- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Just ask Kenneth Haynes.
"Despite their proclivity to hide near to where we sleep and stealthily feed on our blood, bed bugs are extremely fascinating insects," he writes on his website.
Haynes, a professor at the University of Kentucky who received his doctorate in entomology from the University of California, Davis, in 1982, will return to the UC Davis campus on Wednesday, Nov. 20 to present the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Lecture.
His topic should gain a lot of interest.
Bed bugs, unfortunately, are making a comeback.
Haynes will speak on "Life Undercover: Behavioral Characteristics of a Stealthy Blood Feeder" at the seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology from 6 to 7 p.m. in Memorial Union II. A reception from 5 to 6 p.m. will precede the seminar.
"The recent world-wide resurgence of the bed bugs has prompted my laboratory group to investigate unique aspects of their behavior," Haynes said. "Bed bugs are well adapted to stealthy habits that often lead the host to be unaware of an expanding population. Their activity pattern is governed by a circadian clock that dictates that they primarily feed late at night. Carbon dioxide plays a role in stimulating movement, with heat and perhaps other semiochemicals playing a role in attraction. The early instars are not as effective in finding hosts as the later stages or adults. Signals produced by mature females facilitate host-finding by the first instars, suggesting a parental role. Re-aggregation in cracks and crevices around the bed following foraging bouts is in part mediated by pheromones. The nature of the behavioral responses to host and habitat cues provide leads to pest management."
Haynes, the Bobby C. Pass Professor of Entomology at the University of Kentucky, joined the faculty in 1986. He received his doctorate in entomology at UC Davis in 1982, working with Professor Martin C. Birch, now deceased. Haynes went on to conduct postdoctoral research at UC Riverside, working with Professor Thomas C. Baker.
Haynes maintains a broad interest in behavioral aspects of chemical ecology, and not just bed bugs. "I have been excited to have the opportunity to study diverse taxa including moths, beetles, bed bugs and bolas spiders," he said. Haynes taught insect biology, insect behavior and graduate seminars in behavior and chemical ecology. He authored a book on “Insect Pheromones” with Martin C. Birch, edited two volumes on “Methods in Chemical Ecology” with Professor Jocelyn G. Millar, and has published more than 100 scientific papers and reviews.
Haynes is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the C. V. Riley Award from the North Central Branch of the Entomological Society of America, and research recognitions from the University of Kentucky.
Want to see bed bug behavior? Check out the videos on his website and then attend his UC Davis lecture.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
We spotted this jumping spider on an orchid cactus, Epiphyllum (Greek for "upon the leaf"). It was catching a little morning sun and poised for business.
We bought this cactus at the Luther Burbank Gold Ridge Experiment Farm in Sebastopol last year. The genus, Epiphyllum, is native to Central America, and we imagine that Burbank probably treasured it for its brilliant fragrant flowers, edible fruit and broad, flat stems. It attracts honey bees, syrphid flies, butterflies and other pollinators.
If you get a chance, you should not only visit the renowned Luther Burbank Home and Gardens in Santa Rosa, but his little experimental farm in Sebastopol.
Burbank, born March 7, 1849 on a farm outside of Lancaster, Mass., was one of a kind. "During his career he introduced over 800 varieties of fruits, flowers, vegetables, and grains," according to Western Sonoma Historical Society website. "He developed many of California's plums and prunes, the ancestor of the Idaho Potato, the Shasta Daisy, and novelties such as Plumcots, Thornless Blackberry, and Spineless Cactus. See Luther Burbank Biography."
His home in Santa Rosa was and is primarily a showplace, but his little farm in Sebastopol was his workshop. When he died in 1926, his widow donated some of the land to the City of Sebastopol. Restoration of the cottage began in 1983.
Today, it's a lovely little place, rather secluded without visitors but beckoning to all. You can take self-guided tours or book a guided tour with a docent.
As for the orchid cactus now growing in our yard, we think Luther Burbank would have been pleased.
And pleased with our little visitor, the jumping spider, too.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Some 3000 researchers, professors, graduate and undergraduate students, extension service personnel, administrators, research technicians, consultants, and others from around the globe will gather at the 61st annual lmeeting of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) "for four days of science, networking and fun," according to ESA spokesman Richard Levine. "This is the most important annual conference anywhere in the world for the science of entomology."
The theme: “Science Impacting a Connected World."
At the conclusion of the conference, integrated pest management specialist Frank Zalom, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will assume the duties of president of the 6500-member organization. He'll preside over the 62nd annual meeting, to be held in 2014 in Portland, Ore.
Zalom will become the second UC Davis entomologist to head the international organization, which is comprised of members in educational institutions, health agencies, private industry and government. The first president from UC Davis was Donald McLean, former professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, who was elected ESA president in 1984.
Zalom has been heavily involved in research and leadership in integrated pest management (IPM) activities at the state, national and international levels. He directed the UC Statewide IPM Program for 16 years (1988-2001) and is currently experiment station co-chair of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) National IPM Committee.
Zalom focuses his research on California specialty crops, including tree crops (almonds, olives, prunes, peaches), small fruits (grapes, strawberries, caneberries), and fruiting vegetables (tomatoes), as well as international IPM programs. The IPM strategies and tactics Zalom has developed include monitoring procedures, thresholds, pest development and population models, biological controls and use of less toxic pesticides, which have become standard in practice and part of the UC IPM Guidelines for these crops. In his three decades with the UC Davis entomology department, Zalom has published almost 300 refereed papers and book chapters, and 340 technical and extension articles. The articles span a wide range of topics related to IPM, including introduction and management of newer, soft insecticides, development of economic thresholds and sampling methods, management of invasive species, biological control, insect population dynamics, pesticide runoff mitigation, and determination of host feeding and oviposition preferences of pests. The Zalom lab has responded to six important pest invasions in the last decade, with research projects on glassy-winged sharpshooter, olive fruit fly, a new biotype of greenhouse whitefly, invasive saltcedar, light brown apple moth, and the spotted wing Drosophila. (See Frank Zalom's Video on Extending Orchard IPM Knowledge in California)
Zalom is a fellow of ESA, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the California Academy of Sciences and is the recipient of scores of other high honors.
Meanwhile, if you're an entomologist or a wanna-be entomologist, Austin is the place to be Nov. 10-13.
Truly, "Science Impacting a Connected World."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"Would the extinction of honey bees lead directly to the extinction of humans?"
That's a recent question posed on Quora, where folks can ask questions and receive answers.
The answer is "no."
"We are a resilient species that existed before beekeeping and will exist after it… but our cuisine will be very different," wrote Matan Shelomi, a Harvard alumnus and UC Davis graduate student seeking his doctorate at the University of California, Davis.
"Assuming native bees and other pollinators do not take over the job of the honey bee Apis mellifera, many of our favorite fruits and vegetables will cease to exist, or will require the very labor intensive manual pollination we see in parts of China," Shelomi noted. "Kiss almonds goodbye, for example. Staple crops like wheat, corn, and rice are not bee pollinated, however, so starvation won't be an issue."
Shelomi, who has received international recognition for his answers on Quora, is "right on," said Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"We've not always had honey bees here," Mussen pointed out. Indeed, the European colonists brought the honey bee to what is now Virginia in 1622. The Native American Indians had no honey bees, but they did have lots of other pollinators, including native bees. (We Californians did not obtain the services of the honey bee in our state until 1853; that's when the first honey bees arrived.)
Unfortunately, people are falsey quoting Albert Einstein as saying "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.” Al Gore never invented the Internet, and Albert Einstein never said that about bees.
Without honey bees, our menu choices would be much different. But would the human race become extinct?
No.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you think people don't care about monarch butterflies, think again.
A recent survey published in Conservation Letters showed that Americans are willing to spend at least $4.78 billion to help conserve monarchs (Danaus plexippus), one of the most recognizable of all insects. Indeed, what is more spectacular than the multigenerational migration of monarchs heading from their breeding grounds in northern United States and southern Canada to their wintering grounds in central Mexico and coastal California?
The study of 2,289 U.S. households, led by Jay Diffendorfer of the U.S. Geological Survey, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Denver, found that we Americans love monarchs so much that we're more than willing to plant milkweed, their larval host plant, to save them.
Yes!
The article, published Oct. 28 and titled National Valuation of Monarch Butterflies Indicates an Untapped Potential for Incentive-Based Conservation, calls attention to the destruction of the monarch's habitat and the importance of conservation.
"Since 1999, the size of the overwintering colonies in Mexico and California have declined, and the 2012 survey in Mexico showed the lowest colony size yet recorded, which prompted wide-scale media reports," the authors wrote. "Habitat loss in the overwintering sites in Mexico and California is well-documented, although no direct empirical link between declining overwintering habitat and monarch numbers exists. In addition, the growing use of glyphosate-tolerant genetically modified crops has reduced larval host plant (milkweed, Asclepias spp) abundances in farm fields across United States and Canada. Increasing acreage of glyphosate-tolerant corn and soybeans are negatively correlated to monarch numbers, with the area of milkweed in farm fields in the United States declining from an estimated 213,000 to 40,300 ha."
Biologist Hugh Dingle, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, is among those studying their migration. (Read his quotes in the National Geographic cover story, "Mysteries of Great Migrations," published in November 2010. Dingle is now working on a much-anticipated book on migration from his headquarters in the Sharon Lawler lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Butterfly expert Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, monitors butterflies in Central California. Here's what he has to say about monarchs on his website, Art's Butterfly World.
Meanwhile, a day before Conservation Letters published the survey, a lone monarch butterfly fluttered into our backyard to sip nectar from lantana. It lingered for 10 minutes.
What a treat to see!
