- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Congratulations to UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal, the recipient of the Academic Senate's highly competitive 2024 Distinguished Faculty Research Award.
That makes three. Good things come in threes.
Leal is the first UC Davis faculty member to win all three of the Academic Senate's most coveted awards: in research, teaching, and public service. In 2020, the Academic Senate awarded him the Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, and in 2022 Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award.
Leal, a member of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology since 2013 and former professor and chair of the Department of Entomology, commented: "Faculty at land-grant universities, like the University of California, have three hats labeled Teaching, Service, and Research. A significant challenge is to budget time to wear them equally and avoid the temptation to emphasize one part of the job over others. It is gratifying to be recognized by my peers as excelling in all areas. The Academic Senate Faculty Distinguished Research Award is particularly humbling because more than 3000 eligible faculty excel in all research areas on this campus. Why me? Because of my students, postdoctoral scholars, visiting scholars, collaborators, and colleagues. They deserve most of the credit for this honor. I accept it on their behalf. It is a team effort, like in a honey bee colony.”
"Walter is truly a renaissance man," wrote Hammock. "He chaired our entomology department from 2006 to 2008, and under his tenure, our department was ranked No. 1 in the country. I've long admired (1) his rigorous fundamental research programs supported by National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture, and other agencies, (2) how he tackles and solves multiple challenging problems in insect olfaction and chemical ecology, (3) his grasp of how to organize and moderate highly successful worldwide research webinars (4) his generosity in helping other succeed and (4) his finely honed sense of humor."
“Walter has been exceptionally conscientious, active, and generous in professional service at UC Davis,” Hammock pointed out. “In August of 2021, he achieved a ‘first' for international science communication when he organized and led the extraordinary virtual conference ‘Insect Olfaction and Taste in 24 Hours Around the Globe.' I especially applaud him for elucidating the mode of action of the insect repellent DEET, developed in 1946 and known as ‘the gold standard of
repellents.' Its mode of action remained an enigma for six decades until Walter's discovery. Inresearching the neurons in mosquito antennae sensitive to DEET, he isolated the first DEET-sensitive odorant receptor, paving the way for the development of better repellents.”
Leal is a newly elected trustee of the Royal Entomological Society, the 13-member council that governs the 190-year-old international organization. He is the first UC Davis scientist to be elected a trustee. And he's chair of the Council of the International Congresses of Entomology, the body that ensures the continuity of the international congresses of entomology. He co-chaired the 2016 International Congress of Entomology, which drew 6,682 registrants from 102 countries to Orlando, Fla.
Among Leal's many honors: Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (2009), American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), and the National Academy of Inventors (2019).
A native of Brazil, Leal joined the UC Davis entomology faculty in 2000, after serving as the head of the Laboratory of Chemical Prospecting, National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Science (NISES), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Japan. In 2013, he accepted a position as professor of biochemistry, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. (See news story)
Frankly, we don't know how Leal does it all. He not only excels at research, teaching and public service, but he is widely known as "The UC Davis Ambassador," organizing campus-wide celebrations for faculty transitioning to emeriti.
As an aside, two UC Davis entomology faculty members scored two, but not three, of the Academic Senate's coveted awards. Bruce Hammock received the Distinguished Faculty Research Award in 2001, and the Distinguished Teaching Award (graduate student/professional category) in 2008. UC distinguished professor of entomology, James R. Carey, took home the Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate student category) in 2014 and the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2015.
Six other entomology faculty members have received Academic Senate awards:
- UC Davis distinguished professor Jay Rosenheim, Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate student category) in 2011
- UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey (now emerita), Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2016
- UC Davis distinguished professor Frank Zalom, Distinguished Scholarly Public Service in 2017
- UC Davis professor and now department chair Joanna Chiu, Distinguished Teaching Award (graduate/professional category) in 2022
- UC Davis distinguished professor Diane Ullman, Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate category) in 2022
And the latest to join the winner's circle: Professor Louie Yang won the Distinguished Teaching Award (undergraduate category), announced today. More on this amazing teacher and mentor is pending.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Fifty-seven scientists from five continents, including UC Davis distinguished professor-entomologist Diane Ullman, co-authored the article, “Genome-Enabled Insights into the Biology of Thrips as Crop Pests,” published in the journal BMC Biology.
The project leader and first author? Ullman's longtime colleague and collaborator, Professor Dorith Rotenberg of the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at North Carolina State University (NCSU). (See news story)
Fast forward to next week, when Professor Rotenberg will present a seminar sponsored by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology on “Advances and Innovations in the Characterization of Molecular Interactions Between Frankliniella occidentalis and Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus.”
Her seminar, with Ullman introducing her, begins at 4:10 p.m., Monday, Feb. 26 in 122 Briggs Hall. It also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.
Rotenberg holds three degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison: a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry and her master's and doctorate in plant pathology.
The western flower thrips, native to Western North America, causes billions of dollars a year in damage worldwide. About the size of a pinhead, the insect feeds on a wide array of food, fiber, and ornamental crops and transmits plant viruses that cause significant economic damage.
“The western flower thrips and the viruses it transmits, including tomato spotted wilt virus, is important to California agriculture, causing serious problems for tomato growers, pepper growers and growers of leafy greens,” Ullman says. The tomato spotted wilt virus infects more than 1000 plant species, ranging from tomatoes, tobacco and peanuts to pansies and chrysanthemums. (See Ullman's work on her website)
For Zoom technical issues, contact seminar coordinator Brian Johnson, associate professor, at brnjohnson@ucdavis.edu. The list of department seminars for the winter quarter is here.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The six-member team, including Elina Lastro Niño, associate professor of UC Cooperative Extension, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is sharing an online pre-print version of their research on the yield characteristics of a self-compatible almond variety.
The paper, titled “Comparison of Yield Characteristics of Independence, a Self-Compatible Almond Variety, as Affected by the Presence of Honey Bee Pollinators,” is online at https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3870916/v1 during the review process for Scientific Reports.
Co-authors with Niño are Angelita De la Luz, Beeflow Inc. Smart Pollination Services; Bernardo Niño, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (he is formerly from UC Davis); William Stacy, UC Davis Extension; and Arathi Seshadri, U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS).
The abstract:
“Until recently, all the almond varieties grown globally, have been self-incompatible, a fact that drives the interdependent relationship between almond growers and the beekeepers that provide honey bee colonies for pollination. Recently, almond growers have begun a transition to self-fertile varieties, such as Independence, which do not require genetically distinct pollen to produce kernels. However, this transition often occurs under the impression that due to self-compatibility, one can eliminate the honey bee rentals for pollination and thereby reduce costs for these orchards, but the impact that eliminating rented colonies would have on almond quality and yield are not fully understood.”
“Here, we explore the extent to which yields for Independence variety vary with and without honey bee pollination and across a range of hive stocking densities in the San Joaquin Valley of California. We found that access to honey bee pollination significantly improves nut set and whole tree yields, ultimately resulting in economically meaningful gains to growers. Our economic model shows how specific honey bee hive stocking density recommendations depend on the surrounding landscape and will change as acreage of self-fertile varieties continues to increase over time."
In their research, the authors point out that
- The United States is the world's largest almond producer, with California accounting for nearly 80 percent of the world's almond supply
- Almond orchards rank as the highest in their need for pollinators, specifically honey bees
- California's almond orchards need more than a million honey bee colonies every season for pollination, brought in all over the country and globally
- There are insufficient colony numbers stemming from poor nutrition, improper use of agrochemicals, loss of natural habitat and increased incidences of pests and diseases,
- Until recently, all the almond varieties grown in California have been self-incompatible and almond growers depend exclusively on beekeepers to provide honey bee colonies for pollination
"For growers and beekeepers alike, the question at the forefront is to determine the extent to which self-fertile varieties such as Independence, reduce the dependency on pollination services rendered by managed honey bees," the authors wrote. "Growers specifically, are also interested in knowing any differences in yield quality and quantity resulting from absence of bee-pollination-mediated pollen transfer and ovule fertilization, given that previous studies have reported higher oleic to linoleic ratio in almonds from cross-pollinated trees and this high ratio is most favorable for consumers seeking health benefits."
See more at https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3870916/v1
(Note: Research Square lets researchers share their work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to their manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. Contact Elina Lastro Niño at elnino@ucdavis.edu)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Picture this: George Washington (Feb. 22, 1732-Dec. 14, 1799) is eating hoecakes with honey, and adding honey to his tea, something that historians say he did every day.
Historians also relate that Washington not only loved honey, but he kept bees at his Mount Vernon estate to pollinate the fruits and vegetables. He was among the first to keep his bees in wooden boxes "as opposed to the traditional black gum hives," according to the Presidential History of Honey Bees.
Washington described his bee hives as "bee houses." On July 28, 1782, Washington gave "300 nails at the Circle Storehouse to an indentured English joiner named Matthew Baldridge, to make a bee house," according to George Washington: Bee Keeper.
As Apis mellifera enthusiasts know, European colonists brought the first honey bees to America in 1622 to the Jamestown colony, Virginia. They kept the bees in skeps. When the bees swarmed to tree hollows, the settlers--including my Revolutionary War/East Coast ancestors--became quite adept at locating "bee trees."
So did other generations.
My first cousin, the late Gordon Rowe, a Cooperative Extension economist at UC Berkeley, remembers the feral bee colony hunts with my grandfather, Robert Keatley (1853-1938) in Cowlitz County, Wash.
"We would stop every so often along the creek where there was sort of a quiet place in the water and look at the bees that had stopped for water," Rowe said. "He would look for bees that were carrying a lot of pollen on their legs. Then he would look to see what direction those bees had flown to."
Voila! He'd find the bee tree.
"July was blackberry picking time and we often found these bee trees. Personally I found two in one season—one showed the marks of a bear trying to claw into it. What attracted my attention was the hum that was present, like a high-tension wire—so out of place. The hum came from the bees fanning the nectar with their wings until it reached honey consistency."
"These burned over areas were prime sources of nectar from the fireweed—hundreds of acres," Martin continued. "Another way of tracking bees was to visit their watering holes. Dad and I went into the hills which were drainage for Cannonball Creek (named for the many cannonball shaped rocks, often with a fossilized clam shell at the center). Following the creek to its source near the Black Timber, seepage formed many small puddles that the bees loaded up on. We found two possibles and went in for one in the fall."
"Come fall we were set up for our honey. We didn't have to smoke out the bees, for they were being robbed by a more vigorous hive nearby, high in an old snag. The bee hive we robbed had a long hole, difficult to protect, and the bees had had all the fight taken out of them. We had a generous amount of honey, and the darkness of some of the comb wax told us that it had existed for many years. The following year, the second tree was harvested, but the snag had to be felled."
"One blackberry-picking season in the Black Timber, my dad came upon a bee tree and carved his initials in it," she wrote. "In those days, such a mark would be honored by others. In the fall, Uncle Pete (Laughlin), my dad and I returned for a very rewarding cache. I personally carried out a 5-gallon can on my back, and the other two probably had double that amount. To extract the honey, it was crushed and permitted to drain in a strainer. It keeps indefinitely."
"Wax is a product that bees exude from their bodies—peeled off for the comb. The wax was saleable to be used for candles, cleaning sadirons, waxing thread forms, etc. After the honey was drained from the crushed comb, the comb was mixed with water and heated slightly to melt it. To get the pure wax, Mother would then dip her hand into cold water, then into the melting mixture, then back to cold water, and then peel the wax off her hand."
Imagine what it was like to live in those times...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They came. They saw. They held out their hands.
Hands? Yes, to hold Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects (walking sticks).
The Bohart Museum of Entomology greeted some 1400 visitors during the 13th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, an event held Feb. 10 and showcasing 10 museums or collections across campus.
The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live petting zoo ("the hissers" and "the sticks") and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, books, posters, stuffed animals, jewelry and insect-collecting equipment.
The entrance to the Bohart features a 5x6-foot photograph of a cuckoo or emerald wasp, commonly known as "the ruby-tailed wasp." It's the work of noted British photographer Levon Bliss. The microscupture encompasses more than 8,000 separate images.
Inside, Jeff Smith, who curates the Lepidoptera collection, and Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas, answered questions about the butterfly and moth specimens.
New director of the Bohart Museum is professor and arachnologist Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Bond succeeds UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, who served as director from 1999 until Jan. 31, retiring on Feb. 1. Kimsey continues her research and in serving as executive director of the Bohart Museum Society.
The next open house at the Bohart Museum will be from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, March 3. The theme: "Grasshoppers,Crickets and Katydids." A talk is planned from 1 to 2 p.m., with the museum open from 2 to 4 p.m.
The Bohart Museum also is planning its annual open house for the annual UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 20.
Founded in 1946 by UC Davis professor Richard Bohart, the insect museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. More information is on its website or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.