- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Quick! Name three states that have no official state insect.
That was one of the questions at the Linnaean Games, a traditional part of the Entomological Society of America's annual meeting.
This year's meeting, the 56th annual, is now under way in Reno. The Linnaean Games have begun. This is a "bug bowl" type of quiz pitting university teams (graduate students in entomology) against one another.
UC Davis competed in the semi-finals. Several of us from UC Davis watched in the spectator section.
The questions included:
1. How many beetle species have been described to date?
2. According to folklore, what does "telling the bees" mean?
3. Name the main character, the forensic entomologist, in the TV show, CSI.
4. If you walked past an egg mass of deer ticks, what's the risk of getting Lyme disease?
The moderator is noted Purdue entomology professor Tom Turpin, who makes the Linnean Games informative, educational and entertaining.
Turpin, a Cooperative Extension entomologist, is an award-winning teacher and writes a well-read newspaper column, "On Six Legs."
More locally, Turpin served as a mentor for Larry Godfrey, a UC Davis professor who received both his bachelor of science degree and master of science degree from Purdue (and then his doctorate at the University of Kentucky). Godrey was a member of the University of Kentucky championship team in1983. That was the second annual Linnaean Games (second annual in the North Central Branch of ESA, where it all began). The national meeting adopted the Linnaean Games several years later.
Know the answers to the questions above? Fire away! (We'll answer them in another blog.)
Meanwhile, the finals of the Linnean Games take place tonight.
May the bugs be with them.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Last Saturday the rock purslane in our bee friendly garden drew a honey bee, several hover flies and one spotted cucumber beetle.
A hover fly landed on a blossom, only to find a spotted cucumber beetle there first.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Honey isn't always amber-colored.
It can range from white to dark brown, depending on the flowers the bees visit.
Back in 1971, a group of UC Davis bee specialists wrote a booklet, Fundamentals of California Beekeeping, published by the "University of California College of Agriculture." Although now 37 years old, it's still a good source of information in many respects.
The authors included UC Davis faculty members Harry H. Laidlaw (for whom the bee biology facility at UC Davis is named), Robbin Thorp, Norman Gary and Lee Watkins. UC Davis Extension apiculurist Ward Stanger served as the editor, consulting with Len Foote, then supervisor of apiary inspection for the State Department of Agriculture.
"Hundreds of species of California plants yield pollen or nectar, but the most important plants for commercial nectar are alfalfa, oranges, cotton, beans, sages (black, sonoma, white and white leaf), yellow starthistle, wild buckwheats, manzanita, eucalyptus and blue curls," the authors wrote. "Extensive use of herbicides to control yellow starthistle has decidedly reduced its pasturage in California. Alfalfa, oranges, cotton and beans present a hazard for bees because of pesticides used on them."
The book also mentions the toxicity of California buckeye (Aesculus californica). It blooms in May and June and is very attractive to bees.
"...bees feeding on its pollen are believed to produce larval food (pollen and honey) which results in malformed adults," the authors pointed out.
Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) deserves special mention. Growers hate it and beekeepers love it. It's an exotic, invasive weed that's well established in California. It blooms from May to October.
The honey? It's white to extra light amber and delicious.
So, buckeye is attractive to bees but bad for them, and yellow starthistle is bad for farmers but good for beekeepers.
That's something to think about when you're spreading honey on your freshly baked roll or dribbling it over your pancakes.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
When the Entomological Society of America's 56th annual meeting takes place Nov. 16-19 in Reno, UC Davis entomologists will be out in force.
And they'll be highly honored.
Entomology professors Michael Parrella and Frank Zalom will be inducted as Fellows, which means they are among the top insect scientists in the world. The 5700-member ESA, formed in 1889, is a non-profit organization that includes representatives from educational institutions, government, health agencies, and private industry.
As Lynn Kimsey, chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology said: “These are highly prestigious awards, granted only to 10 or fewer entomologists every year. Michael Parrella and Frank Zalom are carrying on our department’s tradition of excellence and commitment."
Eight other UC Davis entomologists have received the honor since 1947.Richard M. Bohart (1917-2007), for whom the Bohart Museum of Entomology is named, was the first UC Davis entomologist to be selected an ESA Fellow (1947). Seven others followed: Donald McLean, 1990; Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. (1907-2003), 1991; John Edman, 1994; Robert Washino, 1996; Bruce Eldridge, 2001; William Reisen, 2003 and Harry Kaya, 2007.
Parrella is the associate dean of the Division of Agricultural Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. Zalom is a former director of the UC Integrated Pest Management Program and the former vice chair of the department. Zalom also was nominated for ESA president recently by the ESA's Pacific Branch.
You can read about their many accomplishments here.
Both entomologists will be honored by their peers on Sunday night, Nov. 16 at the ESA's plenary session in the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.
Zalom also will be honored as part of the UC's seven-member Almond Pest Management Alliance IPM Team that will receive the Entomological Foundation’s 2008 Award for Excellence in IPM. Other members are Carolyn Pickel, UC Cooperative Extension, Sutter-Yuba counties; Walter Bentley, UC Kearney Agricultural Center, Parlier; UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors Mario Viveros, Kern County, Roger Duncan, Stanislaus County, and Joe Connell, Butte County; and scientist Barat Bisrabi, Dow AgroSciences. Both Pickel and Bentley are UC IPM advisors.
Another high honor at the same plenary session: UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal will receive the ESA's coveted Recognition Award in Insect Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology for his innovative and creative research involving insect communication. His lab recently discovered the mode of action for the mosquito repellent, DEET.
Among other UC Davis folks to be honored during the conference:
Mosquito researcher Chris Barker, who received his doctorate earlier this year, is the winner of the John Henry Comstock Graduate Student Award from the Pacific Branch of the ESA.
Noted entomologists Maurine and Catherine Tauber, retired from Cornell and now affiliated with UC Davis, will be honored for their diverse entomological accomplishments at a special symposium. Lester E. Ehler, emeritus professor, will speak on their life's work. In addition, other faculty and graduate students will deliver presentations at the conference.
Congratulations to all! Very well deserved!
They are among the reasons why the Chronicle of Higher Education selected UC Davis the No. 1 entomology department in the country (November 2007).
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
You may not know it, but you've eaten insects.
Oh, yes, you have.
The other day I meandered over to the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis campus, and a sign told me that.
There it was--plain as day (as if a day can be plain). "In your lunch, you probably eat more insects than you realize," the sign read. It went on to quote the Food and Drug Administration, that veritable institution that protects our eating habits--or tries to.
If you eat 100 grams of chocolate, you will also eat 80 insect fragments.
If you eat 100 grams of ground cinnamon, that means 800 insect fragments.
And 100 grams of macaroni? That would be 100 insect fragments.
Are you fond of mushrooms? Eat 100 grams of mushrooms and you'll also be eating 20 maggots. Bon Appétit!
So you like pizza? In every 100 grams of pizza sauce there are 30 fly eggs or two maggots.
Insects are everywhere.
They're probably even on the sign.
(Note: The Bohart Museum of Entomology, directed by Lynn Kimsey, is at 1124 Academic Surge. It houses more than 7 million specimens and is the seventh largest insect museum in North America.)