DAVIS--The UC Davis Linnaean Games Team, the reigning national and regional champions, won the 2016 games conducted Monday night, April 4 in Honolulu at the annual meeting of the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America (PBESA)

The team, comprised of captain Ralph Washington Jr., and members Brendon Boudinot, Jessica Gillung and Ziad Khouri, defeated the University of Hawaii in the semi-finals and then went on to nail the championship with a victory over the UC Riverside team.

The Linnaean Games is a college-bowl type competition in which teams answer questions about insects and entomologists. The teams hold practice sessions throughout the year. 

Washington is studying for his doctorate with major professors Steve Nadler and Brian Johnson, who respectively specialize in systematics and evolutionary biology of nematodes and the evolution, behavior, genetics, and health of honeybees; Boudinot with major professor Phil Ward, systematics and evolutionary biology of ants; and Jessica Gillung and Ziad Khouri with major professor Lynn Kimsey, who specializes in the biology and evolution of insects. Kimsey directs the Bohart Museum of Entomology.

The Pacific Branch of ESA encompasses 11 U.S. states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming); several U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands; and  parts of Canada and Mexico.

The national Linnaean Games will take place at the ESA's meeting, set Sept. 25-30 in Orlando, Fla. It is being held in conjunction with the International Congress of Entomology (ICE).   More than 7000 entomologists from throughout the world are expected to attend. The ICE meeting is co-chaired by UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and research entomologist Alvin M. Simmons of the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, Charleston, S.C.

• Question: According to the experiment performed at UCB in 1991, the fastest land insect in the world registered a record speed of 1.5 m/s or 3.36 mph, which was equal to 50 body lengths per second. Name the insect.
  Answer: American Cockroach, Periplaneta americana
• Question: According to Alder and Willis (2003), in the history of arthropod borne disease in South Carolina, which insect vectored human disease is known by the names Aigue Fever, Bilious Fever, Country Fever, Intermittent Fever, Remittent Fever, and Tertian Fever?
  Answer: Malaria
• Question:What animal was imported to Mauritius from India in the 18th century to control the Red Locust, Nomadacris semptemfasiciata?
  Answer: The Mynah Bird
• Question: What is the active ingredient in the insecticidal product known as NEEM?
  Answer: Azadiracthin
• Question: In systematics, what is the term for a group containing a common ancestor and some but not all of its descendants?
  Answer: A paraphyletic group

Related Link:
UC Davis Wins National Championship