Agricultural Extension specialist Ian Grettenberger, coordinator of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's seminars, has announced the list of the virtual seminars for the winter quarter.

All seminars will be held on Wednesdays at 4:10 PM (PST). Zoom links will be accessible via a Google form link. 

Wednesday, Jan. 20 
Daniel Hasegawa  
USDA ARS, Crop Improvement and Protection Research: Salinas, Calif.
Title: "Landscape and Molecular Approaches for Managing Thrips and Thrips-transmitted Viruses in the Salinas Valley of California."  
Website link  
Google form link to access the seminar 
Host: Ian Grettenberger

Wednesday, Jan. 27
Charissa De Bekker 
University of Central Florida, Biology Department 
Title: "What Makes a Zombie Ant Tick? Connecting Genomes with Behavioral Phenomes in Ants, Manipulated by a Fungal Parasite."
Website link 
Host: Ian Grettenberger

Wednesday, Feb. 3 
Shalene Jha 
University of Texas, Austin, Department of Integrative Biology
Title: "Plant-Insect Interactions and Ecosystem Services in the Context of Global Change"
Website link 
Host: Charlie Nicholson, postdoctoral researcher, Neal Williams lab and Elina Lastro Niño lab

Wednesday, Feb. 10 
Estelí Jimenez-Soto
UC Santa Cruz, Environmental Studies Department
Title: Pending
Website link 
Host: Marshall McMunn, postdoctoral fellow, Rachel Vannette lab

Wednesday, Feb. 17 
Brian Weiss 
Yale University, Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases
Title: Pending
Website link 
Host: Geoff Attardo, assistant professor 

Wednesday, Feb. 24 
Jessica Kansman
Pennsylvania State University, Department of Entomology
Title: Pending
Website link 
Host: Ian Grettenberger

Wednesday, March 3 
Monika Gulia-Nuss 
University of Nevada, Reno, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 
Title: Pending 
Website link 
Host: Geoff Attardo, assistant professor 

Wednesday, March 10
To be announced 

For questions, contact Grettenberger at imgrettenberger@ucdavis.edu.

The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology is sharing a $900,000 grant from the University of California's Office of the President to establish a four-campus network of bee researchers and engineers to strengthen honey bee health and crop pollination. 

The three-year grant, titled "Strengthening Honey Bee Health and Crop Pollination to Safeguard Food Availability and Affordability" and headed by principal investigator Boris Baer, a UC Riverside professor of entomology, also includes the San Diego and Merced campuses. “I'm very excited about so many different kinds of bee expertise joining forces through this project,” Baer said. 

"Most excitingly, this funding will not only support research that will help improve pollinator health so crucial for California's agriculture, but it will provide opportunities for training of students and postdoctoral scholars,” said co-principal investigator, Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, which operates the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. “Work focused on improving honey bee stocks via novel tools aligns well with ongoing work in the Niño lab and will further cement collaborations with beekeepers and growers.” 

Honey bees pollinate more than 80 agricultural crops, accounting for about a third of the American diet.  Researchers attribute the widespread collapse of bee colonies over the past decade to several factors, including pesticide exposure, spread of parasites and pathogens, habitat destruction and environmental changes.  Population declines have resulted in decreased pollination services and increased food prices. Worldwide declines continue despite substantial efforts of researchers, beekeepers, conservationists, and growers to identify the issues facing pollinator communities and develop innovative solutions. 

The UC scientists plan a three-pronged approach to resolve the issue: develop better breeding programs, better medications and treatments, and better tools to monitor bee health in the hives. Small “listening and smelling” devices will be placed inside the hives to monitor bee health.

“We know bee queens have a special pheromone they give off when they're hungry or dying, and these can be traced,” Baer said. “We are essentially building ‘electronic veterinarians.” Preventative devices like these are key to keeping bees alive, because once the colony collapses, it's too late to bring it back, he added.  “Together, we'll develop innovative tools needed to effectively combat declining honeybee health, keep our food affordable, and safeguard the livelihood of those working with bees."

In the successful grant proposal, part of the Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives (MRPI), the researchers wrote:

"Safeguarding honey bees and their pollination services requires beekeepers to be better able to manage the health and survival of colonies, which requires research into the causal factors and interactions affecting pollinator health, and the development and implementation of novel tools in close collaboration with industry partners. To do this, we will form a California wide, cross disciplinary research network and 

1. experimentally study the ecological and molecular factors and their interactions that affect honey bee health and their interactions to identify biomarkers of their health
2. use the knowledge gained to develop and deliver new, effective solutions for stakeholders, including remote sensing of bee health, a marker-assisted breeding program, and the development of novel medications,
3. build a research industry nexus to conduct collaborative research. We will also develop and deploy new extension and outreach modules that will be offered through UC Cooperative Extension statewide. We will support California beekeepers to build and maintain a sustainable and profitable beekeeping industry, which has implications for food security on a national level."

Niño, who works closely with California beekeepers, launched and directs the California Master Beekeeper Program, which uses science-based information to educate stewards and ambassadors for honey bees and beekeeping.

The co-principal investigators also noted in their grant proposal that "The current coronavirus pandemic and impending recession is putting more pressure on agriculture to provide sufficient and affordable food. Honey bees are key to such efforts, and supporting a California based beekeeping industry also decreases the state's dependence on managed pollination from elsewhere, thereby creating new jobs and income."

Funding also will help provide research opportunities for undergraduates, including underrepresented students, with the goal of ensuring that the pipeline of students who enter research, academia, industry, and multiple other professions reflects the diversity of the communities in which they learn and work.

Co-principal investigator James Nieh of UC San Diego, said he and his students will be testing how nutritional supplements may help bees that have been exposed to pesticides and on how to harness the natural honey bee microbiome against a very common bee gut disease.

“We want to use what evolution has already given us to deal with bee disease because this should be a more natural and sustainable approach,” said Nieh, a professor in the Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, Division of Biological Sciences. “Researchers have also focused a great deal on the harms caused by pesticides and this has helped improve some aspects of regulation," he said in a UC San Diego news release. "But we need to develop treatments for bees that are exposed to these chemicals because we will not realistically be able to eliminate all pesticide use.”

Co-principal investigator Joshua Kohn of UC San Diego said research in his lab is aimed at understanding the complex genomes of feral honey bees in Southern California. These bees have genomes that are a complex mixture of genomes of honey bee varieties from Africa, Europe and the Middle East,  Kohn said in a UC San Diego news release. He described the feral  bees as "highly genetically diverse and ecologically successful." Their genomes, he pointed out, likely hold variation useful to breeding domesticated honey bees with increased levels of resistance to the common diseases that currently plague the honey bee industry.

“This network of bee researchers comprises a unique mixture of expertise that can apply highly multidisciplinary approaches to benefit the honey bee industry essential to the production of many of California's most economically important crops,” Kohn related.

Other co-principal investigators are Kerry Mauck, Tsotras Vassilis, and Kim Hyoseung, all of UC Riverside. Marilia Gaiarsa of UC Merced is a co-investigator.

Entomologist Vonny Martin Barlow of Blythe, formerly of the UC Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources (UC ANR) and the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM)--and who most recently served an entomology project consultant with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology--passed away unexpectedly Dec. 9 in a Palm Springs hospital. He was 55.

Dr. Barlow, known for his expertise in insect pest management, including pests of rice, cotton and alfalfa, was the third graduate student of the late Larry Godfrey (1956-2017), Cooperative Extension entomologist, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. 

In an email to friends and colleagues, Sonia Rios, area subtropical horticulture advisor, UC Cooperative Extension, Riverside and San Diego counties, related that Dr. Barlow "passed away unexpectedly on Dec. 9 from a massive heart attack." Services (limited to five people due to the COVID-19 pandemic precautions) will take place Dec. 28 in Palm Springs. 

Born May 18, 1965 in Mountain View, Calif., Vonny received a bachelor of science degree in biological sciences, with a special emphasis in entomology, from San Jose State University in 1993; a master's degree in plant protection and pest management from UC Davis in 1997; and a doctorate from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in 2006. 

"From there, I went on to North Carolina State University where I gained extensive research and extension experience as a tree fruit post-doc," he related on Linked In. "I worked on evaluating the 'whole-farm' approach to mating disruption used in apple orchards to manage codling moth and oriental fruit moth. I then joined the Agriculture and Natural Resources Division of the University of California in 2009 as an entomology/IPM/crop production farm advisor for Riverside County until 2018. I worked in an area predominated by 75 percent alfalfa rotated with other crops like cotton, mixed melons, lettuce and broccoli." 

Dr. Barlow left UC ANR in 2016 to become a pest management consultant, working both with industry and agricultural partners. He served as an affiliated IPM advisor from 2012 to 2017, and was a leader and author of the rice, cotton, and alfalfa Pest Management Guidelines. He did research on biological control and IPM of invasive insects and plants of field and forage agroecosystems.

At UC Davis, where he received his master's degree, he served as a graduate research assistant in the Godfrey lab. His master's thesis project "involved studying the impact of early spring weeds on Lygus bug population dynamics and their natural enemies in the alfalfa hay cropping system," he wrote on LinkedIn. "Alternative sources for feeding and reproduction (e.g., weedy plants) have shown to have a profound impact on Lygus bug populations. I was able to develop recommendations for management of weedy plants in alfalfa that had a two-fold benefit. The first is reduction of crop loss in susceptible crops (e.g., cotton) to Lygus bugs in adjacent fields. The second is reduction of the amount of pesticides used to control Lygus bug populations."

Dr. Barlow co-chaired the Godfrey celebration of life on June 7, 2017 at the Putah Creek Lodge, UC Davis, with distinguished professor and IPM specialist Frank Zalom of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. 

He is survived by his mother, Janice, and a brother, Cary, both of San Jose. 

He didn't set out to study insect science.

Jay Rosenheim was a third-year physics major at the University of California, Davis, in 1981 when—“on a lark”--he enrolled in Professor Harry Kaya's Entomology 100 course. 

The professor inspired him, the class enthralled him, and insects captivated him. 

 In mid-term, Jay changed his major to entomology, and went on to earn two degrees in entomology (bachelor's degree from UC Davis in 1983, and doctorate from UC Berkeley in 1987); join the UC Davis faculty in 1990; and become a UC Davis distinguished professor in 2018. 

The former UC Davis physics major is now a newly inducted Fellow of the 7000-member Entomological Society of America (ESA), a global honor accorded to only 10 persons annually. 

Marshall Johnson, a 2006 ESA Fellow and an emeritus Cooperative Extension specialist and researcher at UC Riverside, nominated Rosenheim for the award. “Jay was my postdoc at the University of Hawaii,” Johnson said. “He did a great job and I have kept my eye on his career ever since.

“I would say that Jay is the most astounding entomologist that I know, given his broad interests and creative manner in studying biological/ecological questions,” Johnson said. “He is also an excellent human being.” 

ESA singled out Rosenheim at its virtual meeting for his contributions on the ecology of insect parasitoids and predators, insect reproductive behavior, and the application of big data, or "ecoinformatics," methods in agricultural entomology. 

And it all began four decades ago in a UC Davis classroom. This is what occurred. 

“About a month or so before the course was to be taught, I received a call from this physics student, Jay Rosenheim, who wanted to take Entomology 100,” recalled Kaya, now an emeritus professor and himself an ESA Fellow (2007) for his international contributions to insect pathology and nematology. “I asked a few questions on why he wanted to take the course.  He said he always loved insects but he said he did not have the prerequisites for the class--no college biology-- but he was keenly interested in insects and really wanted to take the class.”  

“I was a little concerned,” Kaya acknowledged, “but I said he can try it and drop it if things did not work out. I gave my approval and waived the prerequisite--I believe at the time it had to be a general zoology class. Well, Jay aced the class-- he had the highest grade and went on to become an entomology major.  The rest is history as he would excel in entomology and become a top-notch entomologist in biological control and offer many new ideas in biological control  theory and application as well as on other ecological issues. Jay is also a great teacher.” 

Kaya was actually teaching the class for Professor Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), a bee specialist on sabbatical.  “At the time, I had a 25 percent teaching appointment in entomology and a 75 percent research appointment in nematology,” Kaya said. “When Martin Birch, the department chair, asked me to teach the course, I told him  that I hoped he could find someone else, but he came back and said I would be the best to teach it.”  Birch assigned two of Thorp's graduate students, Evan Sugden and John Skinner, as teaching assistants for the twice-a-week entomology lab. 

 “Jay also worked briefly in my lab as an undergraduate as well,” Kaya related. “I should add other superlatives as outstanding and world-renowned entomologist.   In my view, it did not matter who taught the ENT 100 course.  Jay is simply an outstanding individual and has contributed so much on his own merit.  Plus, he has a great personality.” 

Rosenheim vividly recalls the transition from physics to entomology:  “I was in my junior year as an undergraduate when I took Harry Kaya's Entomology 100 course on a lark. I loved the class so much that midway through the quarter I changed majors from physics to entomology.  I went on to work in Harry's lab and do an undergrad research project under his mentorship.”

A native of Yorktown, N.Y, young Jay developed an interest in biology while exploring the vernal pools behind his Hudson River Valley home.

His insect interests not only led to his being elected an ESA Fellow but a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; recipient of teaching awards from the Associated Students of UC Davis and the UC Davis Academic Senate; and the Distinguished Student Mentoring Award from ESA's Pacific Branch. He has authored more than 160 peer-reviewed publications, and mentored nearly 40 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, now in the private sector, conservation nonprofits, journalism, or academia.  

And it all began when a physics major named Jay Rosenheim asked to enroll in Professor Harry Kaya's entomology class.