- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Bee scientist Elina Lastro Niño, associate professor of Cooperative Extension, Apiculture, and a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (ENT) faculty, defines it in a recent edition of Bee Culture. This was part of her series of articles about UC Davis bee research and Extension programming, as requested by editor Jerry Hayes.
"This simply means using bees, specifically from genus Apis, to deliver a biocontrol agent for controlling a variety of pests and pathogens associated with crops," she wrote.
Niño recounted that she learned the technology from integrated pest management specialist Frank Zalom, now a UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus (on recall). Zalom is an internationally recognized entomologist who served as president of the 7000-member Entomological Society of America (ESA) and is an Honorary Member of ESA, the organization's highest honor. (One could write a book about Zalom's expertise and activities! But see this article which chronicles much of his work.)
But back to Niño's article. "He (Zalom) was involved in projects using honey bees to deliver biocontrol agent Trichoderma spp. for control of Botrytis on strawberries in Southern California," she wrote. "He explained a fairly simple, but sophisticated process and I was hooked."
"I submitted a couple of proposals for projects primarily targeting brown rot blossom blight, a potentially devastating disease (caused by Monilinia laxa) occurring during almond bloom," Niño continued. "Considering the impact that the almond industry has on California agriculture and the beekeeping industry we really wanted to focus our efforts on bringing this technology into the almond orchards. The incidence of disease increases during particularly wet blooming season and growers must rely on use of fungicides for control. The goal of the project was to boost bloom coverage using honey bees already in the orchards for pollination, potentially reducing the need for fungicide sprays and improving pollinator protection, as well as minimizing development of resistance in the almond pathogens."
Niño went on to define apivectoring more precisely as "a fairly straightforward process that uses, in our case, managed bees such as bumble bees and honey bees to transfer powder form of a biological control agent from flower to flower. It capitalizes on characteristics of a good pollinator: they obviously fly from flower to flower and they are fuzzy allowing the biological agent and its carrier powder to stick to the body of a bee. Commonly, the biocontrol agent is a microorganism (e.g., bacteria, fungus) which is mixed with a carrier powder such as starch, and placed in a dispenser that is attached to the entrance of a hive."
"As the bees walk out of the hive they go through this dispenser collecting the powder on their hairs, and as they fly from flower to flower the powder containing the biocontrol agent is deposited on flowers they visit as they collect pollen and nectar. Once the bees comes back to the hive they reenter the hive through a different entrance so the biocontrol is not wasted. This actually opens up another application possibility where the returning bees could walk through another dispenser containing, for example, a biocontrol agent for Varroa mite control. I hope you now understand why I am so excited about this technology which has actually been around for a while and has been used fairly successfully in other crops (e.g., strawberries, apples, tomatoes, sunflowers, canola) for control of both pathogen and insect pests."
In her article, Niño shares her experiences at a 2019 apivectoring workshop in Serbia, hosted at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology. Read her entire article on apivectoring at https://www.beeculture.com/the-uc-davis-series-2/
Niño, who holds a doctorate in entomology from The Pennsylvania State University, joined the UC Davis/UC Agriculture and Natural Resources program in 2014, replacing retiring Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (1944-2022). In 2016 she founded and continues to direct the much-heralded UC Master Beekeeper Program.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The American Bee Journal (ABJ) and Bee Culture just released the preliminary results of the annual U.S. Beekeeping Survey and the news is not good.
"U.S. beekeepers lost an estimated 55.1 percent of their managed bee colonies in 2023-24--14.8 percentage points higher than the 13-year average annual loss rate of 40.3 percent," ABJ reported. These statistics indicate the highest colony losses since the 2010-11 beekeeping season. Commercial beekeepers managing more than 500 colonies reported the heaviest losses.
Auburn University and Apiary Inspectors of America designed the 2023-24 survey and provided insight.
“Backyard beekeepers traditionally experience greater losses than commercial beekeepers, but this time around it was flipped," said Geoff Williams, an associate professor at Auburn University and director of the Auburn University Bee Lab.
"In 2023-24, commercial beekeepers lost 55.7 percent of their managed colonies, which is 16.8 percentage points higher than their 13-year average of 38.9 percent," ABJ reported. The survey did not investigate the cause of the losses. Varroa mites, however, are "always a problem."
The 2023-24 survey statistics are available on the Apiary Inspectors of America website at apiaryinspectors.org/US-beekeeping-survey.
California Master Beekeeper Program. Interested in learning more about honey bees or becoming a master beekeeper? The California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP), founded and directed by bee scientist Ellna Lastro Niño, associate professor of Cooperative Extension and a faculty member of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, offers classes and certifies its students through its Ambassador, Apprentice, Journey, and Master levels. CAMBP has disseminated "science-based beekeeping information through a network of organizations and trained volunteers since 2016."
Meanwhile, we're in the dead of winter, and honey bees are tucked in their hives, awaiting warmer weather. Today we noticed a few worker bees taking advantage of a "sun break" to forage on winter blossoms, Anisodontea sp. "Strybing Beauty" from the mallow family, Malvaceae. Both the plant and the bees are non-natives.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The back story: On Jan. 19, 2017, we blogged about research published Jan. 17, 2017 in the journal Zookeys about a newly discovered moth species named Neopalpa donaldtrumpi.
Evolutionary biologist and systematist Vazrick Nazari of Canada discovered the species from a Bohart Museum collection, named the moth, and authored the publication, "Review of Neopalpa Povolný, 1998 with Description of a New Species from California and Baja California, Mexico (Lepidoptera Gelechiidae)."
The tiny moth--wing span of less than a centimeter--was part of a desert insect collection that the Bohart Museum loaned to him.
Nazari sifted and sorted through the Bohart Museum specimens and a brightly colored miniscule moth drew his attention. It differed from similar moths. Yes, a new species! The yellow scales on the tiny moth's head reminded him of then President-Elect Donald Trump's hairstyle. (See images in Zookeys)
So he named it Neopalpa donaldtrumpi.
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Gelechiidae
Genus: Neopalpa
Species: N. donaldtrumpi
Bohart Museum associate/research entomologist Thomas "Tom" Zavortink and colleagues collected the tiny moth with the orange-yellow and brown wings in the Algodones Dunes, bordering Arizona and the Mexican state of Baja California.
"We surveyed the insects of the Algodones Dunes for more than six years with a contract from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management," Kimsey related in January 2017. "It was a really fun/interesting project. We collected nearly 2,000 species of insects from about 200 square mile of 'sand.' Six percent were new to science. The moth was collected in a Malaise trap in one of the washes on the east side of the dunes."
Zavortink, a Bohart Museum associate since 2001, is a former professor and chair of the University of San Francisco Department of Biology. His career also includes research entomologist with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C. He holds a doctorate in zoology from UCLA, where he also received his master's degree.
Having your name associated with a new species is considered an honor. It's a permanent legacy, unlike the names of many streets, schools, other buildings, and parks, which can be subject to removal.
What Snopes Said
Fake images, declared Snopes. "While the species Neopalpa donaldtrumpi is genuine, the photographs shared online claiming to depict the blond-tufted insect" are not.
"The purported moths had tufts of blond hair and displayed pink, black, orange and metallic green colors on their wings, wrote Snopes researcher Madison Dapcevich.
Indeed, the images falsely identified as donaldtrumpi are actually butterflies with a blond tuft that shouldn't be there.
Parody? Perhaps.
But the moth is real. "We have this moth species in the Bohart Museum," said entomologist Jeff Smith, curator of the Bohart Museum's worldwide collection of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). "But, someone REALLY does not know their bugs to put a Nymphalid butterfly image as depicting the moth. We see so much of this kind of misinformation where a bug picture is not what is talked about, so often with flies shown on an article about honey bees or crane flies shown as mosquitoes."
"Recently on the TV news they were talking about bats, and showed a quick video clip of 'bats' swirling around over the Yolo Causeway," Smith commented. "Sadly, though, those were starlings out and about in the daytime, not even close to bats. Folks...all it takes is a quick phone call to someone who knows."
A moth is not a butterfly. A butterfly is not a moth. And a moth named N. donaldtrumpi--with "tufts of blond hair" and pink, black, orange and metallic green colors on its wings--simply does not exist.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Serious stuff, especially when 35 million Americans, including 10 million children, suffer from food insecurity.
How to draw attention to food waste?
UC Davis student Emma Vazquez nailed it by writing, rapping and producing a professionally done video for a class assignment that awed her professor, her classmates and her friends.
When UC Davis professor and agricultural entomologist Christian Nansen gives assignments to his students, he expects them to be thoughtful, insightful and creative. Sometimes they submit written reports, sometimes videos, but Vazquez took the assignment to a whole new level.
Vazquez--a second-year neurobiology, physiology, and physiology behavior major enrolled in his Urban Food and Security class, part of the Science and Society Program--submitted a 2.5 minute, fast-paced video. (See it below and on Nansen's UC Davis YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/2fILbd49Jvw.)
For the project, Vazquez reviewed course materials, including her professor's newly published article, “Active Learning, Living Laboratories, Student Empowerment, and Urban Sustainability," in the journal Sustainability.
Her video titled “Food Waste Video Review: Diss Track,” continues to draw raves for its content, originality, creativity, rhythmic delivery, and animated expressions.
“It's a diss track, no, it's the food waste diss track,” she began. “Emma Vazquez on the mike."
"One third of all our food is wasted fruits and vegetables are the most hated. In this article some tests are done using demographics, let's talk about it, son. 31% of uneaten food is due to the losses of all the consumERs. Come on U.S., we could do better. Let's reduce food waste and make our earth fresher.”
“Here's tips we talked about in class, thanks to Christian and all those TED talks we watched,” Vazquez continued. “Number one, meal prep, and do not over buy, shopping list, and planning can help the food supply. Turning poop into power as crazy as it seems produces biogas that all the trucks need. You know, America is ranked third highest country for food waste per capita. We're throwing away about 73 k per year.” (Note about 160 pounds.)
Insects Could be a Nice Treat
Vazquez briefly shared what two countries, Belgium and Australia, are accomplishing in their waste management programs, and then commented that “we need a substitute” for all the meat we eat. “I think insects could be a nice treat, they got all the assets that livestock don't,” she rapped, suggesting entomophagy.
“All right, let's slow it down and make one thing clear: reduce food waste, reduce food waste, no more food waste,” Vazquez emphasized.
The UC Davis student then called for “zero waste programs that reuse and recycle” and for “food waste to fight future hunger. Wish I had this knowledge when I was younger.”
“We out,” Vazquez concluded as she exited, then burst back to remind her audience “Just don't waste food. Eat your leftovers.”
Vazquez, a native of southern California and a graduate of Norco High School, Riverside County, is no stranger to video projects. “I did a similar video project in high school for AP (Advanced Placement) Chemistry and was inspired by that! I've been familiar with video editing and audio production ever since I learned how to do it during the pandemic.”
In Nansen's class, "I became way more aware of how to decrease food waste and why it is important for our urban community," Vazquez related.
Nansen, a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology since 2014, says food waste is “a topic that students can relate directly to and also have almost complete control over in their daily lives.”
Science and Society (SAS), an interdepartmental teaching program administered by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, "offers students throughout the campus the opportunity to discover the connections that link the social, biological, and physical sciences with societal issues and cultural discourses," according to the SAS website. "Course work examines discovery processes in relation to societal values, public policy and ethics, including issues associated with cultural diversity. Whenever possible, opportunities outside the classroom are included as part of the learning experience."
The SAS program seeks to serve "students of all majors and interests."
And in doing so, students' multiple and unexpected talents surface.
"Emma Vazquez on the mike."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, is gearing up for the new year.
Open houses or special events planned from January through May include:
Saturday, Jan. 11:
General Open House
1 to 4 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 8
14th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, a Super Science Day on campus
Various times (schedule pending; at least nine museums are expected to participate)
Sunday, March 2
Venomous vs. Poisonous
1 to 4 p.m.
Saturday, April 12
111th annual UC Davis Picnic Day
Bohart Pop-Up Tent at Briggs Hall
Times pending
Sunday, May 18
Open House: Insects, Life Stages
1 to 4 p.m.
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live petting zoo (featuring Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas) and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with books, posters, jewelry, T-shirts, hoodies, insect-collecting equipment and more.
The public is invited to visit the Bohart Museum on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 1 to 4:30 p.m. Note that admission is always free at the Bohart Museum.
Bohart Museum director is Professor Jason Bond, who is the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The Bohart Museum was founded in 1946 by noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007), professor and chair emeritus of the Department of Entomology. His former doctoral student, Lynn Kimsey, served as the director of the Bohart Museum for 34 years, retiring on Feb. 1, 2024 as a UC Davis distinguished professor emerita. She continues her research and her work as the executive director of the Bohart Museum Society.
More information is available from the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu/pr by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
