- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A newly published study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals just how much trouble. (See research paper)
Wild bee populations have declined significantly since 2008 in Central California and some other key areas of the United States, according to the study led by a University of Vermont researcher and co-authored by UC Davis researchers.
The study, led by Insu Koh of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont, Burlington, suggests that wild bee populations likely declined in areas comprising 23 percent of the nation between 2008 and 2013, a decline associated with conversion of natural wild bee habitat into intensive agriculture.
The researchers determined that 139 key counties, comprising 39 percent of U.S. pollinator-dependent crop area, exhibit a “mismatch between pollination supply and demand,” with large areas of pollinator-dependent crops and low expected abundance of wild bees.
The seven-member team integrated a wild bee habitat model, land cover data and expert knowledge to map U.S. bee abundance and trends. Pollination ecologist Neal Williams of UC Davis led efforts to assess habitat quality.
Their study also shows 39 percent of U.S. croplands that depend on pollinators face a threatening mismatch between rising demand for pollination and a falling supply of wild bees.
“We see striking mismatches in many places between the demand for pollination and the ability of wild pollinators to support that need,” said Williams, an associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who helped design the study and led efforts to assess bee habitat quality as part of the Integrated Crop Pollination (ICP) Project (http://icpbees.org/).
“Indeed it is crops where demand has most increased that we estimate greatest decline in wild pollinator supply,” Williams said. “The research is also unique in including uncertainty in our knowledge of the quality of habitat for pollinators and thus recognizes where more effort is needed to understand the vulnerability of pollination services."
Williams (who, by the way is a newly selected UC Davis Chancellor's Fellow, an honor given to outstanding faculty members early in their careers), noted that the paper has the potential to bring wider attention to the correlation between the status of wild bee communities and crop pollination demands nationally.
Indeed, it does and we need to value our wild bees and protect them.
For example, bumble bees effectively pollinate watermelon and tomatoes. Squash bees are specialist bees that pollinate pumpkins, squash, cucumbers and other cucurbits. Leafcutter bees play a major role in pollinating alfalfa, carrots, other vegetables and some fruits.
"Until this study, we didn't have a national mapped picture about the status of wild bees and their impacts on pollination,” Koh said. More than $3 billion of the U.S. agricultural economy depends on the pollination services of native pollinators like wild bees. (See University of Vermont news release.)
It was back in June 2014 when President Obama sounded the alarm in a widely quoted presidential memorandum calling for a national assessment of pollinators to promote the health of honey bees and other pollinators.
This latest research zeroes in on that.
The seven-member team also included Claire Brittain of the Neal Williams lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; Taylor Ricketts of the Gund Institute and the University of Vermont; Eric Lonsdorf of Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa.; and Rufus Isaacs and Jason Gibbs of Michigan State University, East Lansing.
The study was completed with support from the Specialty Crop Research Initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute for Food and Agriculture.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Take it from UC Davis entomology student Wade Spencer.
Spencer decided to create a Bohart Museum of Entomology Christmas card--an insect version--and sure enough, Santa is a robber fly. And Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a male argid sawfly.
The idea surfaced when Christine Melvin (who just received her bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Davis) and Spencer were TA'ing (serving as teaching assistants) for Lynn Kimsey's Entomology 100L lab. Kimsey directs the Bohart Museum, home of nearly eight million specimens, and she's a professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The young entomologists decided that the male argid sawfly needed a red nose, just like Rudolph.
As Spencer was photographing the argids, Bohart Museum teen volunteer Noah Crockette walked by. "He suggested we should find an insect with fluffy white facial setae for an 'insect Santa' and the moment he said that the image of an Asilid (robber fly) popped into my mind."
Spencer then searched through the Bohart's asilid collection and found a perfect robber fly. The rest, as they say, is history--or hysterical.
What's next?
"I'm hoping to image some Phasmids (stick insects) to make an insect menorah for Hanukkah as well," Spencer said. (And he just did! See below)
Remember Wade Spencer? He's the one created a peacock jumping spider costume for the Bohart Museum's inhouse Halloween party. Bohart Museum associate Fran Keller videotaped his courtship dance and it went viral--more than two million hits. See Bug Squad.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Not all monarch butterflies that you rear will make it.
Such was this case this week with when two monarchs eclosed, both crippled and struggling to survive. The damage to their crumbled wings may have occurred when, as jade-green chrysalids, they fell to the floor of the mesh butterfly habitat. We gently picked them up, tied dental floss around each cremaster, and hung them back up again in a scene reminiscent of Christmas stockings hung by the fireplace.
No. 21 eclosed. Then No. 22. But these monarchs, the last of the season, needed names instead of numbers.
The first one we named "Tiny." The second one, "Tim." They were named after the fictional character, Tiny Tim, from the 1843 novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Tiny Tim couldn't walk but he brought joy to the Bob Cratchit family and he changed the heart of Ebenezer Scrooge.
Life is as good as can be expected. We're rolling cotton balls in a sugar/water mixture (with a dash of soy sauce for vitamins and minerals) and they're eating. They're climbing on the lantana blossoms during the day. At night they scurry to a roost at the top of the habitat and remain there until morning.
Yesterday, we took them outside and placed them on the spokes of a miniature penny-farthing (big wheel bicycle). They soaked up the warmth of the afternoon sun and seemed energized. But when they tried to fly, they tumbled to the ground. Maybe due to Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE)?
Now they're back inside the house, cozy in their butterfly habitat with the fresh lantana and newly soaked cotton balls and Adele singing "Hello" on the CD.
They're not going to make it. We know that. They can flutter but they cannot fly. They can feel the warmth of the sun but they'll never migrate, overwinter and feel another warmth--the warmth of a cluster at the top of an 80-foot eucalyptus tree.
Butterfly guru Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, said it best: "Life is hard."
Yes, it is.
About 1 percent of caterpillars make it to adults, he said.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
But the Linnaean Games are also a force to be reckoned with-- for those who study insect science or who want to study insect science.
The Entomological Society of America (ESA) today posted the video of the 2015 Championship Linnaean Games on YouTube. Access it at https://youtu.be/_hA05K0NET4 to see the lively competition between the University of California, Davis and the University of Florida. UC Davis won the championship for the first time in the 32-year history of the ESA's Linnaean Games.
The UC Davis championship team was comprised of Ralph Washington Jr. and members Jessica Gillung, Brendon Boudinot and Ziad Khouri. All are graduate students in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. They earlier won the Linnaean Games competition at the regional level: the Pacific Branch of ESA.
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.
Two members of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty--Extension entomologist Larry Godfrey and Extension apiculturist Elina Niño--served as the team's advisors.
Here are some of the questions that the UC Davis team correctly answered:
Toss-Up Question: What is the smallest insect that is not a parasite or parasitoid?
Answer: Beetles in the family Ptiliidae.
Bonus Question: Some species of mosquitoes lay eggs that can undergo diapause or aestivation. Give at least three cues that trigger the aquatic eggs to hatch.
Answer: Temperature, immersion in water, concentration of ions or dissolved solutes.
Toss-Up Question: Chikungunya is an emerging vector-borne disease in the Americas. Chikungunya is derived from the African Language Makonde. What means Chikungunya in Makonde?
Answer: Bending up.
Toss-Up Question: A Gilson's gland can be found in what insect order?
Answer: Trichoptera
Toss-Up Question: Certain Chrysomelid larvae carry their feces as a defensive shield. To what subfamily do these beetles belong?
Answer: Cassidinae.
Bonus Question: The first lepidopteran sex pheromone identified was bombykol. What was the first dipteran sex pheromone identified? Give the trade or chemical name.
Answer: Muscalure, Z-9-Tricosene. It is also one of the chemicals released by bees during the waggle dance.
Toss-Up Question: What famous recessive gene was the first sex-linked mutation demonstrated in Drosophila by T.H. Morgan?
Answer: White
Bonus Question: Cecidomyiidae are known as the gall flies. What is unique about the species Mayetiola destructor, and what is its common name?
Answer: Mayetiola destructor is the Hessian Fly, a tremendous pest of wheat. It does not form galls.
Toss-Up Question: Nicrophorus americanus is listed under what legislative act?
Answer: The Endangered Species Act
Toss-Up Question: In what insect order would you find hemelytra?
Answer: The order Hemiptera.
Toss-Up Question: The subimago stage is characteristic of what insect order?
Answer: The order Ephemeroptera
Bonus Question: A 2006 Science article by Glenner et al. on the origin of insects summarized evidence that Hexapods are nothing more than land-dwelling crustaceans, which is to say that the former group Crustacea is paraphyletic with respect to the Hexapoda. What hierarchical name has been used to refer to this clade?
Answer: Pancrustacea
Toss-Up Question: What are the three primary conditions that define eusociality?
Answer: Cooperative brood care, overlapping generations, and reproductive division of labor
A total of 10 teams competed in the 2015 Linnaean Games:
- Eastern Branch: Virginia Tech University and University of Maryland
- North Central Branch: Michigan State University and Purdue University
- Pacific Branch: UC Davis and Washington State University
- Southeastern Branch: University of Georgia and University of Florida
- Southwestern Branch: Oklahoma State University and Texas A&M
The UC Davis Linnaean Games Team won the championship--they're the stars--but congratulations to all! It's a honor to be selected on a team and an honor to win a spot at the regionals and advance to the nationals.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The honey bee guru continues to answer a range of questions. The latest concerns the effect of marijuana growing sites on honey bees.
We thought we'd share his answer, which deals with honey bees, pollinators, Cannabis, pesticides, and what could happen to beekeepers who stumble upon a pot farm.
The question: "What is the effect, good or bad, that marijuana plants and marijuana grow sites have on the honey bee? From what I understand, these grow sites are using chemicals to control pests year round. In some cases, I hear that marijuana growers are importing chemicals from Mexico that are stronger and work better to control pest."
Mussen answered the question succinctly and openly.
"As you might guess, since marijuana is still considered an illegal plant to grow by the federal government," he replied, "it is no surprise that there are no pesticides registered for use on the 'crop.' Some states are trying hard to build a list of acceptable products, but here is the problem. So far we have registered products based on contact and oral toxicities to mammals. We have only run inhalation toxicities on a few very potent and stinky products (fumigants). You can get up to 10X the dose of a chemical, from the same amount of plant mass, if you smoke it versus eating it.
"There are quite a number of websites dedicated to pot growing. When pest control becomes the topic, most sites suggest mechanical methods or use of products allowed in organic agriculture. However, those organic pesticides have not been checked for inhalation effects, either."
"Thus, practically any pesticide that is used will be illegal. Given that, growers are apt to determine which materials work best on the pest at hand on other crops, acquire those materials, and use them. The regulators know this, and in states where marijuana currently is legal, the states are testing some of the products on the shelves to see what pesticides are in them. The samples have been found to be pretty clean, for the most part."
Mussen acknowledged that blooming hemp plants are attractive to many pollinators. "I have no idea what the pollen and nectar might do to them when the bees consume it. We can provide a pretty good idea of what will happen when pesticide products used on other crops are applied to the bloom (at agricultural rates), but since nothing is registered, there is no way of guessing what might be used. For the standard fee of just under $400, we can send a sample of the bees or pollen to the USDA AMS pesticide residue detection lab in Gastonia, N.C., and they can tell us the residues. Butthat doesn't help us much in terms of regulatory assistance.
"Pot growers probably won't care if they repel or kill visiting bees," Mussen speculated. "Pollinated blossoms become senescent too quickly, and do not produce the maximum amount of important resins if they are pollinated early in their cycle."
"Up to this time, I have not heard of beekeepers reporting damage from pesticides applied to marijuana, but it is likely to happen before long. Beekeepers are more worried about being shot if they accidentally get too close to a pot farm."
Stay tuned.