Research published today in the journal Nature about neonicintoid pesticide exposure and bumble bees is causing quite the buzz, and keeping noted bumble bee expert Robbin Thorp busy fielding phone calls.

The article: "Neonicotinoid Ppesticide Exposure Impairs Crop Pollination Services Provided by Bumblebees." 

Seeking his expertise, journalists are contacting Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, who maintains an office at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, and also works at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. 

The research, by a team of six UK colleagues, indicates that neonics are hindering the pollination services of bumble bees. Corresponding author is Nigel E. Raine of the School of Biological Science, Royal Holloway University of London and his team wrote in the abstract: 

"Recent concern over global pollinator declines has led to considerable research on the effects of pesticides on bees. Although pesticides are typically not encountered at lethal levels in the field, there is growing evidence indicating that exposure to field-realistic levels can have sublethal effects on bees, affecting their foraging behaviour, homing ability and reproductive success Bees are essential for the pollination of a wide variety of crops and the majority of wild flowering plants but until now research on pesticide effects has been limited to direct effects on bees themselves and not on the pollination services they provide. Here we show the first evidence to our knowledge that pesticide exposure can reduce the pollination services bumblebees deliver to apples, a crop of global economic importance. Bumblebee colonies exposed to a neonicotinoid pesticide provided lower visitation rates to apple trees and collected pollen less often. Most importantly, these pesticide-exposed colonies produced apples containing fewer seeds, demonstrating a reduced delivery of pollination services. Our results also indicate that reduced pollination service delivery is not due to pesticide-induced changes in individual bee behaviour, but most likely due to effects at the colony level. These findings show that pesticide exposure can impair the ability of bees to provide pollination services, with important implications for both the sustained delivery of stable crop yields and the functioning of natural ecosystems."

The researchers studied Thiamethoxam, one of the neonics. 

Thorp, who was not involved in the research, is a global expert on bumble bees, as well as other bees. He co-authored Bumble Bees of North America: an Identification Guide (Princeton University) published in 2014, and California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday), also published in 2014.

Thorp was quoted today in the well-researched Washington Post piece, "New Research Reignites Concerns that Pesticides Are Harming Bees," written by freelance journalist  Chelsea Harvey, who specializes in environmental health and policy.

“Most of the studies in the past have focused on direct effects on the bees, both the adults and the larvae,” Thorp told Harvey. "These can include effects on bee mortality or reproduction...“This study now clearly demonstrates that in addition to effects on the bees, both direct effects and sublethal indirect effects, that these effects are influencing their ability to pollinate plants. And they used apple as an example of this, as an important crop.”

The topic is quite controversial, but the importance of pollination is not. Inadequate pollination can lead to unfavorable effects on agricultural crop production.  For example, bumble bees may not forage on the apple blossoms as much or as long. That could lead to poor fruit quality and decreased apple production.

Why are bumble bees important? “They're extremely important in pollination of our native ecosystems, and many of them…are important contributors to crop pollination," Thorp told the Washington Post.

Bumble bees are known for their specialized pollination of tomatoes and watermelon, but they also pollinate many other agricultural crops.

Thorp points out that with the decline of the honey bee population, the work of other pollinators is becoming  increasingly crucial.

Thorp anticipates that the study will open doors for more research involving neonics and wild bees. "Even if the study can't be generalized to all bees or all crops, it raises more questions in the ongoing debate over pesticide use in the U.S.," Harvey pointed out in her news article.

“I think it's kind of a wake-up call to growers that they ought to be paying more attention to what they're putting on their crops,” Thorp told Harvey. “Because it's coming right out of their pocket as well if they're damaging the ability of pollinators that they rely on to pollinate their crops.”  

Thorp has long been part of the mission to save the declining bumble bee population. He works closely on bumble bee conservation with Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, headquartered in Portland, Ore.

The Xerces Society emphasizes the importance of bumble bees on it  website. ""Bumble bees are important pollinators of wild flowering plants and crops. They are generalist foragers, and thus do not depend on any one flower type. However, some plants rely on bumble bees to achieve pollination. Loss of bumble bees can have far ranging ecological impacts due to their role as pollinators. In Britain and the Netherlands, where multiple pollinator species have gone extinct, there is evidence of a decline in the abundance of insect pollinated plants."

"Bumble bees are able to fly in cooler temperatures and lower light levels than many other bees, which makes them excellent crop pollinators," according to Xerces. "They also perform a behavior called 'buzz pollination,' in which the bee grabs the pollen producing structure of the flower in her jaws and vibrates her wing muscles. This causes vibrations that dislodge pollen from the flower. Some plants, including tomatoes, peppers, and cranberries, benefit from buzz pollination."

If you like to photograph insects, and want to know more about macro photography and entomology, then "BugShot Austin 2016" may be something to consider-- for either yourself or as a gift for someone.

The event takes place May 12-15 in Austin and will be taught by  noted insect photographers/entomologists Alex Wild,  Piotr Naskrecki  and John Abbott. (See information on instructors.)

"BugShot courses are designed to help you improve your macro photography technique in the field and in the studio, regardless of your equipment or experience," the organizers say. It covers, among other topics: 

• Macro-and microphotography equipment
• Composition
• Lighting and flash
• Working with live insects
• Introduction to insect biology (track 1) or Introduction to photography (track 2)
• Special techniques: focus-stacking, time-lapse and video
• Digital asset management and workflow
• Field sessions in beautiful natural habitats
• Evening photo-sharing presentations
• Photography in social media

Who should attend BugShot workshops?

• Entomologists who aspire to improve their photographic skills for work or pleasure
• Photographers who wish to learn arthropod- specific techniques
• Naturalists, beekeepers and gardeners who enjoy the little things
• Bug bloggers, social media users, and BugGuide.net contributors who'd like to spice up their online imagery

We attended BugShot Hastings 2015 at the Hastings Natural History Preserve in the Carmel Valley last May. Operated by UC Berkeley, Hastings is a biological field station with much to offer and much to photograph. We fanned out to capture images of everything from bumble bees to honey bees to ants.  The instructors-- Texas-based Alex Wild and John Abbott and Oregon-based Thomas Shahan--not only offered instructions and fielded questions but each delivered an evening program--Wild on ants (he received his doctorate in entomology from UC Davis with ant guru/professor Phil Ward; Abbott on dragonflies, and Shahan on jumping spiders. 

For BugShot Austin, prices range from $675 to $750. To register or learn more about it, access the website or contact Kendra Abbott at kendra@abbottnature.com with questions.

Sex in the afternoon. On the passionflower vine. 

That's what happened today on the Passiflora (see images below). Coming soon, more Gulf Fritillaries. 

The Gulf Frit (Agraulis vanillae), an orangish-reddish butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, is as spectacular as it is showy. Its silver-spangled underwings absolutely glow in the sunlight.

However, much misinformation surrounds it.

A recent article in a Bay Area publication indicated that it's been around the Bay Area  since the 1950s. It's actually been around much earlier than that. It was first documented in Southern California in 1870s, according to noted butterfly researcher Art Shapiro,  professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, who has been monitoring the butterflies of central California for four decades. 

"It first appeared in the vicinity of San Diego in the 1870s,” he says. “It spread through Southern California in urban settings and was first recorded in the Bay Area about 1908. It became a persistent breeding resident in the East and South Bay in the 1950s and has been there since.”

Shapiro says it “apparently bred in the Sacramento area and possibly in Davis in the 1960s, becoming extinct in the early 1970s, then recolonizing again throughout the area since 2000.”

Have you ever wondered why the scientific name of the species is vanillae?  That was an error traced back to the illustrator. German-born naturalist and scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)  knew butterflies--she reared them--but she took some artistic liberties when it came to horticulture. 

Merian drew the Gulf Frit on a vanilla orchid, and scientists assumed that this was the host plant. Not so. Passiflora is the host plant.  "Johannes Fabricius knew that the bug eats Passiflora and tried to rename it passiflorae," wrote Shapiro in a 2008 edition of the Journal of the Lepitoperists Society.

It never happened. That's why we call it Agraulis vanillae and not Agraulis passiflorae.

But it is nicknamed the "passion butterfly."

When the Entomological Society of America meets Nov. 15-18 in Minneapolis, Minn., it will be all about insects and synergy.

ESA will be meeting with the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) with an expected attendance of more than 7,000 scientists and researchers. The theme: "Synergy in Science: Partnering for Solutions."

Bugs rule. They definitely do.

"Insects originated some 450 million years ago, around the same time as the first plants and that together they shaped the Earth's earliest ecosystem," says Professor Karl Kjer, newly appointed Schlinger Chair of Systematic Entomology in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and formerly a professor at Rutgers. He will deliver a Premier Presentation on the IKITE (1000 Insect Transcription Evolution) research project. He is the founder of the  international insect phylogentics team that compiled a worldwide "family tree" of insects.

Insects, such as dragonflies and damselflies, inhabited the earth 150 million years before dinosaurs, he points out.  The 100-member research team from 10 countries also discovered that insects first took flight 400 million years ago and were flying 200 million years before any other animal did so. Their work was featured in a cover story, Nov. 7, 2014, of Science.

"Insects did just about everything first," according to Kjer. "They were the first to form social societies, farm, and sing — just about anything you can imagine. Insects are the dominant players in almost all terrestrial ecosytems, and as such, they have a major impact on agriculture and human health.”

It's indeed a high honor to be delivering a Premier Presentation; ESA officials selected only 20, and two of the presenters are affiliated with UC Davis--Kjer and Jenny Carlson, who recently received her doctorate in entomology from UC Davis and now holds a postdoctoral position at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Carlson, who studied at UC Davis with major professor Anthony Cornel, was based in the William Reisen lab. Reiser, newly retired, directed the Center for Vectorborne Diseases.

UC Davis will be well represented at the ESA meeting.

Frank Zalom, president of the Entomological Foundation Board of Directors and the 2014 president of ESA, will preside over the  Foundation meeting and present a number of awards. Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the department, will be introduced

James R. Carey, distinguished professor of entomology, will receive the ESA's distinguished national teaching award.

Mohammad-Amir Aghaee, formerly with the Larry Godfrey lab, will receive the John Henry Comstock Award, Pacific Branch of ESA (PBESA). He holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Davis and is now a postdoctoral researcher at North Carolina State University.

The championship UC Davis Student Debate Team, captained by Danny Klittich, doctoral candidate in the Parrella lab, will defend its title.  Members are Rei Scampavia (labs of Ed Lewis and Neal Williams), Jenny Carlson (Anthony Cornel lab), Ralph Washington Jr. (Steve Nadler lab) and  Joanna Bloese (Larry Godfrey lab). 

The student debate will include the following topics: What is the single best genetically engineered technology for arthropod pest control? With the development of tools like RNAi, in the future we  may be capable of eradicating species. If we can eradicate a species, should we? What is the single best tool for managing pesticide resistance?

The UC Davis Linnaean Team, which won the PBESA competition, will compete for the top honors. It won the PBESA competition with Ralph Washington Jr. (Steve Nadler lab) as captain; and members Jéssica Gillung (Lynn Kimsey lab), and Brendon Boudinot (Phil Ward lab).  New to the team is Ziad  Khouri (Lynn Kimsey lab). The Linnaean Games are lively college-bowl type competitions at which the teams answer questions about insects and entomologists.

The Insect Photo Salon includes "some of the most beautiful insect photos in the world will be presented this year in the Insect Photo Salon,” according to the ESA program. (Yours truly was honored to have two accepted.)

EGSA will be selling T-shirts at the meeting, including its 2015 winning T-shirt by Stacey Rice, junior specialist in the Larry Godfrey lab. It depicts a long-legged wasp on a penny-farthing or big wheel bike. By the way, it's a new "species"--she depicted it with long legs to be able to reach the pedals. And the bike? That's part of the UC Davis culture.