- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A green bottle fly lands on a tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, in a Vacaville pollinator garden.
Houston, we have landed!
The fly, Lucilia sericata, begins to sip the nectar, unaware that a hungry praying mantis, a Stagmomantis limbata (as confirmed by mantis expert Lohit Garikipati) is watching.
The mantis slowly sneaks within striking distance, and waits for his prey to approach closer. Closer. Closer. Closer.
Whoosh! Gotcha! It wraps its spiked forelegs around it.
Houston, dinner is served! Fly à la carte.
Want to learn more about praying mantises?
The Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis is hosting an open house, themed "Praying Mantises," on Sunday, Aug. 27 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. It is free and family friendly.
According to Kris Anderson of Las Vegas, an alumnus of Cornell University (master's degree in entomology) and author of Praying Mantises of the United States and Canada: "There are just 28 species of Mantodea found within the United States and Canada, the 7 largest of which are invasive species from other parts of the globe."
Some myths about praying mantises, as related by Anderson in his book, available on Amazon:
Myth: "Mantises sway back and forth while crawling to imitate vegetation blowing in the wind."
Truth: "The peering movement of mantises, demonstrated by the swaying back and forth of their body while ambulating or preparing to leap/take flight, is a behavioral adaptation to gain depth perception of their surroundings and has nothing to do with mimicry. Mantises blend into their environment by remaining motionless against a substrate that they morphologically resemble—not by moving. Peering movements causes the retinal images of nearby objects to be displaced more quickly than those of more distant objects, thus allowing the mantis to gain depth perception of its environment as it navigates forward."
Myth: "Mantises grab insects and immediately bite the neck/head to quickly kill their prey."
Truth: "The spinose forelegs of praying mantises are used to hold onto and prevent their prey from escaping. Once secured in their grip, the mantis will pull the prey forward and begin to meticulously chew upon whatever body part of the prey item is closest to their mouth—be it a leg, a wing, the thorax, abdomen, or head. No specific body region is exclusively targeted and the prey is always eaten alive, bit by bit, dying a slow death."
Myth: "Female mantises cannibalize the males while mating."
Truth: "With over 2,400 species of Mantodea worldwide, only a small fraction of species regularly engage in sexual cannibalism. Most do not. Of those that engage in this practice, the occurrence is not inevitable, as males typically escape and may mate with other partners."
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946 and directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live insect petting zoo (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas), and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters, jewelry and more.
The Bohart Museum is planning two other open houses this fall:
Saturday, Sept. 23: Household Vampires
Saturday, Nov. 4: Monarchs
All open houses are free and family friendly. At each event, the focus is on a special theme, but there's also a family arts-and-crafts activity, announced Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
National Honey Bee Day is Saturday, Aug. 19 and you're invited to join this oh-so-sweet celebration!
Launched in 2009, National Honey Bee Day takes place on the third Saturday of August. The event originated when a small group of beekeepers petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture "to honor" the honey bees and beekeepers.
HoneyLove.org, a Los Angeles-based honey bee educational non-profit organization, manages National Honey Bee Day and boosts "the educational outreach, community action and advocacy efforts to protect the health and well-being of honey bees," according to its website.
California Master Beekeeper Program. While we're honoring bees, we should also honor the UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP), founded and directed by Elina Lastro Niño,associate professor of Cooperative Extension and a member of the faculty of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"The award seeks to highlight teams who actively develop and encourage faculty/staff partnerships and as a result are able to make notable contributions to UC Davis that contribute to the University's Mission of Teaching, Research, and Service; and who exemplify outstanding achievement and/or service," according to Staff Assembly officials.
At the time of the nomination (March 15, 2023), CAMBP had
- Given 32,000 hours of volunteer time (Beneficial Educational Experiences) and served 186,630 individuals in education, outreach and beekeeping mentorship. If a volunteer hour is worth $26.87, the program has given $859,840 back to the state of California in service of science-based beekeeping and honey bee health.
- Enrolled 185 Honey Bee Ambassadors (a level established in 2021), 494 Apprentice, 93 Journey level candidates and certified 20 Master level beekeepers. There are 12 members in 2023 participating in their Master Capstone projects.
- Recorded 3752 hours since the team began tracking Continuing Education Experiences in 2020.
- Embarked on a project updating a safety manual.
National Honey Bee Day is also a good opportunity to learn about bees, our mini-agricultural workers that pollinate one-third of the food we eat.
The book includes 16 color plates (images contributed by Kathy Keatley Garvey), spotlighting a bee egg, bee castes, swarms and almond pollination, among others.
Princeton University Press bills the book as "the first up-to-date general reference of its kind published in decades. It is a must-have resource for social insect biologists, scientifically savvy beekeepers, and any scientist interested in bees as a model system."
Among his many honors and recognitions, Johnson was part of The UC Davis Bee Team that won the 2012 Team Award from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America. Other members: Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (1944-2022); systematist/hymenopterist Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology; native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp (1933-2019) emeritus professor of entomology; and pollination ecologist Neal Williams (now professor) who specializes in pollination and bee biology.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Long dangly legs, elongated body, and long, four-segmented antennae topped with a small club.
But there they were, stilt bugs, foraging on evening primrose at dawn in our "living laboratory"--a pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif.
The "stilt walkers" belong to the family Berytidae, order Hemiptera (true bugs).
UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis, confirmed that they are indeed stilt bugs.
Most stilt bugs are phytophagous, meaning they feed only on plants, but some are predaceous and feed on small insects, such as mites and aphids.
Stilt bugs are so-named because of their extremely long legs. Long legs? Check out this dorsal drawing of a stilt bug by Kathleen Schmidt of USDA's Agricultural Research Service.
Spined stilt bugs "are an occasional pest of greenhouse tomatoes that can cause flower and fruit abortion and unsightly feeding damage in mature fruits," according to Penn State Extension.
Real stilt walkers are known for their exceptional balance, agility and grace.
Their bug mimics, however, look as if they could "exceptionally" trip and fall flat on their clubbed antennae.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
At a recent Bohart Museum of Entomology open house, she read passages from her newly published children's book, Please Don't Bite Me: Insects that Buzz, Bite and Sting, and then encouraged questions.
Each time a youngster raised a hand, she'd say "Yes, my friend!"
She answered each question thoughtfully, expertly, and kindly.
Pakpour, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, is no stranger to UC Davis. She received her bachelor of science degree in entomology from UC Davis in 1999; her doctorate in microbiology, virology and parasitology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008; and served as a postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis for seven years, leaving campus in August 2015. Her work "focused on determining the effects of ingested human blood factors on the mosquito immune response to malaria."
Passionate about teaching science, Pakpour accepted a faculty position in 2015 at California State University, East Bay, teaching for nearly seven years before moving to the biotech sector. She is a senior scientist at Novozymes, Davis (since January 2022).
A resident of Woodland, Pakpour describes herself as "the mother of two witty and wonderful kids," and as someone who "loves bugs of all varieties, whether they are six-legged or microscopic."
Factoid: She once spent a summer feeding tarantulas at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.
"An insect," Pakpour defines in her book, "is an animal that has six legs, two eyes, two antenna, and three body parts. A special group of scientists called entomologists have been studying insects for hundreds of years an they have learned all kinds of amazing things."
Pakour goes on to say that "our bodies offer a delicious and unique menu of food for a vast variety of insects. These insects drink our blood, live in our homes, and even in our hair! They impact every aspect of our lives, from the clothes we wear, the pets we keep, to the homes we live in, and the way we store our food. Like tiny aliens living among us, each insect has its own unique body, home, and lifestyle."
Some excerpts:
Mosquitoes. "If mosquitoes don't have protein, they can't make eggs, which is why only female mosquitoes feed on blood...Mosquitoes lay their eggs in almost anything that holds water. Once she finds a suitable spot, she will land on the surface and lay around 100 eggs. So they don't sink and drown, the eggs stick together and float like a tiny raft."
Lice. Lice, which are only 0.10 inches long, can move 9 inches in about a minute. "That is about the equivalent of a person who is 5 feet tall moving 450 feet in one minute."
Wasps. Wasps are social insects. "I don't mean social as in they love to throw parties and hang out with their friends. When scientists say an insect is social, it means they live in a group made up of their relatives." She clarifies that only a few specific species are considered pests to humans and "even then it's only when they happen to build their nests near us."
Cockroaches. "Cockroaches give their eggs a little bit of extra protection, wrapping them up like a lovely box of chocolates in a package called an ootheca."
Fleas."Given a choice at the blood buffet, a flea will always choose a cat or a dog over a human."
Bedbugs. "Bedbugs have big appetites and they like to take their time sucking up your blood...The Romans believed eating crushed up bedbugs could cure poisonous snake bites."
Pakpour points out that these insects are annoying but emphasizes that the majority of the 10 quintillion insects in the world "have important and unique roles to play in nature that have nothing to do with humans....Without insects, our entire ecosystem would collapse."
Please Don't Bite Me could easily be called Please Read Me. It's a fascinating book, especially for young entomologists-to-be or children and teens curious about what's living in their world--or what's pestering them. It's an easy read with interesting scientific information spread throughout the book. The illustrations are BBC: big, bold and colorful.
Great book, Nazzy Pakpour!
/span>/span>- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Leave it to an eagle-eyed entomologist accustomed to searching for elusive bees to find it.
Emily Bzdyk, who holds a master's degree in entomology from UC Davis, is making national headlines, but not about insects this time.
Bzdyk is garnering widespread news coverage for discovering a 15-million-year-old dolphin skull along the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Calvert County, Maryland.
Bzdyk, a volunteer at the Calvert Marine Museum on Solomons Island, said she was combing the shores along the Calvert Cliffs on Saturday, Aug. 5, when she noticed what appeared to be a two-foot-long fossil bone in the shallow water.
It turned out to be a fossil from the Miocene Epoch, the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period. The Miocene epoch extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago.
Stephen Groff, manager of the Calvert Marine Museum's fossil collection, described it as “a really impressive find,” noting that “it's rare to find a skull in such good condition.”
Bzdyk estimated it will probably take a few months for her to clean the silt and clay from the fossil and prepare it for permanent public display at the museum. Visitors to the museum (open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) are watching her clean the fossil.
A native of Long Island, N.Y., Emily received her bachelor's degree in biology in 2008 from St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM), St. Mary's City, where she minored in environmental studies and studio art. Her senior thesis? A Guide to Native Plants of Historic St. Mary's City, which she also illustrated.
Bzdyk returned to SMCM in 2016 as a visiting instructor of biology. She served as an adjunct faculty member until May 2019.
Her friends says she has an eagle eye for discoveries. She credits her entomological training with that. "Many years in entomology didn't hurt!"
NBCWashington.com headlined her fossil discovery as "Big Win: Woman Finds 15 Million-Year-Old Dolphin Skull Along Chesapeake Bay."
Mike Murillo of WTOP News, which serves the Washington, D.C., area, said that the "Dolphin fossil found in Calvert County could help 'write the books' on ancient marine mammals...It is not uncommon to find fossils from marine mammals. Dolphin skulls are typically found twice a year in southern Maryland. But this find, according to Groff, stands to be the most intact of the finds. It could also turn out to be a species that was previously not known about."
Murillo noted that "During the Miocene period, when the marine mammal swam the earth, the sea level was much higher, according to Groff. What is the beach now was once the ocean floor. Now, as the ocean is eroding away part of the beach, more fossils are being uncovered."
In addition to her interests in biology, entomology and paleontology, Bzdyk enjoys incorporating her scientific illustration and photography skills in her work. She served as a scientific illustration intern at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2008.
Bzdyk shares her interests in her blog, "Sentimental Entomologist" (Thoughts about insects, birds, nature and life) at http://sentimentalentomologist.blogspot.com/.
In her blog profile, she describes herself as: "I have always loved insects and I studied them in graduate school. Bees, to be precise. I focused my thesis on Litomegachile, a subgenus of Megachile leafcutter bees. I discovered a new species of bee, and published one paper on these bees before I hung up my scientist hat to become a stay at home mom. But that won't stop insects from finding their way into my life."
She also maintains an Instagram account on her discoveries at https://instagram.com/hastalishunter.
Meanwhile, Bzdyk's Facebook page, containing the links to the news coverage, is drawing scores of comments, such as:
- "You are so freaking cool. Awesome find."
- "Emily, I just watched the NBC clip. So excited for you!! What an incredible find—more specifically, what an eye you have for treasures below the sand!!!Have a wonderful adventure as you uncover more about your 15 million YO dolphin skull!!!"
- "They even got in a bug joke! Super cool." ("Entomologist by training, but been bitten by a different bug")
- "You're famous now! Can I have your autograph?"
- "Way to go, Emily! Super exciting!"
Bzdyk is a 2010 alumna of the globally recognized The Bee Course, an annual 10-day workshop sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History and held at the Southwestern Research Station, Portal, Ariz. One of her instructors was noted bee authority Robbin Thorp 1933-2019), UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor of entomology. Thorp and Professor Neal Williams of the Department of Entomology and Nematology served on her guidance committee, along with research entomologist Tom Zavortink of the Bohart Museum.
Her husband, Troy Townsend, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at SMCM, received his doctorate in inorganic chemistry in 2013 from UC Davis. He studied biology and chemistry at SMCM, obtaining his undergraduate degree in 2007. The couple has two daughters, ages 6 and 9.