- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They came to learn about wasps--"The Weird and Wonderful Wasps"--at the recent open house hosted by the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
They learned about such wasps as the Asian giant hornet (aka "murder hornets"), pteromalids, and fig wasps. But they also learned about other insects, including butterflies, moths, beetles, cockroaches, and Jerusalem crickets, while chatting one-on-one with scientists.
Among the scientists participating was postdoctoral researcher Severyn Korneyev, a Ukrainian entomologist who studies flies. At his station, a series of insects flashed on the screen as he shared information and fielded questions.
Korneyev, a researcher with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Department of General and Applied Entomology, Kyiv, Ukraine, accepted a joint postdoctoral position with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in September 2020. He joined the laboratory of Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, and the laboratory of Stephen Gaimari, Pest Diagnostics Branch, California Department of Food and Agriculture.
A member of the Ukrainian Entomological Society and the Entomological Society of America, Korneyev specializes in the systematics and taxonomy of the true fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). His expertise includes morphological and molecular diagnostics, collection management, and the field collecting of insects. Korneyev is the lead author of "Phylogeny of the Genus Tephritis Latreille, 1804 (Diptera: Tephritidae)," published in May 2020 in Arthropod Systematics and Phylogeny. Gaimari is one of the co-authors.
Korneyev holds a doctorate in entomology (2016) from the I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He received both his bachelor's degree and his master's degree in zoology, with honors, from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Korneyev served as a 2017-2018 Fulbright scholar with the Research and Development Program. Michigan State University, East Lansing. He speaks his native tongue, Ukrainian, as well as English and Russian.
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also is home to a live “petting zoo,” comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas; and an insect-themed gift shop, which includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, jewelry, books, posters and other items. The gift shop is open all year-around and is also online.
The insect museum is open to the public Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., except holidays. (See schedule). More information is available on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
The next Bohart open house, themed "Insects, Art and Culture," will take place from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 15. This event is part of Spirit Week (Oct. 10-16) for Aggie students, parents and alumni, but all are welcome. (See list of other fall special events on the Bohart website or on the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology website.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
How do you say "insect" in the Turkish language?
That's a question posed by the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, on its wall display of global flags and languages.
That was an easy question for Dr. Ismail Seker and his wife, Esin, who were among the special guests at the Bohart Museum's Sept. 25th open house, "Weird and Wonderful Wasps."
They are natives of Turkey.
Dr. Seker, a physician, photographer and author, was displaying some of his fig wasp images that he took in Turkey. He and Esin, also in the health field, divide their time between their native land, and Davis, where their son, Erkin Seker, serves as a professor in the UC Davis Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
No stranger to the Bohart Museum, Dr. Seker presented a program in 2019 on silkworm moths, displaying the eggs, larvae, pupae, adults, as well as silk fabric. He also displayed his newly published book on silkworms and shared his 13-minute video detailing the history of the silkworm moth and its life cycle. Dr. Seker is currently working on books showcasing chestnuts, olives and figs.
But back to the global display of flags and how to say "insect" in other languages. (See website)
So, how do you say "insect" in the Turkish language? Böcek.
And the Turkish flag? It's red with a white star and crescent.
The open house drew widespread interest in the Asian giant hornet (aka "murder hornets") pteromalids, oak galls, and fig wasps, among others. "Fig wasps are among the weirdest insects I can think of both in their obligatory relationship with plants and the strange looking males," said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. "Females are winged and wasp-like; males on the other hand spend their entire lives in the fig fruits and look really strange and are wingless and often look like they only have four legs."
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, is open to the public Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., except holidays. (See schedule). It houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also is home to a live “petting zoo,” comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas; and an insect-themed gift shop, which includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, jewelry, books, posters and other items. The gift shop is open all year-around and is also online. More information is available on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
Upcoming special events, all free and family friendly:
Saturday, Oct. 15, 1 to 4 p.m.
Insects, Art & Culture
Visitors will learn about insects through the lenses of art and culture. This event is part of Spirit Week (Oct. 10-16) for Aggie students, parents and alumni, but all are welcome.
Saturday, Oct. 15, 11 a.m. to 11:50 a.m.
Special Talk: Plants, Insects and Art: Mary Foley Benson's Scientific Illustrations
Location: Teaching and Learning Complex (TLC) Building, 482 Hutchison Drive, UC Davis campus
This event is part of Spirit Week for Aggie students, parents and alumni, but all are welcome. Srdan Tunic, a candidate for a master's degree in art history and a Bohart associate, will be highlighting the scientific illustrations of Mary Foley Benson (1905-1992), formerly of the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Entomology and the Smithsonian Institution and who later worked for UC Davis entomologists. Much of her work appears on campus. (See research story on the artist by Malcolm Furniss)
Sunday, Nov. 6, 1 to 4 p.m.
Dragonflies Rule!
Dragonflies are described as "the ultimate predator both in the water and the air." Visitors will meet scientists and natural historians who will share information on the world of dragonflies.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
These little insects pollinate figs, but some figs are self-pollinated.
"There's no real way to tell from the outside, but if the fig contains seeds it will have been pollinated [by a fig wasp],” UC Extension specialist Louise Shanahan, based at the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, told writer Ali Francis of the magazine Bon Appétit in a Sept. 7, 2022 feature article, "What Do You Mean There Are Dead Wasps in My Figs?"
Now for the entomological side.
Fig wasps will be among the wasps discussed when the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis hosts an open house, "Weird and Wonderful Wasps" from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 25 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. It's free and family friendly.
"Fig wasps are among the weirdest insects I can think of both in their obligatory relationship with plants and the strange looking males," said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. "Females are winged and wasp-like; males on the other hand spend their entire lives in the fig fruits and look really strange and are wingless and often look like they only have four legs."
Fig wasps belong to the superfamily Chalcidoidea and spend their larval stage inside figs. "Most are pollinators but others simply feed off the plant," according to Wikipedia. "The non-pollinators belong to several groups within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, while the pollinators are in the family Agaonidae. While pollinating fig wasps are gall-makers, the remaining types either make their own galls or usurp the galls of other fig wasps; reports of them being parasitoids are considered dubious."
Sunday's open house is the first open house of the academic year. The focus will be on a variety of wasps, including Asian giant hornets, aka "murder hornets," pteromalids, oak galls, and fig wasps, among others.
"At the wasp event, we will also have some photos from Dr. Ismail Seker, who earlier displayed his coffee table book on silk moths," said Tabatha Yang, the Bohart Museum's education and outreach coordinator. Seker, a Turkish-trained medical doctor, "has a book coming out on chestnuts next, but he is working on olives and figs as well," Yang added. (See Bug Squad blog on Dr. Seker's silk moth presentation at the Bohart Museum). Seker's son, Erkin Seker, is a UC Davis professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Visitors are also invited to hold and take images of the insects from the live "petting zoo," which will include Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects, also known as "walking sticks."
Visitors will learn about the smallest fairy wasps to the "murder hornets"; what role wasps play in plant galls and figs; and how to distinguish a parasitoid from a parasite. Kimsey will discuss the Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia, dubbed by the news media as “the murder hornet." The Entomological Society of America recently established as its official common name, “northern giant hornet.”
The Bohart Museum is the home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also houses a live “petting zoo,” comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas; and a gift shop with insect-themed items. More information is available on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Do you have a question about wasps or want to learn more about them?
It's the first open house of the academic year and will focus on Asian giant hornets, aka "murder hornets," pteromalids, oak galls, and fig wasps, among others.
The family arts-and-crafts activity will be to create "gall ghosts."
Visitors are also invited to hold and take images of the insects from the live "petting zoo," which will include Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects, also known as "walking sticks."
Visitors will learn about the smallest fairy wasps to the "murder hornets"; what role wasps play in plant galls and figs; and how to distinguish a parasitoid from a parasite. Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, will discuss the Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia, dubbed by the news media as “the murder hornet." The Entomological Society of America recently established as its official common name, “northern giant hornet.”
A single colony of the Asian giant hornet was found and destroyed Sept. 18, 2019 in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, Canada, and a single dead hornet was found Dec. 8, 2019 in nearby Blaine, Wash. Since then, it also has been sighted-- and destroyed--in both Canada and Washington state.
Kimsey and two other wasp experts published “The Diversity of Hornets in the Genus Vespa (Hymenoptera: Vespidae; Vespinae); Their Importance and Interceptions in the United States,” in the journal Insect Systematics and Diversity in May of 2020. (See https://bit.ly/3BVZ34Y)
Lead author Allan Smith-Pardo, U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and co-authors James Carpenter of the American Museum of Natural History's Division of Invertebrate Zoology, and Kimsey covered 22 species of hornets, including V. mandarinia.
Fairy wasps, which belong to the family of chalcidoid wasps, are tiny insects that include the world's smallest known insect, with a body length of 0.139mm, and the smallest known flying insect, only 0.15mm. All known fairy wasps are parasitoids of the eggs of other insects.
Other special events planned by the Bohart Museum this year include:
Saturday, Oct. 15, 1 to 4 p.m.
Insects, Art & Culture
Visitors will learn about insects through the lenses of art and culture. This event is part of Spirit Week (Oct. 10-16) for Aggie students, parents and alumni, but all are welcome.
Saturday, Oct. 15, 11 to 11:50 a.m.
Special Talk: Plants, Insects and Art: Mary Foley Benson's Scientific Illustrations
Location: Teaching and Learning Complex (TLC) Building, 482 Hutchison Drive, UC Davis campus
This event is part of Spirit Week for Aggie students, parents and alumni, but all are welcome. Srdan Tunic, a candidate for a master's degree in art history and a Bohart associate, will be highlighting the scientific illustrations of Mary Foley Benson (1905-1992), formerly of the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Entomology and the Smithsonian Institution and who later worked for UC Davis entomologists. Much of her work appears on campus. (See research story on the artist by Malcolm Furniss)
Sunday, Nov. 6, 1 to 4 p.m.
Dragonflies Rule!
Dragonflies are described as "the ultimate predator both in the water and the air." Visitors will meet scientists and natural historians who will share information on the world of dragonflies.
The Bohart Museum is the home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also houses a live “petting zoo,” comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas; and a gift shop with insect-themed items. More information is available on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Yellowjackets, commonly known as "meat bees," in comparison to the "vegetarian" honey bees, will be among the wasps featured at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 25 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. The theme: "Weird and Wonderful Wasps."
The open house is free and family friendly. A family arts and crafts activity is also planned.
"Yellowjackets are social wasps that build large, hidden nests," writes Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, on one of her online fact sheets. "The nests are usually subterranean in rodent burrows or in cavities in trees, walls or attics.
"Yellow jacket nests can be huge with 50,000 to 100,000 workers," Kimsey points out. "In temperate climates these colonies are annual. Their nests die in the fall after producing new queens. New queens produced by the colonies in the fall spend the winter in protected places until spring when they found new colonies. Yellow jacket colonies can become perennial in warmer climates, such as in Hawaii and coastal California. In these situations the nests can become enormous, with millions of workers!"
Kimsey says that yellowjacket nests "can be distinguished from paper wasp nests because the brood cells are encased in a paper envelope so they can't be seen without taking off the outer envelope. These wasps generally feed on live prey, but the pest species, such as Vespula pensylvanica, will scavenge other sources of meat and sugar, including sodas, hamburgers and road kill. They will also visit aphids and scale insects for honeydew."
At the open house, visitors will learn about the smallest fairy wasps to the "murder hornets"; what role wasps play in plant galls and figs; and how to distinguish a parasitoid from a parasite. Kimsey will discuss the Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia. A single colony of the Asian giant hornet was found and destroyed Sept. 18, 2019 in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, Canada, and a single dead hornet was found Dec. 8, 2019 in nearby Blaine, Wash. Since then, it also has been sighted-- and destroyed--in both Canada and Washington state.
Fairy wasps, in the family of chalcidoid wasps, are tiny insects. They include the world's smallest known insect, with a body length of only 0.139 mm (0.0055 in), and the smallest known flying insect, only 0.15 mm (0.0059 in) long, according to Wikipedia. The fairy wasps are found in temperate and tropical regions throughout the world. The family contains approximately 100 genera with 1400 species. All known fairy wasps are parasitoids of the eggs of other insects, Wikipedia says, "and several species have been successfully used as biological pest control agents."
(See Bug Squad blog on European paper wasps and Bohart Museum Fact Sheet comparing yellowjackets to European paper wasps.)