- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
What a deal.
Whoever collects the first live cabbage white butterfly of 2013 in the three-county area of Yolo, Solano and Sacramento, can win a pitcher of beer, compliments of Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis.
If you don't drink beer, not to worry. You can collect the cash equivalent.
Every year since 1972 Shapiro has sponsored his "Beer-for-a-Butterfly" contest to draw attention to Pieris rapae and its first flight. “It is typically one of the first butterflies to emerge in late winter,” he said. “Since 1972, the first flight has varied from Jan. 1 to Feb. 22, averaging about Jan. 20.”
Shapiro, who usually wins his own contest, snagged the first cabbage white butterfly of 2012 at 11:50 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 8 in West Sacramento, Yolo County.
“This was usually early and was due to the prolonged midwinter dry spell in the winter of 2011-2012,” he said.
He caught the first cabbage white butterfly of 2011 at 1:21 p.m., Monday, Jan. 31 in Suisun City, Solano County.
The cabbage white butterfly inhabits vacant lots, fields and gardens where its host plants, weedy mustards, grow The butterfly must be collected outdoors in Yolo, Solano or Sacramento counties and must be delivered live to the office of the Department of Evolution and Ecology, 2320 Storer Hall, during work hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. All entries must list the exact time, date and location of the capture and the collector’s name, address, phone number and/or email.
“The receptionist will certify that it is alive and refrigerate it,” Shapiro said. “If you collect it on a weekend or holiday, hold it your refrigerator but do not freeze it. A few days in the fridge will not harm it.”
Shapiro, who is in the field more than 200 days a year, has been defeated only three times since 1972. And all were his graduate students, whom he calls “my fiercest competitors.” Adam Porter defeated him in 1983; and Sherri Graves and Rick VanBuskirk each won in the late 1990s.
When he wins, he kindly shares his prize with his graduate students and their significant others.
All in all, the cabbage white butterfly contest “helps us understand biological responses to climate change,” he said. “The cabbage white is now emerging a week or so earlier on average than it did 30 years ago here.”
Shapiro maintains a website on butterflies at http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/, where he records the population trends he monitors in Central California. He has surveyed fixed routes at 10 sites since as early as 1972. They range from the Sacramento River Delta, through the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada mountains, to the high desert of the western Great Basin. The sites, he said, represent the great biological, geological, and climatological diversity of central California.
Shapiro and biologist/writer/photographer Tim Manolis co-authored A Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions, published in 2007 by the University of California Press.
Shapiro, a distinguished professor, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Entomological Society, and the California Academy of Sciences.
For more information on the beer-for-a-butterfly contest, contact Art Shapiro at amshapiro@ucdavis.edu, (530) 752-2176.
In the meantime, you might want to scout out vacant lots, fields and gardens in Yolo, Solano and Sacrament counties to see if you can find a cabbage white butterfly before Shapiro does.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
You'll never guess what Bruce Hammock did on Dec. 18.
First, a bit about Bruce Dupree Hammock. He's a distinguished professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis; he holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center; and he directs the campuswide Superfund Research Program, National Institutes of Health Biotechnology Training Program, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Combined Analytical Laboratory.
He’s an athlete who loves rock climbing and white-water rafting and hosts the annual Bruce Hammock Water Balloon Battle in front of Briggs Hall for his students, researchers and colleagues.
So, what did he do on Dec. 18? He embarked upon an acting career.
His first role?
A corpse.
Hammock grew a beard, donned his father's old ragged World War II clothes and worn-out shoes, and practiced looking like a corpse. He then drove to a secluded place in the high desert, near Mojave, to participate in the production on Dec. 18. (The details are top secret.)
“It was very interesting,” Hammock. “But my, the producers work hard. We were on the set at 5:30 a.m. We worked until dark, in weather well below freezing, with high winds blowing sand. The professional actors and actresses put in amazing performances under quite adverse conditions."
“They’re a very professional and fun group. I had never realized the complexity of filming a movie. I hope they pull off their vision.”
Hammock, who is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, and the recipient of the 2001 UC Davis Faculty Research Lecture Award and the 2008 Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate and Professional Teaching, doesn’t think his acting career is so established that he’ll be nominated for an Academy Award.
At least not soon.
And the beard? Will he shave?
Yes. The movie role is over.
His colleague, chemical ecologist Walter Leal, joked: “Just before he left, Bruce mentioned he was dressing to shoot a movie. I didn’t notice any difference; I thought he was taking off for another scientific meeting.”
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's Christmas Day and time to revisit "The 13 Bugs of Christmas."
Back in 2010, Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and yours truly came up with a song about "The 13 Bugs of Christmas." Presented at the Department of Entomology's holiday party, it drew roaring applause. Then U.S. News featured it when reporter Paul Bedard picked it up.
It's still making the rounds, via tweets.
"The 13 Bugs of Christmas" is about a psyllid in a pear tree, six lice a'laying, 10 locusts leaping and 11 queen bees piping. Beekeepers know that distinctive sound of a queen bee piping.
"We attempted to keep the wording as close as possible for ‘The 12 Bugs of Christmas' and then we opted to spotlight some new agricultural pests in the next stanza," said Mussen, an Extension apiculturist and member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty since 1976.
The song:
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a psyllid in a pear tree.
On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two tortoises beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree
On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree
On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree
On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree
On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me six lice a'laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree
On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven boatmen swimming, six lice a'laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree
On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me eight ants a'milking, seven boatmen swimming, six lice a'laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree
On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me nine mayflies dancing, eight ants a'milking, seven boatmen swimming, six lice a'laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree
On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 10 locusts leaping, nine mayflies dancing, eight ants a'milking, seven boatmen swimming, six lice a'laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree
On the 11th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 11 queen bees piping, 10 locusts leaping, nine mayflies dancing, eight ants a'milking, seven boatmen swimming, six lice a'laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree
On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 12 deathwatch beetles drumming, 11 queen bees piping, 10 locusts leaping, nine mayflies dancing, eight ants a'milking, seven boatmen swimming, six lice a'laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree
Knowing the agony that Californians experience with the seemingly unending flood of pests, Mussen felt it "bugworthy" to add this verse:
"On the 13th day of Christmas, Californians woke to see:
13 Kaphra beetles
12 Diaprepes weevils
11 citrus psyllids
10 Tropilaelaps clareae
nine melon fruitflies
eight Aedes aegypti
seven ash tree borers
six spotted-wing Drosophila
five gypsy moths
four Japanese beetles
three imported fire ants
two brown apple moths
and a medfly in a pear tree"
Mussen, who led the department in song at the 2010 holiday party (he also sings "doo-wopp" with a local chorus), noted that "Tropilaelaps clareae" is a honey bee mite from Asia.
Another Asian mite, the Varroa mite, (Varroa destructor), was first identified here in the United States (Wisconsin) in 1987 and is now the beekeepers' No. 1 problem, said Mussen, who writes the bimonthly from the UC apiaries newsletter.
Tropilaelaps clareae is indeed something to worry about.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...
--Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863)
In our house, nothing is stirring, thanks be to the cat. Xena the Warrior Princess does not like anything stirring. Even the dog annoys here.
But in the yard, quite a few insects were stirring on the Passiflora (passion flower vine) this afternoon. We planted it last summer to attract Gulf Fritillary butterflies (Agraulis vanillae). Passiflora is their host plant. In the late summer, we saw the adults mating and an occasional female laying eggs. Then the caterpillars appeared and began munching on the leaves.
Today we spotted about eight Gulf Fritillary caterpillars soaking up what was left of the sun. Also on board was a Gulf Fritillary chrysalis, but it was not stirring.
An overwintering Harlequin bug wandered around looking lost--but we're sure it was up to something. Last summer its ancestors were enjoying our lemon cucumbers, planted nearby.
As butterfly expert Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis says about the Harlequin bugs: "They prefer Crucifers (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, etc.) but are not limited to 'em!"
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"Americans spend millions of dollars on sprays and pest control devices or services to kill insects. Yet much of this is unnecessary. Education about insects, spiders and their relatives is critical to reduce fear of these fascinating creatures and increase appreciation of the services they provide and their beauty. This is our goal."
So wrote Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, in her annual letter to supporters.
"The Bohart Museum provides unique educational services to the UC Davis campus and the Northern California region," she continued. "We provide tours for everyone from preschoolers to retirees. We even designed and conducted a tour for a class of blind students this year! The Beth Spiva Timmons Foundation continues to support our outreach programs with another generous grant this year. Thanks to their donation, last year we developed a high tech program to take to schools to show students details of insects and spiders that they've never seen before. We'll be able to show them scales on butterfly wings, the gorgeous colors and textures of the insect exoskeleton, how crickets make sound, and so much more."
The Bohart Museum, home of nearly eight million insect specimens collected from around the world, also continues its national and international presence. Requests for information this year came in from National Geographic, the Discovery Channel and Myth Busters, to name a few.
Now longtime supporters Marius and Joanne Wasbauer have given the Bohart a challenge grant of $5000. "They hope that their gift will inspire others to give and they will match your gift one-for-one up to the $5000 program maximum," Kimsey related.
Funds will be deposited in the musuem endowment, which, Kimsey says will provide "invaluable oprating support to the museum, its collections, programs, and staff."
The challenge grant will extend until Dec. 31, 2012. Folks can donate online at http://www.bohartmuseum.com or mail a check to the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616.
And those who offer a sponsorship of $2500 will be eligible to participate in the Bohart's biolegacy program; they can name a new species. "This could also go toward matching the Wasbauers' challenge grant, doubling the impact of your donation," Kimsey noted.
It's good to see all the services that the Bohart Museum offers, and the generosity of its supporters.
