- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Bohart Museum of Entomology, home of nearly eight million specimens, will “go live” at its first open house of the 2013-14 academic year on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 21.
“Live,” that is, with live insects, such as cabbage white and Gulf Fritillary butterflies, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, a rose-haired tarantula and a “Harry Potter bug,” which is an amblypygid commonly known as a whip spider or tailless whip scorpion.
Another attraction is a jumping spider, which arrived at the insect museum on a rose bouquet, and has become a permanent resident, Heydon said.
The open house, set from 1 to 4 p.m., is free and open to the public. The museum, affiliated with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is located in Room 1124 of Academic Surge on Crocker Lane, formerly California Drive. The nearest intersection is LaRue Road.
The gift shop, open year around (products are also sold online), includes two new T-shirts, both the work of designer/Ph.D. student Fran Keller and Davis naturalist/Bohart volunteer Greg Kareofelas. In a touch of humor, the female pondhawk has snatched the Bohart logo and taken a bite.
The second T-shirt depicts the California state insect, the California dogface butterfly. The gift shop also includes other clothing, posters, books, jewelry and insect nets. Purchases and donations support the Bohart education outreach programs. Museum staff educate more than 10,000 students about insects each year thanks to the public generosity.
The Sept. 21 open house is one of eight weekend open houses during the 2013-2014 academic year. Other themes include “Beauty and Beetles,” “Snuggle Bugs” and “Arachnids: Awesome or Awful?”
All will be held from 1 to 4 p.m., with two exceptions. The open house on Saturday, Feb. 8 during UC Davis Biodiversity Day will be from noon to 4 p.m. On the campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day, Saturday, April 12, the hours at the Bohart Museum are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Bohart’s regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. It is closed to the public on Fridays and on major holidays. Admission is free.
The complete schedule of open houses:
Saturday, Sept. 21
Theme: "Live from the Bohart!"
Hours: 1 to 4 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 23
Theme: "Beauty and Beetles"
Hours: 1 to 4 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 12
Theme: "Snuggle Bugs"
Hours: 1 to 4 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 8
Theme: "Biodiversity Museum Day"
Hours: Noon to 4 p.m.
This event will be held in conjunction with the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Herbarium, Botanical Conservatory, Anthropology Collection and Geology and will take place at each of those locations. (All are free and open to the public.)
Sunday, March 2
Theme: "Garden Heroes!"
Hours: 1 to 4 p.m.
Saturday, April 12:
Theme: “UC Davis Picnic Day: 100 Years”
Hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Sunday, May 4
Theme: "Moth-er's Day"
Hours: 1 to 4 p.m.
Saturday, July 26
Theme: "Arachnids: Awesome or Awful?"
Hours: 1 to 4 p.m.
Those who would like to join the Bohart Museum Society, a campus and community support organization dedicated to supporting the mission of the museum, can do so by accessing this page.
“You can help support the museum and its educational programs by becoming a member,” Kimsey said. “The Bohart Museum and the Bohart Museum Society are dedicated to teaching, research and public service. Our current growth is financed by memberships and contributions.” Membership and donations directly support the following programs and activities:
Visiting Scientist Program
Each year, two or three short-term fellowships are awarded to systematists to come and study the museum collections.
High School Student Internships
The Society funds summer internships for high school students to learn about insects, curation, collecting and other aspects of entomology.
Associates Program
This program is designed to give special recognition to society members who donate their time and expertise to improving the museum's collections, or through collecting activities.
Benefits of Membership include a subscription to the Bohart Museum Society quarterly newsletter; invitation to “members only” special events and programs, including the Halloween open house; select member discounts on gift shop merchandise; access to the collections, and free information and identification services from staff; and the use of the museum library of entomological books and periodicals.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The T32 Retreat, for Training in Vector Biology, will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 1105 of the Veterinary Medicine Research Facility 3B, located at 1089 Veterinary Medicine Drive.
Peter Billingsley of Sanaria, Inc., a biotechnology company dedicated to the production of a vaccine protective against malaria caused by the pathogen Plasmodium falciparum, will be the keynote speaker, addressing the crowd from 10:45 to 11:45 a.m.
Also scheduled to give a keynote presentation was B. Joseph Hinnebusch of the National Institute of Health’s Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, but due to the government shutdown, his presentation is cancelled. Filling in for him from 1 to 2 p.m. will be professor Greg Lanzaro of the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, director of the T32 training grant, and associate director Shirley Luckhart, professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine.
This year's event is sponsored by the School of Veterinary Medicine, School of Medicine, and a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Training Grant in Vector Biology at UC Davis, directed by two UC Davis malaria researchers.
There is no cost for the retreat, but reservations must be made by Oct. 5 with researcher Yoosook Lee at yoosook.lee@gmail.com.
The schedule, as of Friday, Oct. 4:
8:30 to 9:30 a.m.: Coffee
9 to 9:10 a.m.: Welcome by Greg Lanzaro, director of T32 Grant
Vector Biology Research at UC Davis
9:10 to 9:25: Research at the School of Medicine, speaker Shirley Luckhart, associate director of T32 grant
9:25 to 9:40 a.m.: Research at the Center for Vectorborne Diseases (CVEC), speaker CVEC director and research entomologist William Reisen
9:40 to 9:55 a.m.: Research at the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, speaker entomologist Anthony Cornel
9:55 to 10:10 a.m.: Research at the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, speaker entomologist Gregory Lanzaro
10:10 to 10:20: Remarks by Dori Borjesson, chair of UC Davis Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine
10:20 to 10:45: Coffee break
Keynote Presentation 1
10:45 to 11:45: Peter Billingsley of Sanaria, Inc.
Lunch
Keynote Presentation 2
1 to 2 p.m.: Professor Greg Lanzaro of the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, director of the T32 training grant, and associate director Shirley Luckhart, professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine. (Due to the government shutdown, the initially scheduled presentation by B. Joseph Hinnebusch of the National Institute of Health’s Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is cancelled.)
Trainee Presentations
2 to 2:15 p.m.: Laura Norris (studies with Anthony Cornel): "Speciation Island Introgression between Anopheles gambiae forms driven by Insecticide Pressure."
2:15 to 2:30: Bradley Main (studies with Greg Lanzaro): "Ecological Genomics Among Anopheles gambiae Populations in Mali"
2:30 to 2:45 p.m.: Rebecca Ann Elsner (studies with Nicole Baumgarth): "Suppression of B Cell Responses to the Lyme disease agent Borrella burgdoreci"
3:10 to 3:25 p.m. Lattha Souvannaseng (studies with Shirley Luckhart): "Ubiquity of Population-Specific Mutations in the Immune Signaling Genes Among Chromosomal Forms of Anopheles gambiae"
3:25 to 3:40: Elizabeth Glennon (studies with Shirley Luckhart): "The Role of Abscisic Acid in the Mosquito Immune Response to Plasmodium falciparum"
3:40: Closing Remarks, Greg Lanzaro
For more information on the training grant or research, contact Lanzaro at gclanzaro@ucdavis.edu or Luckhart at sluckhart@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The event, set Sept. 4-7 in St. Helena, Winters and Davis, is themed “Flavor, Quality and American Menus.” Both Williams and Harris will speak Thursday morning on the CIA campus at the session on “The Role of Bees in American Agriculture: From Hive Health and Honey to Sustainable Pollination.”
In his talk, Williams will cover the role of bees and pollination services in sustainable food supply, new findings about how pollination can affect fruit quality, the synergies of pollination by wild bee/honey-bee threats to bees “and what we are doing to mitigate these.”
Williams' research on pollination spans the disciplines of conservation biology, behavioral ecology and evolution. One of his primary research foci is on sustainable pollination strategies for agriculture. This work is critical given ongoing pressures facing managed honey bees and reported declines in important native pollinators such as bumble bees.
Harris has been active in the varietal honey business for more than 30 years as co-owner of Z Specialty Foods, LLC. She will discuss the establishment of the newly formed Honey and Pollination Center and will present a slide show on the goals and programs of the Center and information about honey use and consumption in the United States. The center is affiliated with the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The four-day workshop, geared for chefs and future chefs, by invitation only, begins Wednesday, Sept. 4 at the CIA building. Opening remarks will be delivered by Michael McCarthy, chair of the UC Davis Food Science and Technology Department, and Clare Hasler-Lewis of the Robert Mondavi Institute.
Among the featured speakers are Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of food and Agriculture, and Craig McNamara, president of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture and owner of Sierra Orchards. Both will address the conference on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 5.
On Friday, the group will head to Winters and UC Davis. In Winters, they will tour the Wolfskill Experimental Orchards, the Farm on Putah Creek, and the Center for Land-Based Learning, all on Putah Creek Road.
Friday’s session at UC Davis includes a tour of the RMI brewing, milk, and food processing, and winery facilities; and a sensory experience in the RMI’a Silverado Sensory Theater
Saturday’s session takes place in St. Helena on the CIA campus.
Contact:
Amy Myrdal Miller, MS, RDN, senior director of Programs and Culinary Nutrition, Strategic Initiatives, Culinary Institute of America at Greystone.
Email: a_myrdal@culinary.edu
Website: www.ciaprochef.com
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The garden, planted in the fall of 2009, is located on Bee Biology Road, next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility.
Kimsey was singled out for her work when the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America honored her and four others--"The Bee Team"--with the 2013 outstanding team award.
A Sausalito team--landscape architects Donald Sibbett and Ann F. Baker, interpretative planner Jessica Brainard and exhibit designer Chika Kurotaki--won the design competition.
The judges were Professor Kimsey; founding garden manager Missy Borel (now Missy Borel Gable), then of the Califoria Center for Urban Horticulture; David Fujino, executive director, California Center for Urban Horticulture at UC Davis; Aaron Majors, construction department manager, Cagwin & Dorward Landscape Contractors, based in Novato; Diane McIntyre, senior public relations manager, Häagen-Dazs ice cream; Heath Schenker, professor of environmental design, UC Davis; Jacob Voit, sustainability manager and construction project manager, Cagwin and Dorward Landscape Contractors; and Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist, UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Others who had a key role in the founding and "look" of the garden included the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, founded and directed by the duo of entomologist/artist Diane Ullman, professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, and self-described "rock artist" Donna Billick. The art in the garden is the work of their students, ranging from those in Entomology 1 class to community residents. Eagle Scout Derek Tully planned, organized and built a state-of-the-art fence around the garden.
The timeline:
Feb. 19, 2008
Häagen-Dazs Donation to UC Davis
Dec. 8, 2008
Häagen-Dazs Launches Bee Garden Design Contest
Aug. 6, 2008
Insect Virus Researcher Michelle Flenniken Named Häagen-Dazs Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Davis
Feb. 26, 2009
Sausalito Team Wins Design Competition
Aug. 6, 2009
Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven Site Preparation
Aug. 13, 2009
Bee Biology Website to Be Launched
Aug. 13, 2009
Thinking Outside the Box
Sept. 15, 2009
Campus Buzzway: Wildflowers
Dec. 15, 2009
Bee Biology Website Lauded
2010
June 6, 2010
Grand Opening Celebration of Honey Bee Garden
July 15, 2010
Art Is Where the Community Is; Blending Science with Art in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
July 30, 2010
More Than 50 Bee Species Found in Haven: Robbin Thorp (Now there's more than 80 and counting!)
Aug. 25, 2010
Donna Billick: Miss Bee Haven
Aug. 11, 2011
What the Signs Tell Us in the UC Davis Honey Bee Garden
Aug. 24, 2011
Royal Visit to Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility
April 11, 2012
Brian Fishback: Spreading the Word about Honey Bees
Aug. 26, 2013
Eagle Scout Project: Fence Around the Bee Garden
Sept. 11 2012
A Fence to Behold
2013
April 25, 2013
UC Davis Bee Team Wins Major Award
Aug. 1, 2013
Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven Place to Be
With photo of founding volunteers
Biographies
Eric Mussen
Retired Extension apiculturist, who continues his work
Robbin Thorp
Native pollinator specialist and emeritus professor of entomology who monitors the bees in the haven
Donors
List of Donors (2009 through July 2014)
For more information on the garden or to donate, see the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven website.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Agrawal, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell with a joint appointment in the Department of Entomology, will deliver the Founders’ Memorial Award lecture at the ESA’s 61st annual meeting set Nov. 10-13 in Austin, Texas.
The recipient of this annual award addresses the conferees to honor the memory and career of an outstanding entomologist. Agrawal has selected Dame Miriam Rothschild (1908-2005), best known for her work with mimicry, and a pioneer in the area of insect chemical ecology.
Agrawal researches plant-insect interactions, including aspects of herbivory, community ecology, phenotypic plasticity, chemical ecology and coevolution. Research projects include work on local biodiversity, ecology of invasive plants, the biology of Monarch butterflies, and the evolution of plant defense strategies.
From the ESA site:
"Dr. Agrawal’s research accomplishments cover the key areas of arthropod community genetics, real-time evolution of plant defense against insects, phylogenetic ecology, plant neighborhood-insect interactions, and insect colonization and induced defense. Over the course of his career to date, he has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in high-profile journals such as PNAS, Science, and Nature, and he has edited two key books on insect ecology."
"In the relatively new area of arthropod community genetics, he has addressed natural selection on milkweed defensive traits and how plant genetic variation in these traits influences insect community structure and coexistence. In the area of real time evolution of plant defenses against insects, he has shown that the suppression of insect damage causes the evolution of decreased plant resistance and increased competitive ability. His work in the area of phylogenetic ecology uses a comparative biology approach to address problems ranging from the controls on the success of invasive species to phylogenetic signatures of coevolution. And in the area of plant neighborhood-insect interactions, his ongoing research seeks to partition the relative importance of direct, associational, and trait-mediated effects of competing plants on milkweed and its insect fauna."
Rothschild, a British natural scientist and a leading authority on fleas. authored a book on parasitism, Fleas, Flukes and Cuckoos. Her father was entomologist Charles Rothschild, whose collection of fleas is in the Rothschild Collection at the British Museum.
"She is best known for her work with mimicry, and she conducted classic studies on the role of carotenoids in insect mimicry," according to information posted on the ESA website. "In addition to her work cataloging the famous Rothschild flea collection, Dame Rothschild was also a pioneer in the area of insect chemical ecology. Her work in particular on mimicry and sequestration of toxic compounds by insects was outstanding. Nature conservation was extremely important to her, and she lobbied strongly in favor of nature reserves."
Agrawal was at UC Davis in January of 2012 to deliver a seminar on "Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Defenses." His abstract: "In order to address coevolutionary interactions between milkweeds and their root feeding four-eyed beetles, I will present data on reciprocity, fitness tradeoffs, specialization and the genetics of adaptation. In addition to wonderful natural history, this work sheds light on long-standing theory about how antagonistic interactions proceed in ecological and evolutionary time."
Nearly 3,000 entomologists are expected to attend Entomology 2013. ESA, which has some 6500 members, is the world's largest organization serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. It was founded in 1889.
