March 27, 2013
Nadler, the principal investigator of the UC Davis-based project, and co-principal investigator James Baldwin of the UC Riverside Department of Nematology, received the $646,300 grant through the ARTS Program (Advancing Revisionary Taxonomy and Systematics) of the NSF’s Division of Environmental Biology.
The title of the project, to be funded beginning June 1, is “ARTS: Overcoming the Nematode Taxonomic Impediment through Integration of Novel Tools for Species Discovery and Phylogeny: Cephaloboidea as a Case-Study.” The primary study site is the Philip L. Boyd Deep Canyon Reserve Research Center, Palm Desert, a UC Reserve.
“Human existence depends on soil, soil organisms and their processes; these are basic to sustaining environmental systems, agriculture and human well-being,” Nadler said. “Microscopic nematodes are a key component to soil systems; they are unmatched in species diversity, often with thousands of individuals in a handful of soil. Surprisingly, most nematode species remain hidden to science, that is, undiscovered and unnamed; their species-specific environmental roles are generally not understood at a level useful to define, understand and sustain healthy ecosystems.”
“This project develops new DNA/microscopy technology to implement novel, efficient, cost-saving approaches to nematode species discovery and description, including evolutionary and ecological relationships,” Nadler said. “A California desert is the experimental site for developing these tools, but the application/benefits are global.”
More than 28,000 species of nematodes, or roundworms, of the estimated 1 million species throughout the world, have been described.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
March 20, 2013
His seminar, the first of the department's spring seminars, is from 12:05 to 1 p.m. It will be recorded and available later on UCTV.
"Despite aggressive and costly efforts by government agencies to prevent their introduction, establishment and spread, California has experienced an inexorable march of tropical fruit flies (Tephritidae) into the state with three-fold more species detected and thousands more flies captured than in all other mainland U.S. states combined," Carey says.
"Since 1954 when the first fly was detected a total of 17 species in 4 genera and 11,386 individuals (adults/larvae) have been detected at over 3,348 locations in 330 cities. My colleagues and I conclude from spatial mapping analyses of historical capture patterns and modeling that, despite the approximately 250 emergency eradication projects that have been directed against these pests by state and federal agencies, a minimum of 5 and as many as 9 or more tephritids are established and widespread. This list includes three of the most economically-important species in the world—the Mediterranean, Mexican and oriental fruit flies."
Carey, professor and the former vice chair of the Department of Entomology, focuses his research on insect demography, mortality dynamics, and insect invasion biology. He received his bachelor and master of science degrees from Iowa State University (1973; 1975) and his doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley (1980).
He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Gerontological Society of America, the California Academy of Science, and the Entomological Society of America. Carey served on the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Medfly Scientific Advisory Panel from 1987-1994, testified to the California Legislature "Committee of the Whole" in 1990 on the Medfly Crisis in California, and authored the paper "Establishment of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly in California" (1992, Science 258, 457).
Coordinating the spring quarter-seminars are assistant professors Joanna Chiu and Brian Johnson. All seminars will take place on Wednesday from 12:05 to 1 p.m. in Room 1022 of Life Sciences Addition except for the Storer Lecture (see below)
The list of speakers:
April 3
James R. Carey
Professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology
Title: "From Trickle to Flood: The Large-scale, Cryptic Invasion of California by Tropical Fruit Flies"
April 10
Claudio Gratton
Associate professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Title: "Sustainable Bioenergy Landscapes: Can We Balance Our Need for Production and Diodiversity?"
Host: Katharina Ullman of Neal Williams lab
April 17
Bradley White
Assistant professor, UC Riverside
Title: "Ecological Genomics of Malaria Mosquitoes"
Host: Greg Lanzaro
April 24
David Goulson
Professor, University of Stirling, U.K.
Title: "The Ecology and Conservation of Bumble Bees"
Host: Neal Williams
May 1
Jeffrey Aldrich
Associate Entomologist, UC Davis
Title: The North American Invasion of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha hales(Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) and Its Semiochemistry"
Host: Kelly Hamby
May 8
Brittany Nelms (Exit seminar)
Doctoral candidate, UC Davis
Title: "Overwintering Biology of Culex Mosquitoes in California and Their Potential Role as Overwintering Reservoirs of West Nile Virus"
Host: William Reisen
May 22
Sanford Eigenbrode
Professor, University of Idaho
Title: Variable Climates and Insects Affecting PNW Cereal Cropping Systems
Host: Michael Parrella
May 29
Fran Keller (exit seminar)
Doctoral candidate, UC Davis
Title: "Taxonomy of Stenomorpha Solier, 1836 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Asidini"
Host: Lynn Kimsey
STORER ENDOWMENT IN LIFE SCIENCES
June 5
Nancy Moran
Professor, Yale University
Title: TBA
Time: 4:10 p.m.
Site: Genome Center Lecture Hall
Host: Leslie Saul-Gershanz
Reception to follow in Gunrock
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
March 19, 2013
KQED also posted a video on You Tube.
Kimsey, who advises the undergraduate Entomology Club, traveled to Alcatraz with club members in February of 2012 for a rat population count. Bait laced with fluorescent, non-toxic dye enabled the crew to search for rat feces.
Nguyen noticed that not only did the rat feces glow under the black lights but so did millipedes. He showed the glowing millipedes to Kimsey.
Had they consumed some of the rat bait? No. An experiment at the Bohart Museum of Entomology on the UC Davis campus showed that these millipedes (Xystocheir dissecta (Wood) glow under black lights, just like scorpions.
Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology, suspects that the millipedes on Alcatraz Island originated from soil transported over from the nearby Angel Island when “The Rock” was just that—rock with little or no soil.
The species is a relatively abundant species in the Bay Area. “This particular species of millipedes glowed all along, but “nobody was paying any attention to it,” she said.
The former maximum-security federal penitentiary once housed some of the country's most notorious inmates including Al “Scarface” Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, Robert “The Birdman of Alcatraz” Stroud or Arthur “Doc” Barker.
Related Link:
The Fly Man of Alcatraz
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
March 19, 2013
Her work is titled "Experimental and Natural Vertical Transmission of West Nile Virus by California Culex (Diptera: Culicidae) Mosquitoes.”
Nelms, who studied with major professor William Reisen, is now an entomologist with the Lake County Mosquito and Vector Control District.
Co-authors of the paper include Reisen; Ethan Fechter-Leggett; Brian Carroll; Paula Macedo; and Susanne Kluh.
In the abstract, Nelms says that the Culex mosquitoes, which transmit West Nile, are the primary summer vectors of the virus but they also may serve as overwintering reservoir hosts.
The Entomological Society of America wrote in a press release: “In California, Culex mosquitoes are considered to be the principal vectors of West Nile virus (WNV), which infects birds, humans, and other mammals during the summer. In addition, these mosquitoes may also serve as overwintering reservoir hosts as the virus is passed 'vertically' from female mosquito to egg, then larva, and then adult."
“To find out how often this happens, California researchers monitored WNV in mosquitoes in the field and in the lab, and observed how the virus is transmitted between generations and between insect stages.”
Nelms, a 2011 recipient of the William Hazeltine Memorial Research Fellowship Awards, will be back at UC Davis on May 8 to give her exit seminar, "Overwintering Biology of Culex Mosquitoes in California and Their Potential Role as Overwintering Reservoirs of West Nile Virus." Her seminar is from 12:05 to 1 p.m. in Room 1022 of the Life Sciences Addition. Reisen is the host.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
March 19, 2013
Emmett Brady, founder of the Insect News Network, KDRT 95.7 FM, and host of the “Wednesday Science Doubleplay,” said he will dedicate the entire hour from from 5 to 6 p.m. to discussing Ullman’s unique and inspiring career.
"We will explore Ullman’s innovation in academics and education: from her pioneering efforts in the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program to her specialty: thrips."
The Art/Science Fusion Program, founded and directed by Ullman and her colleague, self-described "rock artist" Donna Billick, connects art to science, and science to art.
Brady said he will examine the emergence of cultural entomology as a key discipline of the 21st Century and “how careers in science are being re-defined as scientific technology continues to res-shape the modern world.”
For the first hour (4 to 5 p.m.) of the “Wednesday Science Doubleplay” show, Brady will explore “the world of insects, beyond the creepy and the crawly to the fun, the fascinating, the profound and even the sublime.”
Ullman, along with a team of eight other investigators from six institutions, recently received a five-year, $3.75 million grant from the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, to develop and implement a national scientific and educational network to limit thrips-caused crop losses.
“Our project will build expertise through education and create tools and strategies that complement existing methods to limit crop losses due to thrips-transmitted tospoviruses,” Ullman said.
Related link:
Listen to Diane Ullman's Tedx Talk
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
