- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you gift this to a family, friend or yourself, no one can ever take it away. It can't be stolen, damaged or lost. You'll never wear it out. It will never go out of fashion. It will always be considered special, creative, generous and thoughtful.
Downright thoughtful.
I mean, how many people get to name a new species of weevil?
In this case, it's naming rights for a cute little polka-dotted black and white weevil. For a donation of $2500 to the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, it's yours.
To name, that is.
Bohart Museum Society member Henry Hespenheide, professor emeritus from UCLA, collected the weevil a couple of years ago in Panama, said Bohart Museum director Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis.
This species is from genus Macrocopturus. Its relatives are distributed widely in the Western Hemisphere from Florida and the West Indies to South America, and currently include more than a hundred known species. Most Macrocopcurus are probably wood-borers as larvae, and the Florida species is a pest of mahogany, Kimsey says. Although most species are colored to blend in with the bark on tree trunks, this species is unusual and striking in having the bright spots of red scales.
Genus: Dipara species #1
Family Pteromalidae
Origin: Democratic Republic of Congo
Describer Steve Heydon
This delicate black jewel is tiger-striped with white bands and dotted with purplish metallic patches. This species is relatively common in the gallery forests along the river courses of west central DRC, but it can be collected only by means of yellow pan traps deployed on the forest floor. Similar species exist throughout the world, but mysteriously, no one has a good idea what they feed on.
Genus Callocleonymus species #1
Family Pteromalidae
Origin: Mississippi
Describer: Steve Heydon
This new species will be the first representative of the genus to be found in North America. This species is so rare, it is known from only a handful of specimens. It is native to the bottomland hardwood forests of the Gulf Coast.
Genus: Hedychridium species #1
Family: Chrysididae
Origin: Thailand
Describer: Lynn Kimsey
Members of the genus Hedychridium are among the most brilliantly colored of the chrysidids, with bright metallic blues, greens and even reds. This new species has all of that brilliance in blues and greens. These wasps are nest parasites of predatory, solitary wasps. They are like small jewels flitting about on the ground.
Genus: Psilochalcis species #1
Family: Chrysididae
Origin: Southern California
Describer: Steve Heydon
This new species of Psilochalcis is from the Algodones sand dune system of southern California. These tough little wasps survive in an area where daytime temperatures soar above 110˚ regularly, and the temperature near the sand exceeds 160˚ F. The females lay their eggs in the pupal stage of their hosts, probably small some small moth found feeding on the desert bushes.
Genus: Agapophytus nov. sp1
Family: Therevidae
Describer: Shaun Winterton
Genus: Agapophytus nov. sp2
Family: Therevidae
Describer: Shaun Winterton
Genus: Lagenosoma species 1
Family: Therevidae
Describer: Shaun Winterton
Genus: Undescribed genus and species
Family: Therevidae
Describer: Shaun Winterton
For more information on the Biolegacy Program, contact Lynn Kimsey at lskimsey@ucdavis.edu or call the main Bohart lineat (530) 752-0492.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
You know she likes stiletto Jimmy Choo shoes and anything that begins with a "D" for designer clothes and shoes and "E" for expensive. She's seen The World's Most Expensive Stilettos and dreams of stilettos by Stuart Weitzman and Borgezie that run as high as $3 million. (They run that high, but you can't run in them.)
But apparel won't last as long as the gift that the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is dangling in front of us.
Ready for this? A stiletto fly. Genus: Agapophytus. It needs a species name. If you'd like to adopt it and own the naming rights, you can--with a sponsorship that will help the Bohart Museum's research.
Shaun Winterton of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, a Bohart associate, collected the stiletto fly (below) in western Australia and photographed it.
"'O sole mio!" Deep in the heart of our soul (sole?), we know it's better than designer shoes.
A little information on the Stiletto fly from Winterton:
Common name: Stiletto fly
Family Therevidae
Origin: Western Australia: Golden Bay beach dunes
Describer: Shaun L. Winterton
Wrote Winterton: "This new species of Agapophytus in the family Therevidae has been found in the coastal heathland and beach fore-dunes of Western Australia, north of the city of Perth. The genus is known only from Australia and Papua New Guinea and currently includes about 40 known species, with about as many still to be formally named. The stiletto fly family includes many brightly colored species in Australia, many of which are mimics of wasps or ants. This species is unusual in being relatively small in body size, with a polished black body and yellow halters. Larvae of this family are snake-like predators in the sand dunes, swimming through the loose sand using vibrations to home in on prey."
Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and a UC Davis proessor of entomology, launched the Bohart's biolegacy program, which is similar to the International Star Registry. "For a sponsorship of $2500, you will be able to select a species you would like to name in honor of a loved one or in respect for a community member," she said. "For your sponsorship, we will name a species after you or someone special to you. Sponsors will also be given a high resolution photography of their namesake, framed with the title page of the naming publication."
Unlike the Star Registry Program, though, the official species name "will be published in a scientific journal read by many in the international scientific community and available to everyone in perpetuity."
So, the Bohart Museum staff and scientists need your help. They describe as many as 15 new species annually "and our associates, many more."
"We could use your help with the selection of new species names in the course of our research," said Kimsey, who can be reached at lskimsey@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0493.
The Bohart Museum, home of nearly eight million specimens collected from throughout the world, joins a number of international organizations that offer species-naming opportunities.
Sponsorships help support museum research, in addition to offering a personal permanent legacy.
Can't you just see it? At a holiday gathering, your friend who has everything is asked what she received.
"Stiletto," she says.
"Omigosh, you got stilettos! Jimmy Choo? Who? Who?"
"No, this stiletto is a fly. And it's all mine. It's named after me!"