- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's a sin to kill a mockingbird, wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee in her classic novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird."
"Mockingbirds don't do one thing except make music for us to enjoy," one of her characters, Miss Maudie, wisely observed. "They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corn cribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
Harper Lee's work came to mind yesterday when we saw a praying mantis devouring a monarch butterfly on our butterfly bush, located next to several milkweed plants. We watched the clipped monarch wings flutter down and land among the leaves.
It was a female monarch. She may have stopped to sip some nectar during her egg-laying mission. The hungry predator ambushed her.
The shock of seeing a delicate monarch gripped between spiked forelegs stuns you, especially when you've just reared two monarchs and have two more to go.
"Umm, do you mind?" we wanted to ask the mantis. "Please eat the cabbage white butterflies, stink bugs and aphids, not the monarchs."
Praying mantids are considered beneficial insects, but all we've seen them eat are honey bees, sunflower bees, butterflies and an occasional Gulf Fritillary caterpillar. However, they do eat ants, wasps, flies, and moths, as well. The larger praying mantids prey on hummingbirds.
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation summed up the monarch decline well on its website: "Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) of North America are renowned for their long-distance seasonal migration and spectacular winter gatherings in Mexico and California. The monarch butterfly population has recently declined to dangerously low levels. In the 1990s, estimates of up to one billion monarchs made the epic flight each fall from the northern plains of the U.S. and Canada to sites in the oyamel fir forests north of Mexico City, and more than one million monarchs overwintered in forested groves on the California Coast. Now, researchers and citizen scientists estimate that only about 56.5 million monarchs remain, representing a decline of more than 80% from the 21 year average across North America."
Okay, praying mantis. We know. It was only one. You have to eat, too. You needed the protein to lay your ootheca. But have you ever considered how tasty and prevalent cabbage white butterflies are?
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Privacy, please!
You're walking by a patch of lavender and Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) and you notice that two Gulf Fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae) are doing what birds 'n' bees 'n butterflies do.
Well, some folks call it "bug porn" and some call it a "two-for" images--two insects in one photo. But in this case, this was a "three-for" image. A honey bee nectaring on the nearby lavender photobombed my image and the mating pair, still attached, clumsily fluttered off in a four-wing attempt. Appropriately enough, they headed over to the pasionflower vine, their host plant
We recall butterfly expert Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, telling us several years ago that the showy reddish-orange butterfly is making a comeback in the Sacramento-Davis area. In the early 1970s, it was considered extinct in that area.
“It first appeared in the vicinity of San Diego in the 1870s,” he related in a previous Bug Squad blog. “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.”
One of the Gulf Frit's favorite nectar sources is lantana (genus Lantana, family Verbenaceae.) In our yard they also lean toward the lavender and Tithonia.
There, on appropriate occasions, they like a little privacy.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Especially since the United States is busily restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Think entomology. Think ICE. Think ICE'ing on the cake. Think ICE'ing on an entomological cake.
When the 2016 International Congress of Entomology (ICE 2016), co-chaired by a UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal takes place next year in Orlando, Fla., it truly will follow the theme, “Entomology without Borders.”
One of Cuba's leading entomologists will deliver an invitational lecture on the mosquito that transmits dengue, announced Leal, professor of biochemistry and chemical ecology at the UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology
Juan Andrés Bisset, head of the Vector Control Department at the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine and an advisor to the Cuban Public Health Ministry, will speak on “Aedes aegypti Management Strategies for Dengue Control in Cuba.” He studied at UC Riverside with G.P. Georgiou in 1986.
“When I received my first passport as a Brazilian citizen, it was stamped ‘not valid' for Cuba,” recalled Leal. “That sparked a curiosity about that country. After I become an entomologist and a U.S. citizen, my curiosity shifted toward entomology in Cuba. Fast forward to today: The International Congress of Entomology could not justify its theme, ‘Entomology without Borders,' if we did not have at least one delegate from Cuba.”
“We are absolutely delighted to host Dr. Juan Bisset.”
Added ICE 2016 co-chair Alvin Simmons, U.S. Department of Agriculture research entomologist: “We are dedicated to providing a premier congress experience for 7,000 to 8,000 international attendees. This includes fostering an environment of scientific breadth and all-inclusiveness. So, it is quite fitting for participation from Cuba to be a part of this historical event.”
The conference, expected to be the world's largest gathering of entomologists, takes place Sept. 25-30, 2016. Bisset will speak from 4:30 to 5:30 p. m. Tuesday, Sept. 25. Many mosquito researchers, including those from the University of California, are expected to attend.
In an email to Bisset, Leal called attention to a recent editorial in Science magazine “Science in U.S. Cuba relations” (May 15, 2015).
“ICE 2016 will be a historic global event, as this conference will return to the United States after a 40-year hiatus,” Leal told him. “We are expecting the participation of 7,000-8,000 delegates, including Dr. Peter Agre (Nobel Laureate, 2003 - a strong advocate for science diplomacy, particularly Cuba-US relations) and Dr. Jules Hoffmann (Nobel Laureate, 2011), Dr. John Hildebrand, and many other distinguished scholars."
Bisset is heavily involved in the control of vectorborne diseases, including diseases transmitted by several mosquitoes, such as Culex quinquefasciatus, Anopheles albimanus, and Aedes aegypti. He focuses his main research on ecology, dynamic population of insects, insecticide resistance, and resistance mechanisms.
The recipient of some 18 international and national awards, Bisset has been published his research in 106 scientific papers. Since 1990, he has participated in more than 45 technical activities as an adviser on malaria and dengue vector control in Latin American countries, and is a frequent lecturer in Cuba and other countries.
ICE is held once every four years in different countries around the world. Next year it will be held simultaneously with the annual meetings of the Entomological Society of America, the Entomological Society of Canada, and other organizations.
“Each Congress provides a forum for scientists, researchers, academia, technicians, government, and industry representatives to discuss the latest research and innovations in the many diverse fields of entomology, to share expertise in their specific fields of interest, and to present their research and products,” said Richard Levine, ESA's communications program manager, in a news release. “The week-long meetings allow participants to meet others from around the world with similar focus areas and to form important networks to collaborate and share knowledge, with an overarching goal of supporting and protecting the world's population through better science."
For more information about ICE 2016, access http://ice2016orlando.org.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology has scheduled a fall open house, the last of the season, at its Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Friday, Oct. 2 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. It's free and open to the public.
The half-acre bee friendly garden is located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus.
The theme is "IPM in the Bee Garden." Participating will be representatives of the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM). Karey Windbiel-Rojas, associate director for Urban and Community IPM/Area IPM Advisor, and Anne Schellman, urban IPM educator, will provide information on pest solutions that are bee friendly, such as non-chemical methods and less toxic methods.
The bee garden was planted in the fall of 2009 under the direction of then interim department chair Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology. At the time, she said: ""The Honey Bee Haven will be a pollinator paradise. It will provide a much needed, year-round food source for our bees at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. We anticipate it also will be a gathering place to inform and educate the public about bees. We are grateful to Haagen-Dazs for its continued efforts to ensure bee health."
Others who played a key role in the founding and "look" of the garden included the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, founded and directed by the duo of entomologist/artist Diane Ullman, professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, and self-described "rock artist" Donna Billick, a noted artist. Billick crafted the six-foot long mosaic ceramic sculpture of a worker bee, "Miss Beehaven," that anchors the garden. The art in the garden is the work of their Entomology 1 students and community residents. Extension apiculturist (now emeritus) Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology offered input throughout the conception, design and installation. Davis Boy Scout Derek Tully built the state-of-the-art fence around the garden as his Eagle project. (See more of history here)
New additions include a viable honey bee hive; benches and a shade structure donated by the California Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution; and more bee condos for leafcutter bees and blue orchard bees. The garden is managed by staff director Christine Casey at cacasey@ucdavis.edu and faculty staff director Elina Niño, Extension apiculturist, at elnino@ucdavis.edu. Check out the haven website for a list of plants (both common and scientific names), upcoming events, how to volunteer, how to donate, and other information.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Nice to see you!
In early spring and throughout most of the summer, we saw scores of digger bees, Anthophora urbana, living in our garden.
The very territorial males patrolled the flowers, trying to save them for the females (to mate with them). The boys kept dive bombing the other boys, along with assorted bees, butterflies, beetles and hover flies that had the "gall" to grab a little nectar from "their" blossoms.
We thought the Anthophora urbana season was over.
But on Tuesday, Sept. 22 we learned: "It's not!"
We saw a male Anthophora urbana buzz a monarch butterfly as it was fueling up on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). Sorry, that's mine!
Then it headed toward an English lavender. Yes, that's mine, too!
Native pollinate specialist Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, and a co-author of California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists, said "it seems rather late for a male of the species to be flying. Especially since he looks so fresh, hair and wing margin not showing signs of aging. But this has been a strange year for bee and flower phenologies."
California Bees and Blooms, the work of UC scientists, relates that many Anthophora are examples of California's early spring-to-summer "univoltine" bee species. They define "univoltine" as producing one generation per year. Compare that to bivoltine (two generations) and multivoltine (more).
The book is a dazzling wealth of information, and opens up the incredible world of insect treasures in your garden and what to plant to attract them. California is home to some 1600 species of bees, and Anthophora is just one of them.
