Feb. 20, 2013
They previously filed a petition to save Franklin's bumble bee, a bumble bee known to inhabit a small area of southern Oregon and northern California. Thorp has been monitoring Franklin's bumble bee (Bombus franklini) since 1998 but hasn't seen it since August 2006 when he detected one at Mt. Ashland.
In a recent press release, the Xerces Society related that the rusty-patched bumble bee, (Bombus affinis), "has disappeared from 87 percent of its historic range (which once included 25 states). Where it is still found, this bee is much less abundant than it was in the past."
“The charismatic and once common rusty patched bumble bee has suffered severe and widespread declines throughout its range in the eastern U.S. since 1997," Thorp said. "The few scattered recent sightings thanks to intensive searches are encouraging, but the species is in critical need of federal protection.”
Researchers at the University of Illinois recently found "higher levels of a fungal pathogen and lower levels of genetic diversity," wrote Sarina Jepsen, the Xerces Society's endangered species program director, in a press release. "Notably, the rusty-patched bumble bee was too scarce in the landscape to be included in these analyses."
"The leading hypothesis suggests that this fungal pathogen was introduced from Europe by the commercial bumble bee industry in the early 1990s, and then spread to wild pollinators," Jepson noted. "Although it has not been proven, the hypothesis is supported by the timing, speed and severity of the decline—a crash in laboratory populations of bumble bees occurred shortly before researchers noticed a number of species of formerly common bumble bees disappearing from the wild."
The Xerces Society, an international organization founded in 1971 and headquartered in Portland, Ore., is a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat and is at the forefront of invertebrate protection worldwide, harnessing the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programs.
Related links:
Rusty-patched bumble bee, Xerces Society website
Declining bumble bee population, UC Davis Entomology website
Franklin's bumble bee, UC Davis Entomology website
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Feb. 14, 2013
Mills is a professor of insect population ecology in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley and a curator at the Essig Museum of Entomology.
"There have been many accidental introductions of phytophagous insect pests into new geographic regions and in the absence of biotic resistance from entomophagous insects some have become invasive and notorious as pests of natural and managed ecosystems," Mills says. "In contrast, there are very few examples of biotic resistance to insect invasions by entomophagous insects. Since its discovery in California in 2006, the light brown apple moth has accumulated a rich set of resident parasitoid species comparable to that seen in its native Australia. However, in contrast to the low levels of parasitism that invasive hosts typically experience from resident parasitoids, parasitism levels for light brown apple moth are very high."
Mills will discuss the importance of resident parasitoids as barriers to the invasions of light brown apple moth (Epiphyas postvittana) in California. In 2009 he was appointed a member of Light Brown Apple Moth Review Committee, National Research Council of the National Academies. His research interests include invasive species, biological control, and ecology of natural enemies.
Native to Australia, LBAM has been found in a dozen counties since retired UC Berkeley entomologist Jerry Powell, a moth taxonomist, first detected the pest in his Berkeley backyard on July 19, 2006.
As a caterpillar, the moth eats just about everything from A to Z: apple, apricot, beans, caneberries (blackberry, blueberry, boysenberry, raspberry), cabbage, camellia, chrysanthemum, citrus, clover, cole crops, eucalyptus, jasmine, kiwifruit, peach, pear, persimmon, plantain, pumpkin, strawberry, tomato, rose and zea mays (corn).
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Feb. 13, 2013
If you're not closely related, communication won't be as effective.
Newly published research in today's Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences shows that kin have distinct advantages when it comes to plant communication, just as “the ability of many animals to recognize kin has allowed them to evolve diverse cooperative behaviors,” says lead researcher and ecologist Richard Karban, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
For example, fire ants can recognize kin. “Ants will destroy queens that are not relatives but protect those who are,” Karban said.
That ability is less well studied for plants, until now.
“When sagebrush plants are damaged by their herbivores, they emit volatiles that cause their neighbors to adjust their defenses,” Karban said. “These adjustments reduce rates of damage and increase growth and survival of the neighbors.”
The research, “Kin Recognition Affects Plant Communication and Defense,” is co-authored by two scientists from Japan and two from UC Davis: Kaori Shiojiri of the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, Kyoto University, and Satomi Ishizaki of the Graduate School of Science and Technology, Niigata University; and William Wetzel of the UC Davis Center for Population Biology, and Richard Evans of the UC Davis Department of Plant Science.
To simulate predator damage, the researchers “wounded” the plants by clipping them and then studied the responses to the volatile cues. They found that the plants that received cues from experimentally clipped close relatives experienced less leaf damage over the growing season that those that received cues from clipped neighbors that were more distantly related.
“More effective defense adds to a growing list of favorable consequences of kin recognition for plants,” they wrote.
The researchers performed their field work on sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) at Taylor Meadow, UC Sagehen Creek Field Station, near Truckee. They conducted four field experiments over three years “that compared the proportion of leaves that were damaged by herbivores over the growing season when plants were provided with volatile cues clipped from a close relative versus cues from a distant relative,” the scientists wrote.
For closely related kin, they snipped stem cuttings (clones), potted them, and then returned the pots to the field. They determined relatedness “by using microsatellites that varied among individual sagebrush clones.”
The result: “Plants responded more effectively to volatile cues from close relatives than from distant relatives in all four experiments and communication reduced levels of leaf damage experienced over the three growing seasons,” they wrote. “This result was unlikely to be caused by volatiles repelling or poisoning insect herbivores.”
Karban, who has studied plant communication among the sagebrush at the site since 1999, likened the plant communication to neighbors “eavesdropping.” They “hear” the volatile cues of their neighbors as predators damage them.
Plants do communicate, Karban said. A basic form of plant communication occurs when it is being shaded and it responds by moving away.
“Some definitions of communication require that both the sender and receiver benefit by engaging in the behavior,” the researchers wrote. “Sagebrush is a long-lived perennial, making estimates of the costs and benefits of communication difficult although plants that responded to volatile cues from damaged neighbors experienced greater survival at the seedling stage and greater production of new branches and inflorescences over 12 years.”
Karban said that the volatiles released by “experimentally damaged plants are highly variable among individuals.”
“In the future we plan to examine this chemical variability to determine which chemicals are active as signals and why they exhibit so much variability,” Karban said. “Ultimately, we would like to be able to understand the chemical nature of the volatile cues, how plants use them to communicate, and whether as agriculturalists, we can control host plant resistance to herbivores.”
The work was supported by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Related Link
Rick Karban's Lab Research
Feb. 13, 2013
Godfrey will open the all-day session by speaking on "Egyptian Alfalfa Weevil Management" at 8:30 a.m. He will co-lead two sessions in the afternoon with Vonny Barlow on "Insect Identification and Diagnosis."
The conference is geared for pest control advisors, IPM professionals, alfalfa producers and managers and Extension professionals. The focus is on the wide diversity of pest organisms. Experts from California and Arizona will speak. California has more than a million acres of alfalfa in production.
The schedule:
7:30 a.m. Registration
8:15 Welcoming Remarks-Dr. Pete Goodell and Dr. Vonny Barlow
8:30 Egyptian Alfalfa Weevil Management-Dr. Larry Godfrey, UC Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at UC Davis
9:00 Leafhopper Management in Alfalfa-Dr. Vonny M. Barlow, UC Cooperative Extension Advisor in Riverside County, entomology
9:30 Economically Important Plant Pathogens in Alfalfa-Dr. Mike Matheron, Extension Plant Pathologist and Research Scientist, University of Arizona, Department of Plant Sciences
10:00 Nematodes Affecting Alfalfa-Dr. Antoon Ploeg, UC Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Nematology at UC Riverside
10:30 Break (Sponsored)
10:45 Laws and Regulatory Issues Related to Alfalfa Production-Dr. Brian Bret, Regulatory Manager, Dow AgroSciences LLC
11:30 Managing Rodents in Southern California Alfalfa Fields-Mr. Andre Biscaro, UC Cooperative Extension Advisor in Los Angeles County, agriculture and environmental issues
11:45 Weed Control Issues in Desert Areas of Southern California-Mr. Tim Hays, Pest Control Advisor, Wilbur Ellis Co.
12:00 p.m. Lunch (Sponsored)
1:00 Importance of Alfalfa Variety Selection and Stand Establishment to an IPM Program-Dr. Dan Putnam, UC Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, alfalfa and forage
1:30 Bringing it All Together: Year Round IPM Program in Alfalfa-Dr. Pete Goodell, UC Cooperative Extension Advisor at UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Statewide IPM Program
Afternoon sessions
Insect Identification and Diagnostics: Larry Godfrey, Vonny Barlow
Alfalfa Field Diagnostics: Tim Hays and Dan Putnam
4:00 Discussion
4:15 Adjourn
Registration is $80 (until Feb. 21). On-site registration is $100. See details.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Feb. 12, 2013
“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,” said Ullman, associate dean for undergraduate academic programs for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and professor of entomology and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Thrips are tiny insects that pierce and suck fluids from hundreds of species of plants, including tomatoes, grapes, strawberries and soybeans. The pests cause billions of dollars in damage to U.S. agricultural crops as direct pests and in transmitting plant viruses in the genus Tospovirus, such as Tomato spotted wilt virus. “There are 23 additional approved and emerging tospovirus genotypes transmitted by at least 14 thrips species (Thysanoptera: Thripidae),” said Ullman, who has been researching thrips and tospoviruses since 1987.
Ullman, principal investigator (PI) of the grant, credited the Interdisciplinary Research Support group led by Sheryl Soucy-Lubell in the UC Davis Office of Research, with assistance in developing the multi-institutional grant.
Other co-PIs involved in the five-year project are Scott Adkins of the USDA-ARS U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory, Ft. Pierce, Fla.; Robert Kemerait of the University of Georgia; Tifton, Ga., George Kennedy of North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.; Martha Mutschler of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.; Naidu Rayapati of Washington State University, Pullman, Wash.; and Dorith Rotenberg and Anna Whitfield of Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kans.
“Each investigator brings a unique set of skills to the project,” Ullman said. Adkins and Rayapati will focus on virus ecology, vectors and epidemiology; Kennedy, host plant resistance, virus ecology, epidemiology, extension and outreach; Kemerait, extension and outreach; Mutschler, plant breeding and host plant resistance; Rotenberg, vector/virus interactions and leadership of the educational network, and Whitfield, vector/virus molecular biology.
The team will integrate their efforts through monthly cyber conferences, meetings and workshops at annual APS meetings and by connecting undergraduate and graduate researchers through an educational network.
The project will be further enriched by a diverse group of collaborators. In California, this will include a team of UC Davis researchers and UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors, including Robert Gilbertson, Neil McRoberts, Tom Turini, Gene Miyao, Melissa Le Strange, and Scott Stoddard; educational experts David Rizzo and Gail Martinez; and a range of technical collaborators, including David Tricoli of the Ralph Parson’s Foundation Plant Transformation Facility and Garry Pearson of the UC Davis Core Greenhouse Facilities.
The project will involve faculty, researchers, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduate students. “Our educational efforts will train scientists with multidisciplinary skills and strengthen the pipeline of under-represented minorities and women into science,” Ullman added.
“Our research,” she said, “will mine and deploy genome-based resources of plants, thrips vectors and tospoviruses to improve host-plant resistance over multiple cropping systems, mitigate resistance breaking, and further elucidate the etiology of tospovirus-thrips-plant host associations.”
“Our extension efforts include making information accessible via a national, web-based tospovirus risk assessment and management toolbox in the Plant Management Network (PMN), which is hosted by APS. The PMN will provide producers, crop advisors and others a national platform to access information and gain a better understanding of how to manage thrips and the tospoviruses they transmit. In the area of education, we will create and implement a national Thrips-Tospovirus Educational Network (TTEN) to train and mentor students.”
The four-fold specific objectives are to:
- mine, develop, and deploy plant, thrips and tospovirus genetic resources to create new technologies for tospovirus and thrips management;
- explore implications of virus population diversity and evolution on expansion of vector and plant host relationships, including durability of plant resistance and cultural practices;
- develop and implement a national TTEN to recruit, mentor and provide interdisciplinary training for graduate and undergraduate research scholars; and,
- improve and extend existing predictive disease management models, decision tools and management strategies to multiple crops and geographic regions.
“These highly respected experts will assess the program’s progress toward reaching its goals, recommend appropriate adjustments of funding, suggest new research directions, and review the impact of the extension and education program,” Ullman said.
Terry Westover of the UC Davis Center for Education Evaluation Services will work with Rotenberg and Ullman to evaluate all aspects of the educational network. Nathan B. Smith, associate professor and Extension economist, University of Georgia, will evaluate benefits and economic outcomes from research and outreach activities.
Related Link:
Thrips Show Altered Feeding Behavior When Infected with Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
