Just before you enter the Bohart Museum of Entomology (located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building at 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus), the hallway display of monarch butterfly images will grab your attention.

In stunning images, the Bohart Museum display depicts the complete metamorphosis of the monarch: from egg to larva to pupa to adult.

It's the work of Larry Snyder of Davis, who for several years photographed a UC Davis professor's research project on wild monarch-native milkweed interactions in the North Davis Channel of rural Davis. Snyder is a retired music teacher, vocal accompanist, and piano and harpsichord technician.

We wrote about the monarch-milkweed project on the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology website on July 28, 2022.

Professor Louie Yang, the principal investigator of the research project, organized and led a 135-member team, all co-authors of the paper, “Different Factors Limit Early- and Late-Season Windows of Opportunity for Monarch Development,” published in the journal  Ecology and Evolution. (This document is open access at https://bit.ly/3volFaI.) 

From 2015 through 2017, the team monitored the interactions of monarchs,  Danaus plexippus, on narrow-leafed milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis, planted in December 2013 on city-owned property adjacent to the North Davis irrigation channel. 

The project, funded by two of Yang's National Science Foundation grants, involved UC Davis, Davis Senior High School and the Center for Land-Based learning. Among them were 107 high school students and a K-12 teacher, 18 UC Davis undergraduate students,  three graduate students and two post-graduate researchers. 

Participants in the Monitoring Milkweed–Monarch Interactions for Learning and Conservation (MMMILC) Project, directed by Yang, collected most of the observations. Yang provided hands-on, in-person training in milkweed-monarch biology, data collection, and data entry protocols, partnering with the Environmental Science internship program led by Eric Bastin at Davis Senior High School and the Growing Green internship program led by Karen Swan at the Center for Land-based Learning, Woodland.

Unfortunately, a City of Davis maintenance crew unintentionally mowed the site on May 5, 2017, “damaging several plants in this population," Yang related. "However, most plants in the population were below the height of the mower blades at this point in the growing season.”  

Today the milkweed population at the North Davis Channel is being maintained by the City of Davis and dedicated citizens, including Larry Snyder.

Snyder, who grew up in small California farm towns, says he "came late to my love of insects." After earning a degree in English from UC Davis in 1968 and following an apprenticeship in Boston, he returned to Davis in 1970 to pursue a career in harpsichord making, piano technology, and music instruction. Before retiring, he devoted "many years to accompanying singers, especially in Lieder and opera, founding the Mosswood Spring Opera for the purpose of giving younger, less experienced singers the chance to perform roles opposite others who had sung in larger companies." He published his book, German Poetry in Song, in 1995.

From music to milkweed to monarchs...it's been quite a journey.

The work of Professor Yang's MMMILC crew fascinated him, and the site became his "adopted back yard." At first, Snyder just watched, then he began photographing "the insect life on the plants."  At the end of the project's official monitoring period, he "secured the cooperation of city staff" so he could continue maintaining the milkweeds without the loss of spring growth to the annual fire-suppression mowings.

Snyder says he "especially enjoys watching insect behavior and interaction, both within and between species and in relation to the host plants, as well as tracking how individual populations change during the seasons and from year to year."

"I am most grateful to the Bohart Museum and the frequent assistance of their remarkable staff and associates," Snyder said.

The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946, is directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. It is the global home of eight million insect specimens, as well as the live "petting zoo" and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters, jewelry, collecting equipment and more. Named for UC Davis professor and noted entomologist Richard Bohart, it is open to the public from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 5 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays.  More information is available on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.

If you're interested in plant-insect interactions and communication, don't miss this virtual seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

Senior researcher Xoaquín Moreira  of the Biological Mission of Galicia, Pontevedra, Spain, an international leader in plant-insect interactions, will present a Zoom seminar, "Insularity Effects on Plant-Herbivore Interactions: Searching for Biotic and Abiotic Explanatory Variables to Promote Insular Biodiversity Conservation," at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 9.  The Zoom link: 
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.

UC Davis distinguished professor Richard "Rick" Karban, an international authority on plant-insect communications, will introduce him.

"For more than six decades, ecologists have hypothesized that insular plant taxa suffer lower levels of
herbivory by insects and mammals, and consequently they have evolved lower defenses or even lost them completely," Moreira says in his abstract. "Although initially this theory was unanimously accepted, recent island-mainland comparisons have shed mixed findings, causing a current vivid debate about insularity effects on plant-herbivore interactions. Inconsistency in patterns reported thus far is basically because studies remain limited in scope both geographically and taxonomically and do not usually consider the multi-trophic context in which plant-herbivore interactions are immersed."

"In this seminar, I will talk about the knowledge gaps and research opportunities on this topic. In particular, further studies should include (1) a broader geographical extent of island-mainland comparisons with site replication within each system and multiple systems (at both regional and global scales), (2) a more comprehensive and integrative assessment of plant defensive phenotypes (multiple traits and their co-expression patterns), (3) measurements ofherbivory by vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores species and guilds, and (4) a consideration of multi-trophic context in which plant-herbivore interactions are embedded, namely how predators and parasitoids respond to insularity and their relative influence on mainland vs. island herbivory and plant defenses." (See more information on his website at https://plantherbivory.weebly.com.)

"Dr. Moreira has done work on various aspects of plant defenses against herbivores," Karban said. "He is best known for papers about the costs of defense, the effects of variable host plants on herbivores and their natural enemies, elevational and latitudinal variation in herbivory, and plant communication that affects herbivory."

Moreira holds a bachelor's degree (2005) in forestry from the University of Santiago and received both his master's degree (2007) and doctorate (2010) from the University of Vigo, Spain. Moreira, who joined the Biological Mission of Galicia in 2015, has served as a senior researcher there since 2021. He was a Fulbright postdoctoral researcher from 2012 to 2014 in the UC Irvine Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. 

For further information on the seminars or to resolve any technical difficulties with Zoom, contact Meineke at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu. 

It's Friday Fly Day--no, let's switch that insect order from Diptera to Odonata and make it "DragonFLY Day."

Better yet, let's make Sunday, Nov. 6 "The DragonFLY Day."

That's when the Bohart Museum of Entomology is hosting an open house--themed "Dragonflies Rule!"--from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis.

It's free and family friendly. Among the dragonfly experts lending their expertise will be Rosser Garrison, formerly of the California Department of Food and Agriculture; Christopher Beatty, a visiting scholar in the Program for Conservation Genomics at Stanford University; Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas; UC Davis doctoral student Christofer Brothers; and UC Davis alumnus Andy Rehn, ecologist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, among others. 

Question of the day: Have you ever photographed the flameskimmer dragonfly, Libellula saturata?

The males are a firecracker red and delightful to observe. Sometimes they "permit" you to approach so close that you can see what's on the menu: a honey bee, sweat bee, syrphid fly or other prey. 

Cristofer Brothers, a fourth-year animal behavior doctoral student at UC Davis, took this image (above) of a stunningly beautiful flameskimmer.  "I'm most interested in how dragonflies use their legs while they capture prey in both of their nymph and adult stages," he said. "My PhD is focusing on the behavior of Libellula saturata, the flame skimmer, and on various other species for phylogenetic comparisons of their behavior and morphology."

"I've been fascinated by dragonflies since I was a kid, and would always try to save adults that fell into the pool," he said. "As a teenager, I was a lifeguard and always loved it when dragonflies would perch on my rescue tube, and always wanted to learn more about them. Now, I have the privilege to spend all day reading about, thinking about, and looking at them, so I'm really living the dream!"

Brothers studies in the laboratory of Professor and Chancellor's Fellow Stacey Combes, Department of  Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences.

Brothers delivered a guest presentation on dragonfly predation behavior at the 2022 UC Davis Bio Boot Camp. His talk took place along the banks of Putah Creek where the group met to learn about and search for dragonflies. 

Also during the Bohart Museum open house, a family arts-and-crafts activity is planned: visitors can color pages from Kathy Claypole Biggs' dragonfly coloring book.  Guests can view the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) collection, curated by entomologist Jeff Smith; and "pet" and take selfies of some of the live animals in the petting zoo, which includes Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas.

The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946, is directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. It is the global home of eight million insect specimens, as well as the live "petting zoo" and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters, jewelry, collecting equipment and more.

Named for UC Davis professor and noted entomologist Richard Bohart, the Bohart Museum is open to the public from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 5 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays.  More information is available on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu. 

Dragonflies rule and so do the scientists who study them.

Be sure to attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on "Dragonflies Rule!" from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis.

It's free and family friendly. You'll learn about dragonflies, view dragonfly specimens and publications, and you can ask questions of the scientists. 

We announced earlier that dragonfly expert Rosser Garrison, formerly of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, will lend his expertise as will Bohart Museum associate Greg Kareofelas. So will Christopher Beatty, known as "Doc Beatty" on social media; UC Davis doctoral student Christofer Brothers; and UC Davis alumnus Andy Rehn, UC Davis alumnus Andy Rehn, ecologist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, among others.  

Christopher Beatty
Christopher Beatty, a visiting scholar in the Program for Conservation Genomics at Stanford University, wrote in an email that he has been working "for a few years on petaltail dragonflies, with much of the work focused on the Black Petaltail (Tanypteryx hageni) in California and Oregon. I am happy to help out answering general questions about dragonflies, and can also answer questions about my research if there is interest." He's on Twitter at @ChrisDBeatty.

Beatty was recently selected to present the prestigious Entomological Society of America's Founders' Memorial Lecture at the 2022 Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Societies of America, Canada, and British Columbia. He'll speak at the awards breakfast on Nov. 15 on  "The Passionate Observer: The Life and Times of Jean-Henri Fabre."  Fabre (1823-1915) was a French naturalist, entomologist, educator, and author.

ESA established the Founders' Memorial Award in 1958 "to honor the memory of scientists who made outstanding contributions to entomology," according to a website post. ESA announced that "Beatty has focused much of his entomological career studying the behavior and ecology of dragonflies and damselflies, having served in research and teaching positions at the University of Vigo (Spain), Santa Clara University, Cornell University, the University of Kiel (Germany), and Stanford University. He has authored or co-authored more than 25 peer-reviewed articles since 2003, and he is currently co-editing the forthcoming Dragonflies & Damselflies: Model Organisms for Ecological and Evolutionary Research, 2nd Edition (Oxford University Press).

Beatty holds a bachelor's degree (1996) in ecology, ethology, and evolution from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; a master's degree (2002) in environmental science from Oregon State University; and a doctorate (2006) in ecology, evolution, systematics, and population biology from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Cristofer Brothers
Cristofer Brothers is a fourth-year animal behavior doctoral student. "I'm most interested in how dragonflies use their legs while they capture prey in both of their nymph and adult stages," he said. "My PhD is focusing on the behavior of Libellula saturata, the flame skimmer, and on various other species for phylogenetic comparisons of their behavior and morphology."

"I've been fascinated by dragonflies since I was a kid, and would always try to save adults that fell into the pool. As a teenager, I was a lifeguard and always loved it when dragonflies would perch on my rescue tube, and always wanted to learn more about them. Now, I have the privilege to spend all day reading about, thinking about, and looking at them, so I'm really living the dream!"

He studies in the laboratory of Professor and Chancellor's Fellow Stacey Combes, Department of  Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences.