Feb. 6, 2013
"Studies of the iconic migration of the eastern North American monarch butterfly have revealed mechanisms behind its navigation using a time-compensated sun compass," Reppert says. "Skylight cues, such as the sun itself and polarized light, are processed through both eyes and integrated in the brain’s central complex, the presumed site of the sun compass. Circadian clocks that have a distinct molecular mechanism and that reside in the antennae provide time compensation. The draft sequence of the monarch genome has been presented, and gene-targeting approaches have been developed to manipulate putative migration genes. The monarch butterfly is an outstanding system to study the neural and molecular basis of long-distance migration." (See lab research.)
Hosts are Joanna Chiu, assistant professor of entomology, and Hugh Dingle, emeritus professor of entomology.
Reppert received his bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska, Omaha, in pre-medicine, and his medical degree from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in neurobiology at the National Institutes of Child Health (NICHD), NIH, in 1979. He is a professor of pediatrics (neuroscience) at Harvard Medical School (2001 to the present) and since 2000, a pediatrician at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Reppert became the chair of the Department of Neurobiology, UMass Medical School in 2001, the same year he became the Higgins Family Professor of Neuroscience at UCMass Medical School. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Among his publications on monarchs:
Reppert SM, Gegear RJ, Merlin C (2010). Navigational mechanisms of migrating monarch butterflies. TINS 33:399-406.
Heinze S, Reppert SM (2011). Sun compass integration of skylight cues in migratory monarch butterflies. Neuron 69:345-358.
Zhan S, Merlin C, Boore JL, Reppert SM. The monarch genome yields insights into long-distance migration. Cell 2011; 147:1171-1185.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
DAVIS--Professor Steve Nadler of the UC Davis Department of Entomology has been selected to receive the Henry Baldwin Ward Medal, presented by the American Society of Parasitologists (ASP) in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of parasitology.
Nadler will be honored at ASP's 88th annual meeting, set June 26–29 in Quebec City, Quebec. The award, established in 1959, is named for H.B. Ward, the society's first president and founder of the Journal of Parasitology.
Nadler studies the evolutionary biology and molecular phylogenetics of parasites, focusing mainly on nematodes. He joined the UC Davis faculty in 1996, serving as chair of the Department of Nematology from 2005-2011.
A past president of ASP (2007-08), Nadler has published more than 90 journal articles, and co-authored the textbook Foundations of Parasitology. His molecular systematic research is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, and his publications have yielded fundamental insights into host-parasite co-phylogeny and the evolutionary biology of parasites.
The UC Davis professor has served as an associate editor or editorial board member for several journals, including Parasitology, Journal of Parasitology, and Systematic Parasitology.
Nadler received his bachelor's degree in biology from Missouri State University, and his doctorate in medical parasitology from Louisiana State University Medical Center. He completed postdoctoral training at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. He was appointed assistant professor of biological sciences at Northern Illinois University in 1990.
Henry Baldwin Ward (1865-1945), a native of Troy, N.Y., is considered “The Father of American Parasitology.” A zoologist, parasitologist and administrator, he was the first dean of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and later served as professor and head of the Department of Zoology at the University of Illinois until his retirement in 1933.
Founded in 1924, ASP is a diverse group of more than 800 scientists from industry, government, and academia who are interested in the study and teaching of parasitology. ASP members contribute not only to the development of parasitology as a discipline, but also to primary research in such fields as systematics, medicine, molecular biology, immunology, physiology, ecology, biochemistry and behavior.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Feb. 8, 2013
“We need 1.6 million colonies, or two colonies per acre, and California has only about 500,000 colonies that can be used for that purpose,” he said. “We need to bring in a million more colonies but due to the winter losses, we may not have enough bees.”
Those winter losses--still being tabulated--and the resulting fewer bees per hive could spell trouble for almond growers, he said.
“Last year was not a good year for honey production in the United States,” Mussen said, “and it could be one of the worst honey production years in the history of nation, although it’s been pretty rough in some of the previous years. Usually when we’re short of nectar, we’re short on pollen, and honey bees need both. So, 2012 was a bad year for bee nutrition.”
Malnutrition is one of the stressors of colony collapse disorder, the mysterious malady first noticed in the winter of 2006 that has decimated one-third of the nation’s bees every year. Some beekeepers have reported winter losses of 90 to 100 percent.
In CCD, the adult bees abandon the hive, leaving behind the queen bee, brood and food stores. Bee scientists think CCD is caused by a multitude of factors, includes, pests, pesticides, parasites, diseases, malnutrition and stress.
“Many, many colonies are not going to make it through the winter,” said Mussen, an apiculturist in the UC Davis Department of Entomology since 1976. “We won’t have as large a bee population as in the past.”
In other words, fewer colonies will be available for the almond growers and the colonies that are available aren’t going to be as populous, he said.” Almond growers usually want at least eight frames of bees per hive,” Mussen said, “but this year they may be lucky to get six. That’s one-third less bees per hive to pollinate the orchards.”
Mussen estimated a good solid hive with eight frames amounts to 2000 bees per frame or 16,000 bees.
Already brokers are getting calls from beekeepers saying “I can’t fulfill the contract. I’m going to be short.”
Mussen said it may all work out well in the end as “bees pollinate almonds on a community basis. The strong colonies will make up for the weak colonies. The strong colonies will clean the orchard of pollen by early afternoon and then go down the street and grab food from nearby orchards.”
San Joaquin almond orchards are already starting to bloom, “but it’s going to be late up here in the Sacramento Valley,” he said. Kern County grows more almonds than any other county in the state.
“If we hit abnormally warm stretches that push out all the bloom at once, that will be good,” said Mussen. “It’s likely that cross-pollination will be better if we have a steady period of warm weather, instead of a warm-cold fluctuating period.”
Although the almond growers are paying a lot of money for their pollination services –an average of $150 per hive—there’s no guarantee it will be a good nut set, Mussen warned. “If it’s too cool, fertilization may not occur. The pollen tubes won’t grow all the way down to the base of the flower to the ovum. The good nut set occurs within the first three days of pollination or at the most, within five days.”
On the other hand, if the weather is too hot and dry, the tissue dries out, he explained. “So we need nice warm weather that’s not too hot or too cold to get good fertilization and nut set. It’s not always the bees’ fault if the nuts fail to grow.”
Many beekeeping operations truck in thousands of colonies to pollinate California’s almonds. One beekeeping operation used to bring 16,000 colonies, Mussen said, “but that 16,000 could be half that this year.” The bees are trucked here from all over the nation.
Around Feb. 14 the average almond orchard in California is in full bloom, but some orchards bloom earlier or later, depending on the cultivar and the weather. An almond orchard blooms a total of about two weeks, he said, pointing out that “the season is short.”
“Around March 7 to the 10th is the last pollination period for almonds in California,” he said. That means that some beekeepers can do double duty with their bees , first pollinating orchards in early February and then heading off to other orchards for the last blooms of the season.”
Almonds are California's biggest export. This year the National Agricultural Statistics Service is forecasting a record-breaking 2.10 billion meat pounds, valued at approximately $3 billion. Eighty-percent of the global supply of almonds is grown in California, and about 70 percent of California’s crop is marketed overseas.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
He will receive a travel grant of $300 to present his poster on the spotted wing drosophila at the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America meeting, to be held April 6-11 at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, Stateline, Nev.
Harris' poster is titled “Seasonal Trapping of Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in a Multi-Crop Setting.” He studies with integrated pest management specialist/professor Frank Zalom and Ph.D candidate/researcher Kelly Hamby of the Zalom lab.
EGSA president Jenny Carlson, an entomology Ph.D candidate affiliated with the Vector Genetics Lab, said the EGSA has decided to provide an undergraduate travel grant for those students who are presenting at a conference.
“We will be providing an opportunity for undergraduates to apply twice a year for a total of $300, depending on funds,” Carlson said. “We will have one in the winter and one in the fall.” Those who want to support the project can donate to the EGSA fund or buy entomology t-shirts.
EGSA named the grant for Jude Plummer for her $50 donation “to be used for such a cause,” Carlson said. Plummer, a pest control manager in Florida, is a certified master naturalist and is also certified in urban horticulture.
Harris, who minored in fungal biology and ecology, plans to pursue a master’s degree in forest entomology. “I would like to study insect-fungus interactions with a focus on inoculation of forest pests with entomophagous fungi,” he said. “Many of these pests are gregarious so capture, inoculation and release of a few individuals may disseminate the pathogen to a large population.”
“My ultimate goal is to work with the USDA forest service. I would love nothing more than to make my living tromping around in beautiful north American forests."
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Jan. 30, 2013
His seminar will be from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in Room 1022 of the Life Sciences Addition, corner of Hutchison and Kleiber Hall drives, UC Davis campus. Host is graduate student Leslie Saul-Gershanz of the Neal Williams lab.
“Most bees nest underground; the remainder largely nesting above-ground, either in beetle holes in deadwood or in pity stems,” Cane says. “The vast majority of bees are non-social, yet only a very few of these species of each nesting habitats are managed for crop pollination. They will be used to illustrate realized and sustained population growth under management, as well as the factors that allow or impede broader use of non-social bees for agriculture.”
“ I will then summarize ongoing experience with methods and materials to multiply other native cavity-nesting bees, notably species of Osmia, desired to pollinate tree fruits, bramble fruits and native seed crops, highlighting the costs and challenges that emerge at larger scales of management.”
Cane has spent many of the past 25 years studying the nesting and pollination ecologies of native non-social bees of North America and elsewhere. He has worked with pollination and pollinators of alfalfa, cranberries, blueberries, squashes, almonds, raspberries and a host of native seed crops used for restoration seed. He is currently multiplying three species of Osmia bees for these applications.
For the past 13 years, Cane has worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Pollinating Insect Research Unit at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Prior to that, he was on the faculty of Auburn University in Alabama and was a post-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley after receiving his doctorate from the University of Kansas.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
