- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's the second annual UC Davis Bee Symposium: Keeping Bees Healthy.
Keynote speakers are bee scientists Yves Le Conte, director of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, Paris, and Dennis vanEnglesdorp, professor of entomology at the University of Maryland, College Park.
The daylong symposium, to take place in the UC Davis Conference Center, is set from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Open to the public, it is sponsored by the Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and the Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Le Conte, known throughout Europe for his varroa mite research and the effects on honey bees, will speak on “Honey Bees That Survive Varroa Mite in the World: What We Can Learn from the French Bees.”
In addition to his groundbreaking work in Europe, Le Conte collaborated with bee scientist Gene Robinson at the University of Illinois to isolate the pheromone that helps regulate labor in the honey bee colony. Le Conte has also worked with Mark Winston, Marion Ellis and many others throughout the country. He is a member of the advisory board of the Bee Informed Partnership, which strives to help beekeepers keep healthy and stronger colonies.
VanEnglesdorp was one of several founders of the Bee Informed Partnership. “As I traveled across the country sampling bees to try to find out what was killing them, beekeepers everywhere said that what they needed was a way to find out what other beekeepers did and which of those things worked,” he said. “Along with a group of our country's most influential apiculturists, the Bee Informed Partnership took hold.”
“This is going to be a very exciting symposium,” said organizer Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute. “Not only are we bringing together two leading researchers for our keynote sessions, we will have presentations from several other ground breaking entomologists in the state: Claire Kremen, a MacArthur Foundation Fellow from UC Berkeley, Quinn McFrederick from the UC Riverside and Rachel Vannette and Brian Johnson from the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.”
In describing last year's inaugural Bee Health Symposium as “an overwhelming success,” Clare Hasler-Lewis, executive director of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, said: “With a focus on exploring best management practices that help sustain the bee population for the future, we believe the 2016 Symposium will have even greater impact!”
The day-long symposium will conclude with a reception in the Robert Mondavi Institute's Good Life Garden where appetizers, mead, cyser (mead made with apples), local honey beers and assorted other beverages will be served.
Other Program Highlights
Graduate Student Research Poster Competition: Graduate student entomologists from UC Davis and UC Berkeley will present their research during the lunchtime poster session.
Lightning Round: This year's lightning round will include information from California Extension apiculturist Elina Niño, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, on her development of California's first Master Beekeeping Certification Program. Five other researchers and beekeepers are scheduled to provide five-minute presentations.
Vendors and Educational Exhibits: Vendors and educational exhibits will line the corridors of the Conference Center with beekeeping equipment, honey tastings, bee T-shirts and other items. The UC Bookstore will offer bee and honey-related books.
UC Davis, recently ranked No. 1 nationally for its Department of Entomology and Nematology, continues to lead the way in agricultural innovation and sustainability, in part through its pollinator-related research and conferences, including the Bee Symposium. The symposium is made possible through a generous gift from the Springcreek Foundation.
Tickets are $80, which includes breakfast, lunch and the reception. Student tickets are $20 (with valid identification). To register for this event, access http://honey.ucdavis.edu/events/2016-bee-symposium. For more information, contact Amina Harris at aharris@ucdavis.edu or (530) 754-9301. Prospective vendors should contact Liz Luu at Luu@caes.ucdavis.edu.
The UC Davis Conference Center is located on Alumni Lane, across from the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Lately she's been heavily involved in ongoing studies with the endemic insect species of the Algodones Dunes in southern California and with the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups in Indonesia. Scientists and students from throughout the world clamor to work with her.
Now she's the recipient of the UC Davis Academic Senate's Distinguished Public Service Award.
That would be Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"The Bohart Museum is SO friendly and SO helpful and SO knowledgeable" is a comment heard all the time.
The nearly eight million insect specimens housed in the Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, are, in many respects, her babies. That's how well she and her staff treasure them, care for them, and engage people in the fascinating world of insects. Her "clientele" range from scientists to citizen scientists, from families to individuals, and from pre-schoolers to senior citizens.
“Dr. Kimsey has made outstanding contributions to public service and education through the numerous programs she has envisioned and directed through the Bohart Museum of Entomology,” said Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. “She is very deserving of this prestigious award.”
She will be honored at a combined Academic Senate/Academic Federation awards ceremony during the spring quarter.
Highly esteemed for her public service, teaching and research, Kimsey consults with international, national and state agencies; identifies thousands of insects every year for scientific collaborators, public agencies and the general public; answers scores of news media calls and insect questions; and encourages a greater appreciation of insects through the Bohart Museum open houses, workshops and lectures.
Her areas of expertise include insect biodiversity, systematics and biogeography of parasitic wasps, urban entomology and arthropod-related industrial hygiene.
Kimsey, who received both her undergraduate degree (1975) and her doctorate (1979) from UC Davis, joined the entomology faculty in 1989. The director of the Bohart Museum and executive director of the Bohart Museum Society since 1990, she has also served as interim chair and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, now the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
A two-year past president of the International Society of Hymenopterists, and a former board member of the Natural Science Collections Alliance, Kimsey is active in the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and the Washington Entomological Society. The Pacific Branch of ESA (PBESA) honored her and colleagues Eric Mussen, Robbin Thorp, Neal Williams and Brian Johnson—“the UC Davis Bee Team”--with the outstanding team award in 2013. Kimsey also received the PBESA Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity Award in 2014.
Nominators spotlighted some of her major accomplishments and activities:
Bohart Museum of Entomology: Kimsey turned a tiny museum, a hole in the wall, into a thriving world- renowned museum through her highly successful leadership, knowledge and dedicated efforts to make the museum the place to be—not only for scientific collaborators but for the public. The museum holds open houses on many weekends during the academic year. It has a gift shop and a live “petting zoo” filled with Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and a rose-haired tarantula named “Peaches,” a crowd favorite. Kimsey has written spring, summer, fall and winter newsletters since 1994 and a total of 56 insect/arthropod educational fact sheets, with topics ranging from bed bugs, cockroaches and black-widow spiders to ticks, fleas, scorpions and kissing bugs. “The museum is an incredible wealth of information. Kimsey, unselfish with her time, shares her expertise at workshops and seminars, including the California Center for Urban Horticulture,” her nominators said.
Got an Insect Question? For two decades, the department has asked on its website “Got an Insect Question? Ask It Here!” Kimsey is the key person who answers them. She is widely considered as the most accomplished faculty member in understanding the general knowledge of insects, according to Entomological Society of America fellow Robert Washino, emeritus professor and former chair of the department. Kimsey is not only the go-to entomologist to answer questions about insects on the UC Davis campus and beyond, but is a primary go-to person for the news media. The Los Angeles Times, New York Times, BBC, and Associated Press, among others, seek her out. “Her interviews are always informative, educational and animated,” her nominators said.
Teaching: Kimsey is described as “enthusiastic about teaching and highly responsive to students' questions and needs.” She is one of the innovators of One-Minute Entomology, at which students researched and developed one-minute videos on an important insect or arthropod. Her students say she makes entomology both fun and educational and that her sense of humor is contagious.
NASA SPLAT—She was the only entomologist selected for the NASA SPLAT/Boeing team to research how to decrease bug splats on aircraft and thus increase fuel efficiency in commercial jets. NASA engineers developed four different surface treatments designed to repel bugs and Boeing developed wing modifications to test an aircraft at Shreveport, La. A Boeing EcoDemonstrator 575 took flight, reaching an altitude of 5000 feet to maximize bug splats. The panels generated 100 and 500 splats each. Kimsey identified all the insects and found that a relatively small number of species caused the bulk of the splats. They included flower flies, aphids, thrips, muscid flies, midges, mosquitoes and love bugs. “Her work is a great public service to NASA, the airline industry and worldwide passengers who depend on air travel,” her nominators said.
FBI Assist: In a highly publicized, first-of-its-kind criminal case, Kimsey identified the bugs on the radiator and air filter of a new rental car involved in a major murder case. The murder suspect was found guilty of driving the car from Ohio to California, killing his family, and driving back to Ohio. His defense included that he had not driven out of Ohio during that time frame. Kimsey's knowledge and identification of insects proved that some of the bugs on the car are found only in California and/or west of the Rockies. Kimsey testified at the trial in a case that made entomological history: this was the first time someone has used insect identification to prove where a car has or has not been
Bee Garden: As interim chair of the department, Kimsey coordinated the development and installation of the bee garden on Bee Biology Road that was named one of the top 10 garden destinations by the Sacramento Bee. Through her connections, she also obtained the services of a Boy Scout troop to install a fence around the half- acre garden. As a result, the garden (primarily funded by Häagen-Dazs), became a showpiece for the department and is a key educational effort illustrating the importance of honey bees and other pollinators.
Lynn and her husband Robert "Bob" Kimsey, a forensic entomologist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, have two adult children. Neither is an entomologist--one is into computers, the other into firefighting and fire science.
You can bet, though, they were thoroughly exposed to all things insects. And still are.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Or, she might say "A fly is a fly is a fly."
Oh, my.
That's because major corporations, news media and people-who-should-know-or-who-should-at-least-fact-check are still confusing honey bees with flies.
May Berenbaum, 2016 president of the 7000-member Entomological Society of America (ESA) and a National Medal of Science recipient, recently received a solicitation letter from a well-known nature corporation asking her to help the honey bees.
All's well and good, right? Wrong. The photo on the envelope was not of her beloved honey bee. It was a photo of a fly. A syrphid fly.
Oops!
Never send a fly to an ESA president, the top of the entomological chain, and claim it's a bee.
Apparently this corporation--okay, the Sierra Club, as this is all over the Internet--obtained the "bee" photo from someone who could not distinguish certain species in the order Hymenoptera (which includes honey bees) and the order Diptera (flies). The drone fly, Eristalis tenax, is often confused with the honey bee, Apis mellifera. To entomologists, it's like confusing an elephant with a giraffe.
Berenbaum, who also has a keen sense of humor, posted a blurb on her Facebook page about the fly.
"Really, Sierra Club? You send a letter asking to help save honeybees with a photo of a syrphid fly on the envelope?" (She also pointed out that "honey bee" is two words, not one.)
That drew all kinds of comments:
- Save the syrphids!!!
- Is there a syrphid that mimics a honey bee? Maybe they fell for it.
- That is so terrible it's almost wonderful.
- Personally, I'm wondering who the heck is taking all of the pictures of syrphids!! Aren't bees a lot more common?
- I may have to use this in my next lecture about mimicry and how successful it can be, even against visual-based predators.
- May and I were close friends in high school and, I'm pretty sure that she is the smartest person I've ever met.
- Well, Eristalis tenax is just such a great mimic, I am proud of that species!
- I see images of bumble bees with "Save the Honeybee" on stickers. Kind of like "Save the Cow" with a picture of a bison, or worse. How to offer professional advice/fact checking for articles/media? Would love to do it!
- That's funny and sad at the same time!
- There are so many syrphid photos that have been used as bees, I begin to wonder if most people really don't know what bees look like!
But my favorite:
So we were sitting at the dinner table and a friend said "If only someone was running for president who was worth voting for."
Without missing a beat, my daughter said "What about May Berenbaum?"
You've now been duly nominated.
What do you think?
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Mosquitoes have their place.
Fossil records confirm that mosquitoes existed at least 200 million years ago. Today we know that they are responsible for such diseases as malaria, yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya, West Nile and Zika. Globally, millions die of mosquito-borne diseases annually.
On the good side--if you can call it the good side--mosquitoes are part of the food chain for some critters. Fish and reptiles, for example, eat mosquito larvae. Birds, bats, dragonflies, damselflies, spiders and other critters eat adult mosquitoes. Female mosquitoes, including the malaria mosquito (Anopheles gambiae) and the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) feed on us.
Mosquitoes have their place.
They also have their place in the Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. In the Bohart gift shop, you can buy insect-themed t-shirts, posters, books and candy. You can buy insect nets, jewelry and stuffed toy animals. Stuffed toy animals? Think educational toys: lice, tardigrades and mosquitoes.
The text with the Culex mosquito is informative: "There are about 3000 species of mosquito, but Culex pipiens is the most common. It is found almost all over the world, except in Antarctica. Spanish for 'little fly,' mosquitoes beat their wings between 300 and 600 times per second. The unnerving sound they create differs from species to species,and listening for the right note helps males and female mosquitoes coordinate their social lives to find suitable mates."
The educational text goes on to say that "wearing long pants and shirts, particularly at dawn and dusk, can help avoid bites in the first place. Mosquitoes are extremely attracted to the carbon dioxide you exhale, and they can detect it up to 75 feet away--so you can also try holding your breath!"
Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor of entomology at UC Davis, says the stuffed animal mosquitoes were made by a company in Delaware: Giantmicrobes Inc.
We can see children (future entomologists?) collecting a Culex and placing it next to their teddy bear. Or a teacher using it in her classroom. Or a medical entomologist or entomology student gifted with one.
The Bohart Museum houses nearly eight million insect specimens (including mosquitoes) but a little known fact is that the gift shop is home to some skeeters, too.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
In the movie, "Field of Dreams," an Iowa corn farmer hears a voice whispering "If you build it, he will come." Apparently thinking this is the voice of his father, the farmer plows under his corn and builds a baseball field.
We are hearing a similar whisper as spring approaches. "Plant pollinator-friendly flowers and they will come."
Are you ready for spring, which begins March 19? The UC Davis Arboretum is, and has scheduled its first plant sale of the season on Saturday, March 12. It's actually Member Appreciation Plant Sale--members only--but folks can join at the door and participate in the appreciativeness.
The event takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive, UC Davis campus.
Arboretum officials, noting that there is "life after lawn," are encouraging area residents to create a low-water landscape "that not only looks great, but one that attracts beneficial wildlife with our incredible selection of gorgeous Arboretum All-Stars,California natives, as well as other great drought-tolerant plants."
Access the Arboretum website for more information on what's available and for the dates of the other plant sales (April 2, April 23 and May 14).
Life is good, but it's better when you can create a field of dreams in your own yard. Just add honey bees. And bumble bees. And butterflies. And other pollinators.
Plant 'em and they will come.