- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They're not bumble bees. They're not scary. But well, they ARE big. About an inch long.
The Valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa varipuncta) is the largest bee in California. The female is solid black with metallic wings. In a great example of sexual dimorphism, the male looks nothing like the female. It's a green-eyed blond, fondly known as "the teddy bear" bee because it's fuzzy-wuzzy and cannot sting. (See Bug Squad photo of the teddy bear bee.) "Boy bees can't sting because they have no stingers," native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, is fond of saying at UC Davis open houses and area workshops.
But it was the female we were checking out last weekend. She buzzed from the blanket flower (Gaillardia) to the lavender patch and clung to a blossom.
A honey bee seeking the same nectar landed next to her. Talk about size comparison! Neither seemed to mind the presence of the other. Plenty of nectar. Plenty of time. Plenty of work to do.
When the honey bee finally left--"I'm outta here!"--the Valley carpenter bee climbed to the top of the stem as if claiming it. "This is mine! This is all mine."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The unique symposium, the work of chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor in the UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and his 18 biochemistry students, drew an attentive crowd and scores of questions about the mosquito-borne virus, which is primarily transmitted by the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti.
In pregnant women, the Zika virus can cause fetal microcephaly and other severe brain anomalies, as well as a number of other medical issues. In adults, it can be sexually transmitted and can cause Guillain–Barré syndrome, a disorder of the immune system that damages the peripheral nervous system.
“I am certain that every person in attendance, either online or in Giedt Hall, whether specialist or not, knows more about Zika now then when the symposium started,” Leal said. “Mission accomplished! Those who did not attend and/or think that my statement is exaggerated or not accurate should go watch the recorded version of the symposium at https://video.ucdavis.edu/media/Zika+Virus+Public+Awareness+Symposium/0_n3aupf5c.”
“The highlight of the symposium, however, was the level of participation of the students," said Leal, a fellow of the Entomological Society of America and co-chair of the International Congress of Entomology meeting, set Sept. 25-30 in Orlando, Fla. "Clearly, new teaching approaches lead to students' engagement. This was an experiment that worked.”
A native of Brazil, Leal is a noted mosquito researcher (his lab discovered the secret mode of DEET) who collaborates with colleagues in Brazil. He recently participated in the international Zika scientific conference there.
What prompted the symposium? Leal and the 18 students decided that a scientific symposium would generate increased public awareness about the growing threat. They brought in speakers from the Brazilian frontlines (through Skype) and a Colorado State University researcher who contracted the Zika virus in Senegal and transmitted it to his wife. He was the first to discover that the virus is transmitted sexually.
The 18 students excelled, drawing praise from attendees and participants alike. In an email to Leal, James Carey, distinguished professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, wrote: "All were poised, confident, well prepared and articulate. You should be given a lot of credit for this creative outcome of your teaching efforts."
Symposium speakers included:
"The Zika Epidemic – An Overview"
Professor Walter S. Leal
UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
"Congenital Zika Syndrome"
Dr. Regina Coeli Ramos, University of Pernambuco, Brazil (remote)
"Zika Virus and Me"
Professor Brian Foy (remote)
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University
Zika Virus: Looking into Mosquitoes' Vectorial Capacity
Professor Constância F. J. Ayres
Department of Entomology, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz-Pernambuco, Brazil (remote)
"Don't Let Mosquitoes Bug You with Zika – Repel Them"
Professor Walter S. Leal
UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
"DEET vs. Zika – I Would Go with the Former"
Dr. Emanual Maverakis
Department of Dermatology, UC Davis School of Medicine
"Keeping Mosquito at Bay, Not in Your Backyard"
Dr. Paula Macedo
Laboratory Director, Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito & Vector Control District
"Friends Don't Let Friends Get Zika"
Dr. Stuart H. Cohen
Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and director of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control, UC Davis Medical School.
Some key points from the symposium
- Most people who contract Zika do not exhibit any symptoms whatsoever
- Zika virus is sexually transmitted; if you contract Zika, you can transmit it to your sexual partner.
- The mosquito, Aedes aegypti, is already in California, including the Clovis area and Palo Alto area
- Nearly 600 cases of Zika have already been reported in the United States, mostly in New York, Florida and California. Each case involved a U.S. traveler from a Zika virus "hot spot"
- Zika can persist up to 62 days in human semen
- Laboratory tests show that the common mosquito, Culex, can vector the virus and field tests are underway. Culex transmits West Nile Virus, Japanese encephalitis, and equine encephalitis.
- The two mosquitoes have varying feeding and breeding patterns: Culex feeds at night; and Aedes aegypti in the day, while Culex lays its eggs in polluted water, and Aedes aegypti in clean/clear water
- Culex quinquefasciatus, the southern house mosquito, is a potential vector; it has similar vector competence, and is much more abundant
The Zika virus was first isolated in 1947, in a rhesus monkey in a forest near Entebbe, Uganda. Brazil reported a human outbreak in early 2015. The virus is now spreading to other parts of South, Central and North America. The World Health Organization says the virus is likely to spread throughout most of the Americas by the end of the year. It is advising that people returning from known Zika outbreak areas to follow safe sex practices or abstain from sex for at least eight weeks.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you're a beekeeper and have kept bees for at least a year, you might want to become a Master Beekeeper.
The E. L. Niño Bee Lab, directed by Extension Apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño, University of California, Davis, is now recruiting for its first-ever California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP). The deadline to fill out the application form is Wednesday, June 1. Notifications of acceptance will be made by June 15.
Its mission: “To provide science-based education to future stewards and ambassadors for honey bees and beekeeping. The apprentice level is designed to build a solid foundation of basic beekeeping skill and knowledge. When participants achieve this level they may opt to stop or continue on to the more advanced levels: journeyman and master levels.”
“We are extremely excited about launching this program which will bring timely and most current beekeeping and other pollinator information to the stakeholders in California," said coordinator Bernardo Niño. "With the increased interest in beekeeping and need for continued public education we really want to engage those who love bees as much as we do be the true bee ambassadors in their communities."
"And with unique challenges for beekeeping in California--that is, about two million bee colonies end up in California in February each year for almond pollination--it was time to have a California-based program," he said. "We are here to support the bees and the beekeepers and we can't wait to start this new partnership."
Participants must own or have managed a minimum of one colony for at least one year. They must have at least one registered hive where possible (certain counties do not have the ability to provide this service to the beekeepers; this will be confirmed prior to acceptance into the program).
A $200 program fee will be due no later than July 1. This cost covers a single exam fee, CAMBP study guide, priority access and program discount to all CAMBP-approved courses at UC Davis.
Individuals must score 75 percent or higher on both a written and field practical examination.
Upon completion, apprentice level beekeepers will at the minimum be able to complete the following practical tasks:
- Light and appropriately operate a smoker (including fire safety crucial for California)
- Identify different casts in the colony
- Confidently open and examine a colony
- Properly manage the colony throughout the year
- Be able to identify and take care of any issues that the colony encounters
- Identify and build/assemble standard hive equipment
- Be able to properly feed colonies if needed
- Prevent colony robbing
- Monitor for pathogens and pests
- Re-queen a colony
They are also expected to engage in community service activities, such as assisting members of youth organizations with bee-related projects; giving a public demonstration on beekeeping at a fair, festival or other similar event; or successfully mentoring a new beekeeper through at least one season.
The program is so far supported by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, Kaiser Family Foundation, Mann Lake LTD, and Gilroy Beekeepers Association.
For more information, including the application form, access http://elninobeelab.ucdavis.edu/CAMBP.html or call (530) 380-BUZZ (2899).
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
From her post at Texas A&M University, located at College Station, 90 miles northwest of Houston, Christine Merlin basically has a front-row seat for the monarch butterfly migration.
She sees them heading to Mexico to overwinter, and she sees them returning.
But it's the science that drives her.
Merlin, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology, will speak on "The Monarch Butterfly Circadian Clock: from Clockwork Mechanisms to Control of Seasonal Migration" from 12:10 to 1 p.m., Wednesday, June 1 in Room 230 of Wellman Hall.
The seminar, sponsored by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will be hosted by assistant professor Joanna Chiu. It is open to all interested persons. Plans are to record it for later posting on UCTV.
"The eastern North American monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) has emerged as a powerful model system to study animal circadian clocks and their role in an unconventional output, the photo period-induced long-distance migration," Merlin says in her abstract.
"Circadian clocks are endogenous 24-hour timekeepers that coordinate nearly all of the animal physiology and behavior to its environment to tune specific activities at the most advantageous time of the day. Monarchs use a circadian clock to navigate to their overwintering sites during their seasonal long-distance migration. The clock time-compensates for the movement of the sun across the sky over the course of the day and regulates the sun compass output in the brain. Circadian clocks could also be used to time the monarch seasonal departure from their breeding grounds, and consequently regulate the genetic/epigenetic program controlling migratory physiology and behavior."
"I will discuss progress that our lab has made in developing reverse-genetics in the monarch butterfly to unlock its potential as a genetic model system to study animal clockwork mechanisms and the involvement of the circadian clock in insect photoperiodic responses," she says. "And if we can show this is the case and that the circadian clock is involved, we can now start to understand the genetic program that is allowing the migratory behavior."
In a Texas A&M news story, Vimal Patel described her as trying to unravel "the mysteries of the migration and the role of internal clocks in the process."
"It's incredible how such a fragile insect can complete a long-range migration so demanding," Merlin told Patel. "Every piece of it fascinates me, from how it occurs to why they go precisely where they go."
An excerpt from Patel's piece:
"While she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the laboratory of Prof. Steven Reppert, Merlin and colleagues showed that the clocks necessary for flight orientation lie in the creatures' antennae --a departure from the previous conventional wisdom that the brain controlled the mechanism, given that it controls behavioral rhythmicity in virtually every other animal, including humans.
"The conclusion stemmed from Merlin's and her co-workers' collective curiosity concerning a decades-old anecdote. Around 50 years ago, entomologist Fred Urquhart found that Monarchs became disoriented after he clipped off their antennae. Since then, it had remained just a suspicion until the Massachusetts team confirmed it with more rigorous research."
"The team's experiment exploited technology in a way Urquhart, who merely observed the Monarchs in flight, could not at the time. They used a plastic barrel-like device called a Mouritsen-Frost flight simulator in which a butterfly is connected by tungsten wire to an output system that indicates which direction it is flying. The results were clear: The antennae-less Monarchs flew in every which direction, while those with intact antennae flew southwesterly, the migratory direction."
Merlin points out that "Migration begins every year in the fall, when the day lengths change. The shortened day lengths might be a cue for the monarchs to start their migration. And if we can show this is the case and that the circadian clock is involved, we can now start to understand the genetic program that is allowing the migratory behavior."
A native of France, Merlin received her bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees majoring in animal biology, invertebrate physiology and insect physiology, respectively, at the University Paris 6 Pierre and Marie Curie in France. She accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Massachusetts in 2007.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ever seen a mob of tiny sweat bees?
The bees below, from the genus Lasioglossum (as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis), just about flash-mobbed an Iceland poppy.
These hungry little bees were a sight to see.
The genus, the largest of all bee genera, contains more than 1700 species in numerous subgenera worldwide, according to Wikipedia. "They are highly variable in size, coloration, and sculpture; among the more unusual variants, some are cleptoparasites, some are nocturnal, and some are oligolectic. Most Lasioglossum nest in the ground, but some species nest in rotten logs."
Why are they called "sweat bees?" Not an attractive name, is it? Well, they're called sweat bees because they're attracted to the salt in human sweat.
