The Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis is currently closed to the public due to COVID pandemic precautions, but a jubilant crew helped celebrate the Feb. 1st birthday of its director, Lynn Kimsey, a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology who has administered the museum since 1990.

If you love numerical palindromes, Kimsey's birthday last year fell on 2-1-21, and Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas' birthday this year fell on 2-2-22. (Note February's next numerical paiindrome is 2-22-22.)

This year the Bohart Museum, home of a worldwide collection of eight million insect specimens, is celebrating its 75th year. Let's just say that Kimsey is younger than that.

So, a quick update with Professor Kimsey:

Q. "What fascinates you about insects?"

A. "All the incredibly weird things they do. Every year I learn something head-slappingly new!"

Q. "What do you want the public to know the most about insects?"

A. "That insects are mostly harmless and really important parts of our lives as well as other animals and plants."

Q.  "What's your next project?"

A. "Right now I'm working on two book projects: the Mosquitoes of California and Keys to the Insects of California."

Q. "What insect has the longest life span?"

A. "Depends on how you define it. Desert insects can stay in diapause for up to 10 years or more. Jerry Powell at UC Berkeley discovered that the yucca moth can remain in the pupa for several decades before emerging when it rains. As for adult insects, probably stink beetles live the longest here."

Professor Kimsey is an alumnus of UC Davis. She received her undergraduate degree in 1975 and her doctorate in 1979. Richard M. Bohart, for whom the insect museum is named, served as her major professor and she was his last graduate student.

Kimsey joined the UC Davis entomology faculty in 1989. Her areas of expertise include insect biodiversity, systematics and biogeography of parasitic wasps, urban entomology, civil forensic entomology, and arthropod-related industrial hygiene.  She is a recognized global authority on the systematics, biogeography and biology of the wasp families, Tiphiidae and Chrysididae.

Kimsey has served in numerous leadership roles at the international, national and local level, including two terms as president of the International Hymenopterists, board member of the Natural Science Collections Alliance, and interim chair and vice chair (twice) of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology).

In 2020, the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA), presented her with its highest honor,  the C. W. Woodworth Award. She earlier received two other PBESA awards: the Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity Award in 2014, and shared the Team Award in 2013 with colleagues Eric Mussen, Robbin Thorp, Neal Williams and Brian Johnson, who were recognized for their collaborative work specializing in honey bees, wild bees and pollination issues through research, education and outreach.

Known for her decades of public service, Kimsey received the UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2016.

The Bohart Museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. In addition to its eight million insect specimens, it houses a live "petting zoo" (think Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas) and a gift shop (now online), stocked with insect-themed gifts such as books, posters, jewelry, t-shirts and hoodies. 

Questions? Will the 75th anniversary celebration of the Bohart Museum continue this year? When will the Bohart Museum be open to the public and when will it begin hosting its ever-popular open houses? To be determined, but spoiler alert: One event will involve the California dogface butterfly, Zerene eurydice, the state insect. This is the 50th anniversary of when the State Legislature named the butterfly the state insect. Stay tuned.

This is the story about an entomologist, a rhino, a woodpecker and E. O. Wilson.

Back in May of 2005, entomologist Fran Keller, a professor at Folsom Lake College and a UC Davis doctoral alumnus,  interviewed E. O. Wilson for a presentation at the 2005 Entomological Society of America meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

This week remembrances are pouring in for Wilson, the legendary Harvard emeritus professor, biologist, naturalist and author who died Dec. 26 at age 92 in Burlington, Mass.  (See UC Davis tributes on the Department of Entomology and Nematology website.)

Recognized as one of the world's most influential scientists, Wilson was known as “The Ant Man,” "The Father of Sociobiology," "The Father of Diversity" and “The Modern-Day Darwin," for his pioneering and trailblazing work that drew global admiration and won scores of scientific awards.  

But among his peers, colleagues and mentees, he was known as "Ed."

"Our department of entomology helped  fund my trip to Harvard,” Keller recalled, “and he agreed to meet me over the course of two days in May 2005. The ESA symposium took place in mid-December. I recorded our interview on a cassette tape,” she said, adding she hopes to publish it in a journal. 

“We walked around the MCZ (Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology) for a bit together, talking about species discovery, biodiversity and extinction,” she recalled. “We stopped at the display of birds and the ivory-billed woodpecker. We stopped at Darwin's finches on display. We went into the room where the rhinos were displayed and as we stared together at the rhinos, silent, I couldn't help myself and I began to cry.  I apologized for my emotional display and said ‘It just makes me horribly sad that I may never get to see this animal in the wild, that it may be lost forever. I'm an entomologist, I don't know why this rhino makes me so sad. I didn't cry in front of the ivory-billed woodpecker.”  

Wilson responded: “Everyone has an animal that reaches them or that they connect with at some level, even though you were born an entomologist, perhaps yours is the rhino.” 

“After my interview with Ed, I bought the book in the MCZ, The Rarest of the Rare:  Stories Behind the Treasues at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. In that book, it highlights the extinct and rare species held in the MCZ collections. One of those specimens is the last Xerces butterfly, which was caught by Harry Lange (UC Davis emeritus professor of entomology). Harry's quote in that book, ‘I didn't know it was the last one, I thought there would be more' and then my time eating lunch and then wandering the MCZ collection and chatting with Ed inspired me to create the Xerces t-shirt for the Bohart Museum of Entomology.”

One of Keller's mentors, Tom Schoener, studied with Wilson.  “I worked on plant ecology and island biogeography for my undergrad research (Sacramento City College)," she said, "and continued that for awhile in grad school (UC Davis). Ed Wilson was one of the founders of island biogeography.”  And, as a undergraduate at Sacramento City College, Keller was part of a field trip to hear Wilson speak at his 2002 book tour on The Future of Life. 

Wilson's work, On Human Nature, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979. He won a second Pulitzer in 1991 with The Ants, co-authored with colleague Bert Hölldobler.  In 1990, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Wilson the Crafoord Prize in biosciences, the highest scientific award in the field. In 1996, Time magazine named him one of America's 25 most influential people. In  1977 President Jimmy Carter awarded him the National Medal of Science for his contributions toward the advancement of knowledge in biology.

Wilson, according to reports, always considered himself an Alabaman who went to Harvard, rather than a Harvard professor born in Alabama. Born June 10, 1929 in Birmingham, Ed graduated from the University of Alabama in 1949 with two degrees in biology, and received his doctorate in biology from Harvard in 1955. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1956. Although officially retiring in 1996, he remained active as an emeritus professor and honorary curator until his death. 

The 2022 Entomological Society of America's World of Insects Calendar is filled with amazing images and one of them is by UC Davis alumnus Ian Wright of Riverside, a field biologist and research specialist with the UC Riverside Department of Entomology. 

His work shows a cuckoo bee (Nomada sp.) and an Anthophora bee sharing honey on a twig. The image appears as an inset for the month of September.

Wright collected the bees at his field site in Hemet Calif., the day before. "I took them to my studio to try and get some images in flight and to bolster my files of native bee species," he related. "I often feed my subjects a little honey as I photograph them over the course of a day or two before releasing them back where I found them. They also tend to offer nice shots when they sit still drinking, so I figured I would try to fit two bees on a twig that I had around, and see if they would offer a picture."

"I managed a number of nice shots of them sharing a drink before letting them go their separate ways. Once spring starts back up in full, I'm hoping to recreate this shot with a half-dozen or more native bee species all on the same branch at the same time to show off the incredible diversity of native bees in California."

"I was so thrilled to have my image accepted to the ESA calendar, which always showcases incredible arthropod images!"

Wright captured the image with a Nikon D500 camera and a Nikon 105mm f 2.8 macro lens. The settings: f-stop, 18; ISO, 200; and shutter speed, 1/250 of a second.  For lighting, he fired two speedlights into a white box setup,  diffusing the lighting on the twig (held in his left hand). For the background, he propped a deliberately blurred landscape print in the back of the box.

This is his first image selected for the international calendar, although he's submitted a few images over the last several years. He was also honored to have one of his arthropod images selected for the cover of the fall edition of the American Entomologist.  

Wright, who holds a bachelor's degree in evolution, ecology and biodiversity from UC Davis in 2008 and a master's degree in evolution, ecology and behavior at the University of Texas, Austin, in 2015, began pursuing photography as a hobby in 2008, using a single lens reflex camera. Today he specializes in macro and wildlife photography but also enjoys "photographing people and, especially, the intersection of people and science."

Wright's hobby has grown into "a passion for documenting the species and behaviors I find during field work or on my many expeditions to observe species and their habitats around the country and the globe."

You can follow Ian Wright on the Internet: 

• Website: https://ianmwright.zenfolio.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ian.wright.549
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ianmwright86
• Instagram: @ianmwright86 and @tinyspheres

The World of Insects Calendar is known for its striking, world-class photography of arthropods. The 2022 calendar drew  more than 740 entries from more than 180 photographers from around the globe. The cover image depicts newly hatched brown marmorated stink bug nymphs (Halyomorpha halys), photographed by Tom Astle of Sherman Oaks, Calif.

ESA seeks photos of "the highest aesthetic and technical quality,"  and issues a call for photos early in the year for the following year's calendar. Photographers of all backgrounds, areas of expertise, career stage, and geographic location  submit photos. 

This year ESA also published an "Arthropod Photo of the Week" from the submitted photos.  (Follow "Arthropod Photo of the Week" via the #arthropodPOTW hashtag on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.)

ESA, founded in 1889, serves the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and individuals in related disciplines throughout the world. Its 7000 members are affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. They include teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, students, pest management professionals, and hobbyists. 

The general public can order the 2022 calendar online by accessing this link. The cost per calendar is $10 for ESA members and $14 or non-members, with decreased costs for multiple orders.

What a year! Termites seem to be capturing the interest of more folks than usual.

First, emeritus Cooperative Extension specialist Vernard Lewis of UC Berkeley, highly respected as "The Termite Man," drew widespread attention on Nov. 2 when he delivered the Founders' Memorial Lecture on "The Termite Lady," Margaret James Stickland Collins (1922-1966), at the Entomological Society of America's annual meeting, held in Denver.

Lewis covered the life and legacy of Collins, an African-American entomologist and civil rights advocate whose termite research spanned five decades. Lewis praised her "pioneering studies on the mechanism and evolution of termite desiccation resistance across various habitats provided foundational knowledge for generations of entomologists, field biologists, and ecologists."  

Did termites fade into obscurity after Lewis' heralded ESA seminar?

No. Not a chance. "Love" saw to that.

The heavy winter rains in the Bay Area, followed by warm sunny days, resulted in the timely emergence of subterranean termites "looking for love," noted University of California Urban Integrated Pest Management (IPM) advisor and urban entomologist Andrew Sutherland, who serves the San Francisco Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara.

"Interestingly, this year's subterranean termite swarms generated way more pop media interest than usual," said Sutherland who holds a doctorate in entomology (2009) from UC Davis. "Perhaps it's because we had more people at home than in previous years (pre-COVID...also, 2019 and 2020 swarms occurred during Thanksgiving weekend, so folks may have been preoccupied or traveling)."

"Since they live underground, they have to have opportunities to meet and fall in love,"  Sutherland told journalist Leah Worthington of the Redwood City Pulse.  "So it's kind of like a big singles bar in the air...The king and queen form what's called a nuptial pair. And that nuptial pair starts a colony, usually in a piece of wood that is partially buried in the soil."

Sutherland's program contributed to three news media pieces; a UC Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (UC ANR) blog; and a LinkedIn post:

• ABC 7 TV spot 
  
• Redwood City Pulse story (also published in Palo Alto Online)
• San Francisco Gate story
• UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) blog post
• LinkedIn post

"One newsworthy item with regards to California: we have detected several reproducing populations of the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus, in southern California (San Diego, Riverside, and Los Angeles counties all have recent detections)," Sutherland pointed out. "This termite is considered the most damaging pest species in the world and is an invasive species of interest to the state and to the pest control industry. My colleagues in Southern California have produced some informational alert materials recently. (See PDF)

"Up here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we're continuing evaluations of bait station systems and investigations into the western subterranean termite species complex," Sutherland said.

In his UC ANR blog, published Oct. 21--in the midst of the fall subterranean termite swarm season--Sutherland explained the situation well: 

"It's that time of year again: termite swarm season! Western subterranean termites, Reticulitermes hesperus (species complex), produce reproductive swarms during calm sunny periods immediately following the first autumn rains. This is especially pronounced in the San Francisco Bay Area and parts of the Sacramento Valley, where mature termite colonies across a broad region may swarm simultaneously en masse, filling the air with termites fluttering their gossamer wings and filling social media discussions with wonder, horror, confusion, and dread."

"Western subterranean termites may also swarm in the spring, especially in southern California, foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and the northern Sacramento Valley. No matter the swarm season, the goal for the termites is to form 'nuptial pairs' of virgin 'queens' and 'kings' that will mate and venture out into the landscape to start their own colonies, which may eventually consist of hundreds of thousands of individuals that forage over thousands of square feet! Seeing fluttering termites in the air means that nearby colonies are swarming, but it does not necessarily mean your home or other wooden structure is infested. On the other hand, seeing winged termites issuing forth from the ground or a piece of wood means, unequivocally, that there is a mature colony underneath, potentially infesting or threatening nearby wooden structures."

A Solano County homeowner witnessed the phenomenon on Oct. 27. She saw hundreds of them exiting the soil by her ailing black walnut tree on Buck Avenue, Vacaville.  The insects literally carpeted the ground and sprawled out on fallen leaves. As the sun warmed their flight muscles, the winged termites took off--right into the beaks of swooping birds.  

What should you do if you spot a swarm?

As Sutherland wrote in his blog: "If observing a swarm on your property, especially if near your home or other structures, you can hire a professional termite company for a detailed inspection. Make sure to photograph or otherwise note the swarm location so that the inspector can start there. Even if you don't see swarms on your property, regular (every three to five years) inspections will help detect infestations before they cause significant damage and prevent future infestations. There are several proven management strategies for termites; review UC IPM's Pest Notes: Subterranean Termites."

"For now, perhaps we can all appreciate the wonder of this natural spectacle," Sutherland wrote. "Winged termites are great sources of food for birds, lizards, other insects, and spiders. Termites also provide important ecosystem services, such as decomposition of wood and fallen leaves, contribution to soil structure formation, enhancement of water infiltration in soil, and facilitation of nutrient availability to plants. Furthermore, western subterranean termites are native to California and have been here long before we built wooden structures on top of their colonies. (Termite) love is in the air!

The UC IPM Pest Note relates that "Subterranean termites are common throughout California and can be found infesting fallen trees, stumps, or other dead wood in contact with the soil in the forest, landscape, or structural lumber in our houses...The most common subterranean termites, Reticulitermes, can be encountered in nearly all regions of the state, from the sand dunes of the coast to the upper elevations of the mountain ranges and even in some of the desert areas. The species of Reticulitermes are the most destructive termites found in California. They are small in size compared to dampwood and drywood termites, but mature colonies can contain hundreds of thousands of individuals."

Urban entomologist Thomas Chouvenc of the University of Florida wrote about controlling termites in his article, "Killing It in the Eggs: A Termite Bait Story," published Dec. 7 in ESA's Entomology Today. "Subterranean termites represent a legitimate concern for many homeowners in the United States because of their potential damage to wood structures," he began and went on to discuss chitin synthesis inhibitor (CSI) bait formulations.

CSI is something that termites looking for love want no part of.