- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you missed UC Davis distinguished professor James R. Carey's well-attended seminar on "California's Fruit Fly Invasion: A 70-Year Struggle Nears Critical Mass," it's now online on YouTube.
His seminar, which took place June 3 in Briggs Hall, UC Davis, and on Zoom, drew global interest, stretching as far as Australia.
Carey pointed out that Callfornia has "the largest agricultural industry in the United States ($55 billion), is the fifth largest worldwide supplier of agricultural produces, grows more than 200 different crops, and "most fruit crops have been attacked by multiple tephritid species."
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) reported that the first Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) outbreak occurred on June 5, 1980, he said, and as of June 3, the state has detected 18 total species of fruit flies in 350 cities, amounting to 11,000 detections.
In his hour-long seminar, Carey presented an overview of the long-developing crisis, discussed lessons learned from analysis of fruit fly detection databases, and argued that "in order to have any chance at stemming this ever-rising tide, CDFA and the USDA urgently need to switch from their historic, ad hoc eradication strategy to a new one that is evidence-based and far more scientific."
In the closing moments, he asked "Why have oriental fruit fly outbreaks been occurring annually for the past 60 years in California?"
Because, he said, the fruit flies are "permanently established."
Carey, a 44-year member of the UC Davis faculty who is retiring in June, and a senior scholar in the Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging at UC Berkeley, researches insect biodemography, mortality dynamics, and insect invasion biology. He holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley (1980).
Carey served on the CDFA's Medfly Scientific Advisory Panel from 1987-1994, testified to the California Legislature "Committee of the Whole" in 1990 on the Medfly Crisis in California, and authored the paper "Establishment of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly in California" (1991, Science 258, 457).
He is a fellow of four professional societies: Entomological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Gerontological Society of America. He is former director (2003-13) of a 11-university consortium funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIH/P01) on the evolutionary ecology of lifespan. He co-authored the book “Biodemography: An Introduction to Concepts and Methods” (Carey, J. R. and D. Roach. 2020; Princeton University Press) and authored the books, “Demography for Biologists (Oxford University Press 1993), Longevity (Princeton University Press, 2003), and Longevity Records: Life Spans of Mammals, Birds, Amphibians and Reptiles (Odense, 2000) as well as more than 250 journal articles and book chapters.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
We miss the late Robbin Thorp, 1933-2019, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, who co-authored Bumble Bees of North America: an Identification Guide (Princeton University Press, 2014).
He loved to share his expertise on bumble bees, which originated more than 100 million years ago. But their distribution and diversity are not well known, he used to tell us.
Bumble bees are just one of the some 20,000 species of bees that populate the world. Of that number, however, only about 250 species are bumble bees, and they all belong to the genus Bombus.
Some 46 different species of bumble bees reside in North America, north of Mexico, Thorp related for a Bug Squad blog posted on July 10, 2014.
In their book, lead author Paul Williams and co-authors Thorp, Leif Richardson and Sheila Colla published information about bumble bees and their history, plant favorites, distribution maps, up-to-date taxonomy, and extensive keys to identify the many color patterns of the species.
They list sites to spot bumble bees:
- farms and gardens with a diversity of flowering crops and herbs
- hay fields
- roadside ditches
- windbreaks with good abundance and diversity of “weedy” flowering plants, such as clovers and vetches
- wetlands and wet meadows
- hardwood forests
- mountain meadows, and
- urban parks and gardens
The primary species found in Yolo County, Thorp related, are:
- Yellow-faced bumble bee, now known as the Vosnesensky bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii
- Yellow bumble bee, Bombus californicus, now known as Bombus fervidus
- Black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, formerly known as Bombus edwardsii. This is the first to fly in the winter and spring.
- Crotch bumble bee, Bombus crotchii, a short-tongued species
- Van Dyke bumble bee, Bombus vandykei, a medium long-tongued species
Lately we've been observing B. vosnesenskii, and B. fervidus, B. melanopygus in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Solano County.
Currently, B. fervidus favors the rock purslane, Calandrina grandiflora. What a joy to see!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
In images, text, and analogies.
“Just like in a honey bee colony, it takes a team to win an award," he said, and graciously proceeded to thank all those who made it possible. Family, friends, students, postdoctoral fellows, colleagues, staff and more. Or, as he said "work performed by the cast of thousands deserve the distinguished research award."
Leal, former professor and chair of the Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology) joined the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology faculty in 2013. He is first UC Davis faculty member to win Academic Senate's trifecta of coveted awards: Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching (2020), Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award (2022) and now, the Faculty Distinguished Research Award.
A week before the seminar, Leal was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
“Dr. Leal is an internationally recognized entomologist and a world leader in his field for his groundbreaking and transformative research in insect olfaction and chemical ecology,” said UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock, who nominated Leal for the Faculty Distinguished Research Award.
Leal credits Hammock, a 25-year friend and colleague, as instrumental in “luring” him from his tenured position in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Japan, to the Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology) in 2000. A native of Brazil, Leal received his Ph.D. in applied biochemistry from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, with subsequent postdoctoral training in entomology and chemical ecology at the National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Science and Cornell University, respectively.
In his letter of nomination, Hammock pointed out "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. In researching 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's analogy of bees working together to succeed, just like what occurs in a successful lab, is spot on. The worker bees inside the hive perform specific duties: nurse maids, nannies, royal attendants, builders, architects, foragers, dancers, honey tenders, pollen packers, propolis or "glue" specialists, air conditioning and heating technicians, guards, and undertakers.
As an aside, Leal mentioned that one research project in his lab involved his daughter Helena, honey bees and her shampoo. “Helena always said the bees were bothering her and then when we collected the volatiles from her, we noticed that there was a contaminant, isoamyl acetate,” Leal told the crowd. “To make a long story short, isoamyl acetate is a chemical that elicits a very aggressive behavior. It's called a sting pheromone known from the early 1960s, and we figured out that that chemical was coming from a shampoo that she was using at that time--the so-called Aussie. So, she stopped using that shampoo and there was no problem with the bees anymore.”
Read more about his lecture here and watch his lecture at https://youtu.be/HkfhsYQE5bI.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Oh, there ain't no bugs on me
There ain't no bugs on me
There may be bugs on some of you mugs
But there ain't no bugs on me
You can hear it on YouTube.
UC Davis distinguished professor James R. Carey of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, drew national news media coverage in 1991 when he declared that the medflies are "established" here, that the "recurring outbreaks" are not caused by tourists continually bringing infested fruit to California in their airline baggage.
Today Carey says that California's fruit fly invasion is in "crisis mode."
The professor will present a Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar on "California's Fruit Fly Invasion Crisis" at 4:10 p.m., Monday, June 3 in Room 122 of Briggs Hall. It also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/9 5882849672.
"After seven decades of near-continuous outbreaks in scores of California cities, tephritid fruit fly invasions (e.g., Mediterranean, oriental, peach, and Mexican fruit flies) are reaching critical mass, with many of the annual eradication programs morphing into below-the-radar, never-ending fruit fly control programs," Carey says in his abstract. "Permanent establishment of any one of these tropical species has the potential to shut down the multi-billion dollar domestic and foreign markets for hundreds of California fruit and vegetable crops."
"I will present an overview of the long-developing crisis, discuss lessons learned from analysis of fruit fly detection databases, and argue that, in order to have any chance at stemming this ever-rising tide, CDFA and the USDA urgently needs to switch from their historic, ad hoc eradication strategy to a new one that is evidence-based and far more scientific."
Carey served on the CDFA's Medfly Scientific Advisory Panel from 1987-1994, testified to the California Legislature "Committee of the Whole" in 1990 on the Medfly Crisis in California, and authored the paper "Establishment of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly in California" (1991, Science 258, 457).
Carey is a fellow of four professional societies: the Entomological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Gerontological Society of America. He is former director (2003-13) of a 11-university consortium funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIH/P01) on the evolutionary ecology of lifespan.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The katydid nymph did.
It did appear in May.
The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) tells us that katydid nymphs appear in our gardens in April or May.
This little nymph was right on time, barely, as it surfaced in our Vacaville garden on May 28.
The nymph, a leafeater, is usually so camouflaged in the vegetation that we don't see it--unless it's hanging out on a California golden poppy blossom or a neon pink rock purslane. The adult katydid can be an economic pest when it feeds on such crops as mandarins.
Frankly, it can look quite comical as it "walks the walk," its long threadlike antennae probing the way as it descends a stem in the early evening.