Tachinid fly on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

You notice an egg on your milkweed plant, and watch its life cycle from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis.  Aha, you think, soon I'll be able to see an adult monarch eclose from that chrysalis.

Not so fast.

If a tachinid fly lays eggs in that caterpillar or chrysalis, you'll get several tachinid flies, not a monarch. The fly larvae will eat the host--the caterpillar or chrysalis--from the inside out.

The tachinid fly is a parasitoid, and you can learn all about this parasitoid and many others at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house, Parasitoid Palooza, set from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 18 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, UC Davis campus. It's free and open to the public and family friendly. A family craft activity is planned.

What's a parasitoid?

"An insect parasitoid is a species whose immatures live off of an insect host, often eating it from the inside out,"  said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart Museum of Entomology. "It is part of their life cycle and the host generally dies."

Among the presentations or topics:

• Bohart Museum senior museum scientist Steve Heydon, a world authority on Pteromalids, or jewel wasps, a group of tiny parasitoids.
• Entomology PhD student Jessica Gillung who researches the Acroceridae family "a remarkable group of endoparasitoids of spiders."
• Family craft activity is a pop-up card, featuring a monarch chrysalis and a fly, suitable for mailing to friends and family during the holiday season.

There are some 3,450 described species of Pteromalids, found throughout the world and in virtually all habitats. Many are important as biological control agents.

Members of the Acroceridae are "rare and elusive flies lay the eggs on the ground or vegetation, and the little larva is in charge of finding itself a suitable host," Gillung said. "Upon finding the host, the larva enters its body and feeds inside until it's mature to come outside and pupate. They eat everything from the spider; nothing is wasted."

Her dissertation involves "the evolution and systematics of Acroceridae, focusing on understanding host usage patterns and trends in morphological variation."

Tachinid flies, which lay their eggs in caterpillars and chrysalids, will be on display, along with the remains of its hosts. It is used as a biological control agent for some pests. But those who rear monarch butterflies consider it their enemy when it lays eggs in their caterpillars and chrysalids.

The late UC Davis entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) researched Strepsiptera, or twisted-wing parasites, for his doctorate in 1938. Both the Bohart Museum and an entire family of Strepsiptera, the Bohartillidae, are named in honor of Professor Bohart.
 
The Bohart Museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis, houses a global collection of nearly eight million specimens. 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. 
 
Special attractions include a “live” petting zoo, featuring Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, praying mantids and tarantulas. Visitors are invited to hold some of the insects and photograph them.  The museum's gift shop, open year around, includes T-shirts, sweatshirts, books, jewelry, posters, insect-collecting equipment and insect-themed candy. 
 
The Bohart Museum holds special open houses throughout the academic year. Its regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The museum is closed to the public on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and on major holidays. Admission is free.

More information on the Bohart Museum is available by contacting (530) 752-0493 or emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or Tabatha Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu.

This photo, taken when Matan Shelomi was a UC Davis graduate student, shows him with a stick insect, subject of his dissertation. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Next week UC Davis alumnus Matan Shelomi will introduce you to his "sticks": the stick and leaf insects from the order Phasmatodea that he studies.

He'll present a seminar from 4:10 to 5 p.m., on Wednesday, Nov. 15 in 122 Briggs Hall, University of California, Davis, on "Revelations from Phasmatodea Digestive Track Transcriptomics." Hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, the seminar is open to all interested persons.

Shelomi, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Davis (Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at UC Davis served as his major professor) recently accepted a position as assistant professor of entomology in the Department of Entomology at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan.

Originally from New York City, the Harvard graduate (bachelor's degree in organismic and evolutionary biology) obtained his doctorate in entomology in 2014. He then received a National Science Foundation-funded postdoctoral position at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany. His past research has focused on the digestive physiology of the stick and leaf insects, Phasmatodea, although he is currently studying the microbiome of dengue-vectoring mosquito breeding sites.

You may know Matan Shelomi for his informative and entertaining posts on Quora.  A top writer at Quora since 2013, he is followed by nearly 4000 subscribers and has answered more than 3000 questions. Or you may know him for his many accomplishments and honors/awards at UC Davis or at the Entomological Society of America meetings. Or his work at the Bohart Museum where he answered scores of questions about insects, greeting scientists, insect enthusiasts, and the general public alike. He was a regular at their regularly scheduled weekend open houses.

Matan Shelomi's colleagues, entomologists Ivana Li (left) and Fran Keller created this "Know Your Sticks" t-shirt, available for sale in the Bohart Museum of Entomology's gift shop. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

 "The stick and leaf insects (order Phasmatodea) are an unusual, herbivorous order more closely related to webspinners and cockroaches than to grasshoppers and crickets," Shelomi says in his abstract. "Neither serious pests nor disease vectors, their biology has been poorly studied, yet recent work has revealed just how little we knew about their inner workings. Exclusive leaf-feeders, it was not known how they are able to thrive on such a diet and reach their record-setting lengths."

He will present the results of his research on Phasmatodean anatomy and evolution, spanning seven years and three continents. 

Shelomi points out: "Using transcriptomics—the study of what genes are expressed in a given tissue at a different time—one can discover what enzymes are produced by the digestive tissues, what compounds are eliminated by the excretory tissues, and even guess the functions of mysterious tissues such as the 'appendices of the midgut,' a Phasmatodea-specific organ system whose physiological role was unknown for over a century. The diversity of Phasmatodean digestive enzymes includes some surprising members whose evolution in Insecta is changing what we thought we knew. As mysteries are solved and old hypotheses revised, Phasmatodea exemplify the scientists' search for the unknown and the hidden secrets the natural world waits to reveal."

Matan says he plans to present an informal seminar, one that he hopes will be both entertaining and informative.

Stick insects are a key part of the Bohart Museum's live "petting zoo," which is opento the public Monday through Thursday. In fact, back in 2012, two entomologists/Bohart associates designed a humorous t-shirt inscribed with “Know Your Sticks," featuring drawings of four sticks: a stick person, a real stick or twig, a Vietnamese walking stick and an Australian spiny stick (family Phasmatidae). It's available for sale in the Bohart Museum's gift shop.

Bohart associate Fran Keller, who received her doctorate in entomology at UC Davis and is now as assistant professor at Folsom Lake College, originated the idea of a stick t-shirt--in between studying for her doctoral degree in entomology and serving as a Bohart associate/volunteer.  It was those stick figures trending on vehicle rear-windows that influenced and inspired her. “So we thought we'd clarify the sticks."

Keller designed the shirt. Ivana Li, then an undergraduate student and president of the UC Davis Entomology Club and now a staff research associate in the Department of Evolution and Ecology, drew the illustrations.

Don't be surprised if Matan Shelomi's former colleagues at the Bohart Museum show up in their "Know Your Sticks" t-shirts.

Remember that line in Gertrude Stein's 1913 poem, Sacred Emily: "A rose is a rose is a rose"?

Well, to paraphrase Stein: "A bee is a bee is a bee...except when it's not a bee."

In a recent interactive feature in the New York Times, writer Joanna Klein wondered how we can save the bees if we don't recognize them.  She asked "Can You Pick the Bees Out of This Insect Lineup?" and posted an image of bees and wanna-be bees.

All entomologists, we're sure, passed. Many others--those who think every floral visitor is a honey bee--probably not.

Bee expert Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, passed it  with flying colors--colors that included that gorgeous photo of a metallic green sweat bee.  "Photo editors for news articles need to take this test judging by all the images of faux bees that accompany a variety of articles on bees, especially articles designed to educate the public about bees," commented Thorp,  who, by the way, is the co-author of Bumble Bees of North America: an Identification Guide (Princeton University Press) and California's Bees and Blooms: a Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists  (Heyday). "I suspect that this is what Joe Wilson had in mind when he created the plate of bees and faux bees."

Joseph S. Wilson, as you may recall, co-authored The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America's Bees (Princeton University Press) with Olivia J. Messenger Carrill.  Wilson is also featured in a fantastic TED talk on "Save the Bees! Wait, Was That a Bee?"

Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at UC Davis, gets that a lot--"Is this a bee? Is that a bee?" She recently wrote a piece in the Bohart Museum newsletter about flies masquerading as bees.

 Three of the easiest ways to differentiate a fly from a bee:

• A fly has one set of wings. A bee has two sets.
• A fly has short, stubby antennae. A honey bee doesn't.
• A fly has no corbicula or pollen basket. A honey bee (worker bee) does.

A bee is a bee is a bee...except when it's not a bee. Take the New York Times' quiz.

At the end, you'll be asked the number of bee species in the United States. Get ready...

A honey bee foraging in almonds. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The beekeepers will be there!

The California State Beekeepers' Association (CSBA) will meet for its 128th annual convention, Tuesday through Thursday, Nov. 14-16, at Harrah's Lake Tahoe. The theme: "Inputs, Outputs and Expectations." Secretary of Agriculture Karen Ross will deliver the keynote address at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday.

President Steve Godin of Visalia will helm the three-day conference, aided by first vice president Mike Tolmachoff, Madera; second vice president Brent Ashurst, Westmorland; and treasurer Carlen Jupe of Salida. Their scientific advisor is Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño, based in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. 

Niño will speak on "Research Stories from the Niño Lab" at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 15. Staff research associate (and husband) Bernardo Niño of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility will address the group at 10:30 a.m., Thursday on "Practical Solutions for the Beginner Beekeepers."

Extension apiculturist emeritus Eric Mussen of UC Davis will lead a "Bridging the Gap" panel at 11 a.m., Thursday. Bee breeder-geneticist Sue Cobey of Washington State University, former manager of the Laidlaw facility, will speak at 1:30 p.m., Thursday on "Collecting Honey Bee Germplasm in Europe and the Impact on Genetic Diversity in the United States." Basically, it's about building a better bee.

Among the many speakers are

• Randy Oliver of Scientific Beekeeping, Grass Valley, "Oxalic/Glycerin Application and Breeding for Mite Resistance," at 3:30 p.m., Tuesday
• Bob Curtis of the Almond Board of California will provide an update at 8:30 a.m., Wednesday
• Dennis vanEnglesdorp of the University of Maryland faculty and  project director for the Bee Informed Partnership, whose topic is "Managing Reistance in Varroa Mite Populations" at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday
• Marla Spivak,  MacArthur Fellow and McKnight Distinguished Professor in Entomology at the University of Minnesota, who will discuss "Bee Health and Social Immunity" at 11 a.m. Wednesday

 All in all, it promises to be an educational and informative conference, centered on our littlest agricultural workers: the honey bees.

CSBA is headquartered at 1521 I St., Sacramento. The office can be reached at (916) 441-0302 or contact@californiastatebeekeepers.com.