able to see the tremendous diversity of butterflies, moths and mantids, and talk to the scientists who have just returned from there," said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.  "There will be orchids and orchid bees connecting the Bohart Museum's work with plant biology and science."

The Bohart Museum is one of the 13 museums or collections on campus where visitors can explore “the diversity of life” on Biodiversity Museum Day.  All are within walking distance on campus except for the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road and the Raptor Center on Old Davis Road. Set from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the event is free and open to the public. Parking is also free. Times will vary from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and from noon to 4 p.m..

The following will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.:

• Arboretum and Public Garden, Good Life Garden, next to the Robert Mondavi Wine and Food Science Institute, 392 Old Davis Road, on campus
• Bohart Museum of Entomology, Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, Crocker Lane
• California Raptor Center, 340 Equine Lane, off Old Davis Road
• Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Room 1394, Academic Surge Building, Crocker Lane
• Paleontology Collection, Earth and Physical Sciences Building, 434 LaRue Road
• Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine and Food Science, 392 Old Davis Road, on campus
• Viticulture and Enology Culture Collection, Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine and Food Science, 392 Old Davis Road, on campus

The following will be open from noon to 4 p.m.:

• Anthropology Museum, 328 Young Hall and grounds
• Design Museum, 124 Cruess Hall, off California Avenue
• Botanical Conservatory, Greenhouses along Kleiber Hall Drive
• Center for Plant Diversity, Sciences Laboratory Building, off Kleiber Hall Drive
• Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, Bee Biology Road, off Hopkins Road (take West Hutchison Drive to Hopkins)
• Nematode Collection, Sciences Laboratory Building, off Kleiber Hall Drive

All participating museums and collections have active education and outreach programs, Yang said, but the collections are not always accessible to the public. See capsule information about the museums and collections here.   In the event of rain, alternative locations are planned for the outdoor sites. Maps, signs and guides will be available at all the collections, online, and on social media, including Facebook and Twitter, @BioDivDay.