- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The three founders and directors: UC Davis Distinguished Professor Jay Rosenheim, an insect ecologist (now emeritus as of June 2024); Professor Louie Yang, a community ecologist; and Professor Joanna Chiu, molecular geneticist and physiologist, and now chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"Our goal is to develop a long-term mentoring relationship for students, to extend until the completion of the undergraduate program (usually 2 to 3 years)," Rosenheim said.
They are and they have. The success stories are amazing.
Meet Kaitai Liu, an outstanding entomology major, scholar, researcher, and volunteer. He is as dedicated to insect science as he is passionate.
As a RSPIB scholar, Kaitai joined the arachnid and systematics lab of Professor Jason Bond, who triples as the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in the Department of Entomology and Nematology; director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology; and associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. The Bond lab motto: "Studying arthropod diversity to inspire appreciation for life on Earth."
It's a perfect fit.
"When I was about 4 or 5, my grandfather wanted to keep me away from television and video games, so he took me outside and caught me bugs like cicadas and grasshoppers to play with," Kaitai recalled. "That was how I got into the world of insects, and somehow, I became really into insects. My parents supported me after noticing my fascination with insects. They always took me to the mountains to collect insects and observe nature, and they encouraged me to learn from books and the Internet. Jean-Henri Casmir Fabre became my childhood idol after I read his book Souvenirs entomologiques--of course, it was a Chinese children's book version--and I gradually formed the idea of becoming an entomologist like Fabre. I guess that is why I am still super interested in insect taxonomy now."
Kaitai's initial plan was to attend a university in China. "In high school, I participated in the Chinese National Biology Olympiad, known as a super difficult, highly competitive event, and to prepare for it, I read more than 30 college-level textbooks in a year," Kaitai related.
Next: which university to study entomology?
Kaitai chose UC Davis for its highly ranked entomology program.
He's now 21 and it's been a busy three years at UC Davis. He was recently featured in UC Davis piece on “Student Entomologists Gain Hands-on Skills in Insect Biology.” Wrote writer José Vadi: “Bond's lab matches Liu's passion--using systematics and taxonomy to describe and define new species--as well as studying the evolution of spiders and millipedes.” Kaitai holds at 3.95 GPA.
To date, Kaitai has been involved in three research projects: from millipedes to turret spiders to the California Insect Biodiversity and Barcode Project, the latter part of Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order on climate change to document all insect life in California:
- Investigation of the skeletal musculature structure and homology of millipedes' gonopods: "The gonopod is the male millipede's copulatory organ that is derived from walking legs, which is important for species identification," Kaitai explained. "I helped construct 3D models of gonopods from micro-CT images using ITK-SNAP and then compared and homologized the structure of the sclerites and muscles in different millipede groups using 3D visualizations."
- Evaluation of morphological variations and population structure in Atypoides riversii, commonly known as the California turret spider. "It's an endemic mygalomorph spider to northern and central California. Phylogeographic studies show that A. riversi is separated into multiple parapatric and allopatrically distributed populations, indicating that A. riversi is a species complex. My job was to generate somatic morphological data (length and width of the head, length of legs, etc.) from female specimens from different populations using a dissecting microscope equipped with Analysis Suite Software. Then, we applied Principal Component Analysis to a continuous variable dataset to evaluate morphological divergence in light of the species tree."
- California Insect Biodiversity and Barcode Project: This state-funded, collaborative project with the Bond lab and the Bohart Museum, aims to document all the insect species throughout California. "My job is to select specimens collected in California from the Bohart Museum of Entomology collection based on their quality and age, then confirm the identification and the validity of the scientific name of the specimens. I also relocate and correct misidentified specimens and outdated names. Lastly, I capture a series of images of the specimens using the Giga-Macro imaging system and stack the images with the Zerene Stacker." To date, he has prepared more than 700 specimens for the project. Next step: to collect tissues from the specimens and preserve them for DNA extraction and sequencing.
Future plans? Obtain a doctorate in entomology, become a professor, and specialize in rain beetles.
His primary activities at UC Davis focus on insects. A core member of the UC Davis Entomology Club, he has participated in multiple camping and collecting trips, including three collecting trips to Arizona. He helps plan the itinerary, and "I organize, drive and cook." In the meantime, he has built a large personal insect collection. "I spent a lot of my free time looking for bugs on campus and around Davis."
Kaitai also participates in the annual UC Davis Picnic Day Parade with fellow members, and loves to introduce the public to insects. This year during the Picnic Day entomological activities at Briggs Hall, he taught visitors how to use an insect net.
With his passion for entomology comes his passion for volunteerism. At the Bohart Museum of Entomology open houses, he enjoys introducing everyone--from toddlers to senior citizens--to the live petting zoo, which includes Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas.
"It is a really cool experience," Kaitai said of helping out at the Bohart Museum open houses. "I feel like this is a way to contribute to entomology. I like to see people overcome their entomophobia after learning about insects, and it makes me happy when I see people eager to learn about insects."


- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
During these winter rainstorms, keep your eye out for the rain beetle, genus Pleocoma, family Pleocomidae. You may see them before sunrise or just after sunset. The males can fly only a couple of hours before they die. The females are flightless.
We saw our first--and last--rain beetles back in October of 2012 when a graduate student in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology showed us several that a friend had collected in the Shenandoah Valley of Plymouth, Amador County.
As we mentioned in an earlier blog, they spend most of their lives in immature stages beneath the ground, and that can total a decade or more, scientists estimate. The adults surface when the ground is soaked. Adult beetles do not eat. They have no mouthparts or digestive tracts. They rely on the fat stored from their larval stage.
The females emit a pheromone so the males can locate them. It's a hurry-hurry-hurry scenario. Arthur Evans and James Hogue, authors of Introduction to California Beetles (University of California Press, Berkeley) say that “on average, males of some rain beetles have only enough energy stored as fat to give them about two hours of air time and live only a few days. The more sedentary females require less energy and may live for months after fall and winter storms.”
In California, "Pleocoma is found only in foothill and mountain habitats, never on the valley floor that I know of,” Lynn Kimsey director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, told us. “A lot of the populations have been extirpated by housing developments. When I was a kid living in the Berkeley Hills in El Cerrito we had lots of males flying after every rain but once the neighborhood was built up they vanished.”
“California's rain beetles occur throughout the mountainous regions of the state, except in the deserts,” according to Evans and Hogue. Their excerpt on rain beetles is published on the website of the Hastings Natural History Reservation in Carmel, Monterey County. “Small, isolated populations also occur in the Sacramento Valley and the coastal plain of San Diego County. The known modern distribution of these apparently ancient beetles is restricted by the flightless females and is more or less correlated to areas of land that have never been subjected to glaciation or inundation by inland seas during the last two or three million years.”
As underground larvae, these insects feed on shrub and tree roots, fungi and other organic matter. Larvae can be pests when they attack the roots of apple, pear and other orchard trees.
Evans and Hogue describe the rain beetles as “large, robust, and shiny.”
And hairy. Indeed, Pleocoma is Greek for abundant hair.
“The thick layer of hair covering the undersides," they write, "is remarkably ineffective as insulation, especially for flying or rapidly crawling males who must maintain high body temperatures in cold, damp weather….the thick pile probably functions to protect both sexes from abrasion as they burrow through the soil. Males and females dig with powerful, rake-like legs and a V-shaped scoop mounted on the front of the head.”
“In most species of rain beetles, male activity is triggered by weather conditions that accompany sufficient amounts of fall or winter rainfall or snowmelt in late winter or early spring. Depending upon circumstances, males may take to the air at dawn or at dusk, or they may fly during evening showers. Others are encountered flying late in the morning on sunny days following a night of pouring rains, or during heavy snowmelt.”
Evans and Hogue say the males fly low to the ground searching for females. They are often attracted to lights (including porch lights) and pools of water. “Females crawl back down their burrows and may wait up to several months for their eggs to mature. The female eventually lays 40 to 50 eggs in a spiral pattern at the end of the burrow as much as 3 m (10 ft) below the surface. The eggs hatch in about two months.”
Learn more about them on the Washington State University site, or watch them on YouTube:


- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's good for the drought and it's good for the rain beetles.
If you've never seen a rain beetle (genus Pleocoma) no worries. Most people haven't, either. You have to be in the right place at the right time, which amounts to being in a fall or winter rainstorm in their habitat before sunrise or just after sunset. And you have to work quickly. The males can fly only a couple of hours before they die. The females are flightless.
We saw our first--and last--rain beetles back in October of 2012 when a graduate student in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology showed us several that a friend had been collected in the Shenandoah Valley of Plymouth, Amador County.
What intriguing insects! They spend most of their lives in immature stages beneath the ground, and that can total a decade or more, scientists estimate. The adults surface when the ground is soaked.
You'll never seen adult beetles eat because they don't. They have no mouthparts or digestive tracts. They rely on the fat stored from their larval stage.
The females emit a pheromone so the males can locate them. It's a hurry-hurry-hurry scenario. Arthur Evans and James Hogue, authors of Introduction to California Beetles (University of California Press, Berkeley) say that “on average, males of some rain beetles have only enough energy stored as fat to give them about two hours of air time and live only a few days. The more sedentary females require less energy and may live for months after fall and winter storms.”
In California, "Pleocoma is found only in foothill and mountain habitats, never on the valley floor that I know of,” Lynn Kimsey director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at UC Davis, told us. “A lot of the populations have been extirpated by housing developments. When I was a kid living in the Berkeley Hills in El Cerrito we had lots of males flying after every rain but once the neighborhood was built up they vanished.”
“California's rain beetles occur throughout the mountainous regions of the state, except in the deserts,” according to Evans and Hogue. Their excerpt on rain beetles is published on the website of the Hastings Natural History Reservation in Carmel, Monterey County. “Small, isolated populations also occur in the Sacramento Valley and the coastal plain of San Diego County. The known modern distribution of these apparently ancient beetles is restricted by the flightless females and is more or less correlated to areas of land that have never been subjected to glaciation or inundation by inland seas during the last two or three million years.”
As underground larvae, these insects feed on shrub and tree roots, fungi and other organic matter. Larvae can be pests when they attack the roots of apple, pear and other orchard trees.
Evans and Hogue describe the rain beetles as “large, robust, and shiny.”
And hairy. Indeed, Pleocoma is Greek for abundant hair.
“The thick layer of hair covering the undersides," they write, "is remarkably ineffective as insulation, especially for flying or rapidly crawling males who must maintain high body temperatures in cold, damp weather….the thick pile probably functions to protect both sexes from abrasion as they burrow through the soil. Males and females dig with powerful, rake-like legs and a V-shaped scoop mounted on the front of the head.”
“In most species of rain beetles, male activity is triggered by weather conditions that accompany sufficient amounts of fall or winter rainfall or snowmelt in late winter or early spring. Depending upon circumstances, males may take to the air at dawn or at dusk, or they may fly during evening showers. Others are encountered flying late in the morning on sunny days following a night of pouring rains, or during heavy snowmelt.”
Evans and Hogue say the males fly low to the ground searching for females. They are often attracted to lights (including porch lights) and pools of water. “Females crawl back down their burrows and may wait up to several months for their eggs to mature. The female eventually lays 40 to 50 eggs in a spiral pattern at the end of the burrow as much as 3 m (10 ft) below the surface. The eggs hatch in about two months.”
You can also find more information on these fascinating insects on Wikipedia, BugGuide.net, Washington State University, and YouTube, including:



