- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Garden heroes, that is. That include lady beetles, better known as ladybugs.
“Garden Heroes” will set the theme of the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, March 2. The event, free and open to the public, will be held in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge building on Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus.
“This time of year aphids are invading our gardens,” said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator at the Bohart Museum. “Garden heroes, like lady beetles, help us out.”
Other garden heroes include lacewings, bigeyed bugs, assassin bugs, damsel bugs, and soldier beetles. Family activities, including how to make a bee condo for native bees, are planned.
Another key attraction will be a return appearance of the Budding Biologist, (http://www.buddingbiologist.com/about.html), creator of ecology video games. Budding Biologist is an educational publishing company owned by Kristine Callis-Duehl, who is with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine. This game is loosely based on ecological research being conducted by Louie Yang, assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Walter Hsiao, the video game developer, will be on hand to answer questions about game design.
The Bohart Museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis, houses nearly eight million specimens and is the seventh largest insect collection in North America. It is also the home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of insect biodiversity. Noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) founded the museum in 1946.
The year-around gift shop (also online) offers t-shirts, jewelry, insect nets, posters and books, including the newly published children's book, “The Story of the Dogface Butterfly,” written by UC Davis doctoral candidate Fran Keller and illustrated (watercolor and ink) by Laine Bauer, a 2012 graduate of UC Davis. The 35-page book, geared toward kindergarteners through sixth graders, also includes photos by naturalist Greg Kareofelas of Davis, a volunteer at the Bohart.
The museum is located near the intersection of LaRue Road and Crocker Lane. The museum's regular public hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. Group tours can be arranged with Tabatha Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0493. The museum is closed to the public on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and UC Davis holidays.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
His seminar is from 12:10 to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26 in 122 Briggs. Host is assistant professor Joanna Chiu. Plans call for his seminar to be recorded for later viewing on UCTV.
"Complex manipulation of host behavior by parasites is among the most impressive examples of organic selection," Hughes says in his abstract. "This is especially true where the parasite is a microbe and the host an animal; or put another way, when the one without the brain controls the one with the brain. In this talk I provide an overview of our research on ant behavior controlled by Ophiocordyceps fungi. Building on eight years of work in seven countries on five continents, I present our work across scales from continental biogeography to single celled transcriptomics, from spatial ecology to network dynamics. At is core my work is about discovery and emphasizes the enormous lack of knowledge we still have for many complex interactions in nature."
Hughes is broadly interested in parasites and behavior; especially in situations where the host is social. He moved to Pennsylvania State in April 2011, where he is part of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics.
Hughes said he likes different approaches. Much of his work has been in the field: he has worked in 11 countries on five continents and his lab currently works in North America, South America, Australia, and Southeast Asia. His lab integrates field-based natural history with lab experiments to explore the proximate and ultimate causes of behavioral manipulation. David is also interested in the applied aspects of his work- including both global food security (PlantVillage) and engaging the public through science outreach (Epidemics online course).
Hughes received his bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Glasgow in 1999, and his doctorate in entomology in 2003 from the University of Oxford. Among his fellowships and prizes:
- 2008-2011: Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship (Harvard & Exeter)
- 2006-2008: Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (Copenhagen)
- 2004: Varley-Gradwell Travelling Fellowship in Insect Ecology (Oxford)
- 1999-2003: Hope Studentship in Entomology (Oxford)
- 1999: Graham Kerr Prize in Zoology (Glasgow)
His work appears in many peer-reviewed journals and in the popular press. Parasite proponent Carl Zimmer wrote about his work in his Discovery Magazine blog and Susan Milius wrote a ScienceNews piece. His work also drew Scientific American coverage.
Among his publications:
Loreto RG, Hart A, Pereira TM, Freitas ML, Hughes DP, Elliot SL (2013) Foraging ants trade off further for faster: use of natural bridges and trunk-trail permanency in carpenter ants. Naturwissenschaften Vol 100 Issue 10 pp 957-963 (PDF)
de Bekker, C. Smith, P. Patterson, A.D and D.P. Hughes (2013) Metabolomics reveals the heterogeneous secretome of two entomopathogenic fungi to ex vivo cultured insect tissues PloS One 8(8): e70609. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070609 (Link)
Maure, F. Brodeur, J. Hughes, D.P. and F. Thomas (2013) How much energy should manipulative parasites leave to their hosts to ensure altered behaviours? Journal of Experimental Biology 2012 216: 43-6. (Link)
Maure, F. Brodeur, J. Hughes, D.P. and F. Thomas (2013) How much energy should manipulative parasites leave to their hosts to ensure altered behaviours? Journal of Experimental Biology 2012 216: 43-6. (Link)
Hughes, D.P. (2013) Pathways to understanding the extended phenotype of parasites in their hosts Journal of Experimental Biology 216:142-147 (Link)
Hughes, D.P. Parasites and the Superogranism (2012). In Host Manipulation by Parasites Edited by David P. Hughes, Jacques Brodeur, and Frédéric Thomas (PDF)
Andersen SB, Ferrari M, Evans HC, Elliot SL, Boomsma JJ, and D.P. Hughes (2012) Disease Dynamics in a Specialized Parasite of Ant Societies. PLoS ONE 7(5): e36352. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036352 (PDF)
Andersen SB and D.P. Hughes (2012) Host specificity of parasite manipulation –zombie ant death location in Thailand vs. Brazil Communicative & Integrative Biology 5:2, 1–3; March/April (PDF)
Harry C. Evans, Simon L. Elliot and David P. Hughes (2011) Ophiocordyceps unilateralis: A keystone species for unraveling ecosystem functioning and biodiversity of fungi in tropical forests? Communicative & Integrative Biology 4:5, 598-602 (Link)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVIS--Bruce Hammock, distinguished professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, has just received notice that the National Institutes of Health has renewed his Research Project Grant (R01) on “Hydrolytic Enzymes in the Metabolism of Toxins” for a five year-period, totaling $2 million.
This amounts to 37 years of continued grant support on inhibitors of the enzyme, soluble epoxide hydrolase, which Hammock discovered can block hypertension and neuropathic pain.
“Our investigation of the soluble epoxide hydrolase enzyme and its fatty acid epoxide substrates led to the discovery that environmental chemicals, personal care products, and pharmaceuticals can alter the enzyme's activity and expression, which in turn affects hypertension, inflammation, pain and other biologies,” Hammock said.
“We are now evaluating inhibitors of the enzyme as powerful probes to understand the mechanism by which this unique class of natural regulatory oxidized-lipids works, and we are finding that these inhibitors show promise in reducing pain, the growth of solid tumors and fibrosis. We found that omega 3 fatty acid epoxides interact positively with these enzyme inhibitors, illustrating that man's total environment, including exposure to chemicals as well as dietary nutrients and life-style, has a major role and should be considered in determining effects on human health.”
Hammock, who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, directs the campuswide Superfund Research Program, National Institutes of Health Biotechnology Training Program, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Combined Analytical Laboratory. He is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, and the recipient of the 2001 UC Davis Faculty Research Lecture Award and the 2008 Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate and Professional Teaching.
Hammock is the newly announced recipient of the biennial Bernard B. Brodie Award in Drug Metabolism, sponsored by American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) and will receive the award when he keynotes the joint annual meeting of ASPET and the Chinese Pharmacological Society, April 26-20, in San Diego. The award recognizes Hammock's outstanding original research contributions to the understanding of human drug metabolism and transport and the continued impact of his research in the area of drug discovery and development.
For some 40 years, Hammock has worked on the mechanism of certain hydrolytic enzymes and their effect on human health. His work has helped identify new targets for the action of drugs and other compounds to improve health and predict risk from various environmental chemicals
Hammock directs a laboratory of more than 40 scientists and students at UC Davis, where they explore the biochemical basis of human and environment interactions and their implications for improving both human and environmental health.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"Unlike common drosophilids that develop in rotten or decaying fruit, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) prefer to oviposit in ripe or ripening fruit," Hamby says in her abstract. "Native to Southeast Asia, D. suzukii has become an important pest of berries and small fruits throughout North America and Europe since its initial detection in Santa Cruz County, Calif. in 2008. The majority of U.S. organic berry farm acreage is concentrated on the west coast, and organic berries are a growing industry that now exceeds 1500 total farms. Current D. suzukii management strategies for both organic and conventional growers rely heavily on insecticide usage because other pest management tactics are still being developed and optimized. Management guidelines established shortly after the emergence of D. suzukii as a serious pest included monitoring recommendations, but these were made with little information on trap design and potential lures for use in raspberries."
Hamby will address her dissertation work on monitoring, yeast associations, chronobiology, chronotoxicity of insecticides and the implications of this work to managing D. suzukii in California commercial berry and small fruit crops. She will be introduced by Zalom, her major professor and president of the 7000-member Entomological Society of America (ESA).
Hamby received her master's degree and bachelor's degree from UC Davis, compiling a near perfect grade point average.
A graduate student researcher since 2009, Hamby serves as a winter quarter co-instructor of the "Arthropod Pest Management" class. She earlier was a lab assistant in the Aquatic Toxicology Lab, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, and the Fish Conservation and Culture Lab, UC Davis Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
Hamby has presented her work at meetings of the ESA, Pacific Branch of the ESA (PBESA) and overseas. The recipient of numerous awards, she was selected for a 2011-14 $130,000 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship; the 2005-2009 UC Regents' Scholarship, a merit-based academic scholarship; the 2011 Lillian and Alex Feir Graduate Student Travel Award in Insect Physiology, Biochemistry, or Molecular Biology, Pacific Branch of ESA (PBESA); and the 2009 UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Mary Regan Meyer Prize, Academic and Service Award for a Graduating Senior.
Hamby also received the 2012 $1000 UC Davis Graduate Student Travel Award to travel to XXIV International Congress of Entomology, Daegu, Republic of Korea to present her research. Her other honors include a 2011-14 $130,000 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and travel grant awards to attend entomological meetings.
Hamby mentored a number of undergraduates, including Helen T. Nguyen (2013), Mitchell J. Bamford (2013), Daren W. Harris (2012-2013), Daniel C. Fok (2011-2013), Doris Yu (2011-2012), Stacy A. Hamby (2011), Yelizaveta Luchkovska (2011), Heather E. Wilson (2010-2012), Samuel J. Fahrner (2010-2011).
Her publications include:
Scheidler, N., Siddappaji, M., Hamby, K.A., Chiu, J.C., Zalom, F.G., and Syed, Z. In prep.What makes one Drosophila species a pest: Molecular and neural correlates for host odor recoginition? PLoS Biology
Harris, D.W., Wilson, H.E., Zalom, F.G., and Hamby, K.A.* Submitted. Seasonal trapping of Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in a multi-crop setting. Journal of Applied Entomology
Hamby, K.A., Bolda, M.P., Sheehan, M.E., and Zalom, F.G. Accepted with Revision. Seasonal occurrence, lure comparison, and trapping bias of Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in California commercial raspberries. Environmental Entomology
Lee, J.C., Shearer, P.W. Barrantes, L.D., Beers, E.H., Burrack, H.J., Dalton, D.T., Dreves, A.J., Gut, L.J., Hamby, K.A., Haviland, D.R., Isaacs, R., Nielsen, A.L., Richardson, T., Rodriguez-Saona, C.R., Stanley, C.A., Walsh, D.B., Walton, V.M., Yee, W.L., Zalom, F.G., and Bruck, D.J. 2013. Trap designs for monitoring Drosophila suzukii (Diptera:Drosophilidae). Environmental Entomology 42(6): 000-000 DOI: 10.1603/EN13148
Chiu, J.C., Jiang, X., Zhao, L., Hamm, C.A., Cridland, J.M., Saelao, P., Hamby, K.A., Lee, E.K., Kwok, R.S., Zhang, G., Zalom, F.G., Walton, V.M., and Begun, D.J. 2013. Genome of Drosophila suzukii, the spotted wing drosophila. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics DOI: 10.1534/g3.113.008185
Yu, D., Zalom, F.G. and Hamby, K.A. 2013. Host status and fruit odor response of Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) to figs and mulberries. Journal of Economic Entomology 106(4): 1932-1937.
Hamby, K.A., Kwok, R.S., Zalom, F.G., and Chiu, J.C. 2013. Integrating circadian activity and gene expression profiles to predict chronotoxicity of Drosophila suzukii response to insecticides. PLoS ONE 8(7): e68472. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068472.
Hamby, K.A., and Zalom, F.G. 2013. Relationship of almond kernel damage occurrence to navel orangeworm (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) success. Journal of Economic Entomology 106(3):1365-1372.
Hamby, K.A., Alifano, J.A., and Zalom, F.G. 2013.Total effects of contact and residual exposure of bifenthrin and λ-cyhalothrin on the predatory mite Galendromus occidentalis (Acari: Phytoseiidae). Experimental and Applied Acarology 61: 183-193. DOI: 10.1007/s10493-013-9680-z
Wilson, H.E., Hamby, K.A.,* and Zalom, F.G. 2013. Host susceptibility of ‘French Prune' Prunus domestica to Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae). Acta Horticulturae (ISHS) 985:249-254.
Lee, J.C., Burrack, H.J., Barrantes, L.D., Beers, E.H., Dreves, A.J., Hamby, K.A., Haviland, D.R., Isaacs, R., Richardson, T.A., Shearer, P.W., Stanley, C.A., Walsh, D.B., Walton, V.M., Zalom, F.G., and Bruck, D.J. 2012. Evaluation of monitoring traps for Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in North America. Journal of Economic Entomology 105(4): 1350-1357.
Hamby, K.A., Hernández, A., Boundy-Mills, K., and Zalom, F.G. 2012.Yeast associations of spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii, Diptera: Drosophilidae) in cherries and raspberries. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 78(14): 4869-4873. Journal cover article.
Hamby, K., Gao, L.W., Lampinen, B., Gradziel, T., Zalom, F. 2011. Hullsplit date and shell seal relationship to navel orangeworm (Amyelois transitella, Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) infestation on almonds. Journal of Economic Entomology 104(3): 965-969.
For the list of the remaining noonhour seminars, see this page.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Registration is under way at on the CCHU website.
CCHU program manager Anne Schellman says that this will be an informative workshop where participants will learn:
- How to identify common bee pollinators
- How to make a landscape pollinator-friendly
- Which plants pollinators prefer
- The latest research about honey bee health and pollinator habitat
- How UC Davis helps honey bees at the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Garden
The agenda:
Pollinator Gardening Workshop Agenda
7:30
Check-in
Please pick up materials and enjoy coffee and a light breakfast
7:50
Welcome
Dave Fujino, director of the California Center for Urban Horticulture, UC Davis
Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, UC Davis
8 to 8:40
The Buzz about Bees: Attracting and Observing Bees in Your Garden
Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor, Department of Entomology and Nematology, UC Davis
8:40-9:20
Habitat Enhancements to Support Bees: Agriculture to Urban Research
Pollination ecologist Neal Williams, associate professor, Department of Entomology and Nematology, UC Davis
9:20-10
Honey Bee Health: Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, Department of Entomology and Nematology, UC Davis
10 10:20
Break
10:20-11
Plants for Pollinators: Ellen Zagory, director of horticulture, UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, UC Davis
11-11:30
Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven Garden Update: What's New in the Garden?
Christine Casey, manager of Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, Department of Entomology and Nematology, UC Davis
11:30 Pick up box lunch
11:30-2
Open house at Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, Bee Biology Road
Questions and answers with Robbin Thorp and Christine Casey
1 to-2
Special Plant Sale for Pollinator Workshop attendees
Arboretum Teaching Nursery, Garrod Drive
See website for registration and more information.
