- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's Friday Fly Day!
Time to post an image of a fly.
Or two flies. On a cockroach.
The scenario: a large cockroach drowned in a small water trough located near downtown Vacaville, Calif., and when the water drained, the roach slid out. It proved to be a feast for green bottle flies.
The roach? UC Distinguished Professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis, says it appears to be a Turkestan cockroach, a newer cockroach species in California.
The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) says this about the Turkestan cockroach:
"The Turkestan cockroach is an invasive species that is now very common in California's residential outdoor areas. With access to good habitat and food sources, they can quickly develop very high populations. Common habitats around homes are wood and debris piles, irrigation and water meter boxes, crevices in pavement or rock walls, and outdoor drainage pipes. They are also common in public storm drains and sanitary sewers. These habitats provide the dark, moist hiding places that cockroaches prefer. They come out at night to feed. While some may occasionally wander into homes, especially where outdoor populations are high, they will not establish indoor populations."
According to Wikipedia, it's a Shelfordella lateralis, often referred to as Blatta lateralis, It's also also known as the "rusty red cockroach" or "red runner cockroach." Native to an area from northern Africa to Central Asia, it can measure 1.2 inches in length. Says Wikipedia: "The Turkestan cockroach was first noticed in the U.S in 1978, around the former Sharpe Army Depot in California, followed shortly after by appearances at Fort Bliss in Texas and several other military bases. Researchers believe the species arrived on military equipment returning from central Asia, perhaps Afghanistan."
The Turkestan cockroach is also favored as pet food for reptiles.
If the green bottle flies don't get to it first!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
On her arm is a Cordulegaster diadema, aka Apache spiketail, and it's beautiful.
Anna, who didn't follow her father's footsteps into the field of entomology, instead has a dragonfly within arm's reach.
Anna, employed at Deluxe Studios (remotely), and her researcher father recently attended an insect-drawing class at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house, "An Evening at the Museum." The class, taught by Professor Miguel Angel Miranda of the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain, a participant in the newly concluded 10th International Dipterology Congress in Reno, drew such comments as "So much fun!"
No tattoo for Rosser?
"Nope," said Rosser. "No tattoos on me. Just over 50,000 preserved dried Odonata specimens--over 3000 species--from all over the world here at home in Sacramento."
Three thousand different species...that's nearly half of the world's 6000 described species of dragonflies.
Rosser served as a senior biologist/entomologist for Los Angeles County from 1984 to 2004 before becoming a senior insect biosystematist with the CDFA Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch, Sacramento, where he identified orthopteroid, heteropteroid, other groups of invertebrates including mollusks. He currently enjoys working on Odonata at his home in Sacramento.
One of them is C. diadema, commonly known as the Apache spiketail ("spiketail" refers to the female's prominent ovipoistor). The adult is usually 74-88 millimeters long. "It ranges from southwestern United States to Mexico and Costa Rica," according to Wikipedia, which notes: "The back of the head is yellow to brown with yellow to black hairs, though some have been reported with a black head with white hairs. The first proximal segment of the legs are yellow. The thorax has two lateral stripes with a yellow stripe between them."
The Bohart Museum featured Garrison and his work at its November 2022 open house on dragonflies. He displayed “the largest dragonfly in the world," Petalura ingentissima, found in Queensland, Australia. Its wingspan can measure 160 mm. Among his other specimens: some of the world's smallest dragonflies, including Nannothemis bella, Perithemis tenera (both eastern United States) and Nannophya phymaea (Singapore).
Anna isn't the only one in the family who has dragonflies within an arm's reach!
The Bohart Museum, directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, houses a global collection of nearly eight million specimens, including 469 different species of dragonflies. It is also the home of the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity. Located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus., it is open to the public (summer hours) on Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m. Admission is free. More information on the Bohart Museum is available by contacting (530) 752-0493 or emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
That's what Professor Miguel Angel Miranda of the University of the Balearic Islands (UBI), Spain, asked participants in his insect-drawing workshops on Saturday night, July 22 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house.
Miranda, newly returned from the 10th International Dipterology Congress, held July 16-21, in Reno, volunteered to demonstrate "how to draw a bug" at the Bohart open house. The four-hour event, billed as "An Evening at the Museum," featured displays of moths (National Moth Week) and flies (Dipertology Congress).
The half-hour art workshops took place in the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology classroom, adjacent to the Bohart headquarters in the Academic Surge Building.
First, the professor asked the participants what insects they like, and what they would like to draw.
"Centipedes!" a man said.
"That's not an insect," Miranda jovially replied. "What do you like about centipedes?"
Miranda turned to the other participants. "What other insects do you like?"
"Spiders!" a woman said. Miranda smiled, and agreed that spiders are cool, but "That's not an insect. What do you like about spiders?"
"The fangs," the woman answered.
The next response: "Dragonflies."
"What do you like about dragonflies?"
"The wings!"
Miranda, who joined the UBI faculty in 1995, is a zoologist, entomologist and noted insect illustrator. He currently teaches zoology, parasitology, and biotechnology applied for pest control. He is a member of UBI's Applied Zoology and Animal Conservation Research Group or ZAP. He served as the editor and cartoonist of the fanzine Plomi Corcat from 1991 to 1992. He curated the exhibition "Comic and Science" at the 2021 Comic Nostrum International Festival.
Miranda began his scientific career studying parasitoids of the pine processionary (Thaumetopoea pityocampa), a moth species that causes economic damage to coniferous forests. He researched Mediterranean fruit flies for his doctorate (1991). He has also researched tobacco aphids, scale insects of citrus, termites, ticks, sandflies and mosquitoes, including the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus. He has conducted extensive scientific work in the study of other insects of economic importance, including Hymenoptera parasitoids of plant pests, the red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus); parasites of bees, such as Varroa destructor; and the parasite Oestrus ovis. He writes a blog and posts Tweets.
"That class was so much fun!" said participant Nancy Ruiz, who added humor to the class by sketching a fly swatter and a fly.
The Bohart Museum, directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, houses a global collection of eight million insects, plus a live insect petting zoo, and a gift shop, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. It is open to the public, summer hours, on Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The open house showcased moths, in celebration of National Moth Week, and spotlighted flies, in keeping with the 10th International Dipterology Congress, held July 16-21 in Reno. Bohart officials dedicated the open house to the late Jerry Powell, international moth authority and a former director of the Essig Museum of Entomology, UC Berkeley, who died July 8 at age 90.
A blacklighting display, near the entrance to the Bohart Museum, drew night-flying insects to a white sheet, illuminated by an ultraviolet light.
"There were not many moths," said "Moth Man" John de Benedictus, a research entomologist associate with the Bohart Museum and a former graduate student of Powell's. "Only about 5 or six in all. All but two were the so-called Dusky Raisin Moth, Ephestiodes gilvescentella,which comes as no surprise as it is the most common moth in my yard and probably throughout Davis. Its caterpillar feeds on a wide variety of plants, including dried fruit and nuts, but it is not a major pest. There were two granite moths, probably Digrammia californiaria, and/or Digrammia muscariata. The younger kids entertained themselves by pointing out or trying to catch the other insects that flew in, mainly gnats and other small flies; a few beetles, including lady bugs; some aquatic bugs; and a couple of lacewings and earwigs. An older boy collected some ants that marched to the sheet."
Entomologist Jeff Smith, curator of the Bohart Museum's Lepidoptera collection, and Bohart associate and naturalist Greg Kareoelas, showed visitors many of the moth specimens, including death's-head hawkmoths, featured in the 1991 movie, Silence of the Lambs. In the movie, serial killer, Buffalo Bill (played by Ted Levine), stuffs death's-head hawkmoths inside his victims' throats. FBI trainee Clarice Starling (played by Jodie Foster) seeks the advice of the cannibalistic psychiatrist, Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins), to solve the mystery. The moths appearing in the movie are Acherontia stropos. The moth markings resemble a human skull.
The Bohart Museum, directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, including some 500,000 moths or butterflies (60 percent moths and 40 percent butterflies). The museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. During the summer, the Bohart Museum is open to the public on Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m. For more information, contact the Bohart Museum at bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0493.
(More images from the Bohart Museum open house, "A Night at the Museum," will appear this week on Bug Squad)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Moths, anything about moths, was the kind of event that Powell loved. He was an associate of the Bohart Museum and a scientific collaborator, identifying scores of insects and attending many of the Leipidopterist Society meetings held there.
The open house, free and family friendly, is set from 7 to 11 p.m., Saturday, July 22 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis, campus.
Plans call for scientists to set up their traditionalblacklighting (ultraviolet or UV) display to attract moths and other night-flying insects. Bohart Research Affiliate John DeBenedictus, a retired UC Davis Staff Research Associate, also known as "The Moth Man," usually heads the blacklighting project. De Benedictus received his master's degree in 1988 from UC Berkeley, studying with Powell. "I spent more time in the field with Jerry than any other grad student," he related. "I was privileged to be Jerry's student and lucky to have become his friend."
Powell and Paul Opler (1938-2023) co-authored Moths of Western America, published in 2009.
In a tribute to Powell on its website, the Essig Museum posted in part:
"In his teen years he was heavily influenced by Charles 'Harbie' Harbison, who ran the Junior Naturalist Program at the San Diego Museum of Natural History, and sparked an interest in Jerry for butterflies and moths. Seeing his potential, Harbie recommended Jerry for the Entomology program at UC Berkeley, where he received his BS in 1955 and his PhD in 1961. While climbing through the ranks of Junior Entomologist (1961-62), Assistant Entomologist (1962-67), Associate Entomologist (1967-73), Entomologist (1973-94), Lecturer in Entomology (1964-69), Associate Professor (1969-73), and Professor (1973-94) at UC Berkeley, Jerry also became Curator (1972-2018) and Director (1993-1999) of the Essig Museum of Entomology (1972-1999) and Project Leader for the California Insect Survey (1963-1999). Although he retired as Director in 1999, Jerry remained a professor of the Graduate School until 2012 and maintained an active research program in Lepidoptera life histories and systematics until 2018, advising many students along the way. (See more on Essig website.)"
"Jerry's rearing program was the most extensive in the history of the study of New World Microlepidoptera," according to the Essig post. "For over 50 years he and his students processed more than 15,000 collections of larval or live adult Lepidoptera. Resulting data encompass more than 1,000 species of moths, through rearing either field-collected larvae or those emerging from eggs deposited by females in confinement. This total includes more than 60% of an estimated 1,500 species of Microlepidoptera occurring in California."
Powell gained international recognition when he detected the agricultural pest, the light brown apple moth, Epiphyas postvittana, in a ultralight (UV) trap on July 19, 2006 in his backyard in Berkeley.
In an email to colleagues on July 9, Peter Oboyski, executive director of the Essig Museum of Entomology, wrote: "With a heavy heart I am sad to report that professor Jerry Powell passed away this weekend. His contributions to our knowledge of California entomology, microlepidoptera, and insect life histories are inestimable, as is the value of the training he provided to his students. As one of those students, I am eternally grateful for the time, energy, and knowledge Jerry shared with me in the museum and the field."
"A consummate field biologist, Jerry's knowledge and interests were broad, allowing him to read landscapes and discover the most interesting and cryptic of species interactions," Oboyski noted. "This is well documented in over 220 publications, but also in the 60+ years of his field notes and rearing records that we are currently digitizing. He is the collector of over 400 holotypes of various insect orders, described over 170 species and 14 genera of moths, and honored by 41 patronyms. He also published papers on Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, Dermaptera, and a Nematode. His legacy is impressive and will long be remembered."
Powell described himself as a "MothNut" on his vehicle license plate, and also displayed a sticker, "Larvae on Board."