Dec. 23, 2012
Collect the first cabbage white butterfly of 2013 in the three-county area of Yolo, Solano or Sacramento and collect a pitcher of beer (your brand) or its cash-prize equivalent from Professor Art Shapiro of the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology.
Shapiro launched the annual “Catch-a-Cabbage-White-Butterfly-Win-a-Pitcher-of-Beer” contest in 1972 to draw attention to Pieris rapae and its first flight. “It is typically one of the first butterflies to emerge in late winter,” he said. “Since 1972, the first flight has varied from Jan. 1 to Feb. 22, averaging about Jan. 20.”
Shapiro, who usually wins his own contest, snagged the first cabbage white butterfly of 2012 at 11:50 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 8 in West Sacramento, Yolo County.
“This was usually early and was due to the prolonged midwinter dry spell in the winter of 2011-2012,” he said.
He caught the first cabbage white butterfly of 2011 at 1:21 p.m., Monday, Jan. 31 in Suisun City, Solano County.
The cabbage white butterfly inhabits vacant lots, fields and gardens where its host plants, weedy mustards, grow
“The receptionist will certify that it is alive and refrigerate it,” Shapiro said. “If you collect it on a weekend or holiday, hold it your refrigerator but do not freeze it. A few days in the fridge will not harm it.”
Shapiro, who is in the field more than 200 days a year, has been defeated only three times since 1972. And all were his graduate students, whom he calls “my fiercest competitors.” Adam Porter defeated him in 1983; and Sherri Graves and Rick VanBuskirk each won in the late 1990s.
When he wins, he shares the reward with his graduate students and their significant others.
All in all, the cabbage white butterfly contest “helps us understand biological responses to climate change,” he said. “The cabbage white is now emerging a week or so earlier on average than it did 30 years ago here.”
Shapiro maintains a website on butterflies at http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/, where he records the population trends he monitors in Central California. He has surveyed fixed routes at 10 sites since as early as 1972. They range from the Sacramento River Delta, through the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada mountains, to the high desert of the western Great Basin. The sites, he said, represent the great biological, geological, and climatological diversity of central California.
Shapiro and biologist/writer/photographer Tim Manolis co-authored "A Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions," published in 2007 by the University of California Press.
Shapiro, a distinguished professor, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Entomological Society, and the California Academy of Sciences.
For more information on the beer-for-a-butterfly contest, contact Art Shapiro at amshapiro@ucdavis.edu, (530) 752-2176.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Dec. 21, 2012
He's not just a renowned scientist who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and 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's not just an athlete who loves rock climbing and white-water rafting and hosts the annual Bruce Hammock Water Balloon Battle in front of Briggs Hall for his students, researchers and colleagues.
He's now embarking on an acting career.
His role in the movie (details not to be released?? A corpse.
“It was very interesting,” Hammock said. said. “But my, they work hard. The movie producers were on the set at 5:30 a.m. We worked until dark, in weather well below freezing, with high winds blowing sand. The professional actors and actresses put in amazing performances under quite adverse conditions."
“They're a very professional and fun group. I had never realized the complexity of filming a movie. I hope they pull off their vision.”
Hammock, who 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, doesn't think his acting career is so established that he'll be nominated for an Academy Award.
At least not soon.
And the beard? Will he shave?
Yes.
His colleague, chemical ecologist Walter Leal, joked: “Just before he left, Bruce mentioned he was dressing to shoot a movie. I didn't notice any difference; I thought he was taking off for another scientific meeting.”
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Dec. 19, 2012
Wilson will speak on “Effects of Omnivorous Invaders on Arthropod Communities in a Fragmented Landscape” from 12:10 to 1 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 9 in Room 1022 of the Life Sciences Addition, corner of Hutchison Road and Kleiber Drive.
“Networks of interactions among species help maintain the biodiversity and ecosystem services on which humans depend,” she says in her abstract. “However, invasive species may disrupt these ecological networks with potentially cascading effects on ecosystem processes. Island ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to invasive species, in part because of their high levels of endemism, lack of evolved defenses common in continental species, and low functional redundancy.”
“Because of the general lack of mammals on islands and often available niche space, rats are exceptionally successful invaders on islands. In a model island system, we examine how invasive rats (Rattus rattus) affect native predator-prey networks and trophic functioning. Experimental predator removal was conducted in the Upper Waiakea Forest Reserve (Big Island of Hawaii), where recent lava flows created a replicated system of forest fragments (kipuka) which host diverse assemblages of native bird and arthropod species. Combining predator removal,
experimental exclusion of insectivorous birds and stable isotope analysis of canopy arthropods, we explicitly investigated the interactive effects of forest fragment size and omnivorous rats on arboreal arthropod food webs.”
Wilson received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Georgetown University in 2002 and her doctorate in biology from UC San Diego in 2009. She did postdoctoral work in the Louie Yang lab at UC Davis in the fall of 2010 before accepting a postdoctoral position in January 2011 with the Daniel Gruner lab, Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland.
Wilson has published her work in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Ecology, Molecular Ecology, Journal of Experimental Ecology, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Journal of Apicultural Research, among others.
Among the publications closely related to her current project:
Wilson, E.E. & E.M. Wolkovich. 2011. Scavenging: how carnivores and carrion structure communities. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 26: 129-135.
Wilson, E.E. & D.A. Holway. 2010. Multiple mechanisms underlie displacement of solitary Hawaiian Hymenoptera by an invasive social wasp. Ecology. 91:3294-3302.
Wilson, E.E., C.S. Sidhu, K.E. LeVan & D.A. Holway. 2010. Pollen foraging behaviour of solitary Hawaiian bees revealed through molecular pollen analysis. Molecular Ecology. 19:4823-4829.
Wilson, E.E., C.V. Young & D.A. Holway. 2010. Predation or scavenging? Thoracic muscle pH and rates of water loss reveal cause of death in arthropods. Journal of Experimental Biology. 230: 2640-2646.
Wilson, E.E., L.M. Mullen & D.A. Holway. 2009. Life history plasticity magnifies the ecological effects of a social wasp invasion. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. 106: 12809-12813.
All the seminars will be recorded and posted at a later date on UCTV in a project coordinated by James R. Carey, professor of entomology.
The complete line-up for the winter seminar series:
Wednesday, Jan. 9
Erin Wilson
Postdoctoral Associate, University of Maryland
Title: “Effects of Omnivorous Invaders on Arthropod Communities in a Fragmented Landscape”
Host: Louie Yang
Wednesday, Jan. 16
Michael Branstetter (exit seminar)
Buck Postdoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Title: "Uncovering the Origins of a Middle American Ant Radiation: insights from Natural History, Biogeography and Molecular Data."
Host: Phil Ward
Wednesday, Jan. 23
Nick Haddad
William Neal Reynolds Professor of Biology, North Carolina State University
Title: Landscape Conservation for Rare Insects
Host: Neal Williams
Wednesday, Jan. 30
Paul de Barro
Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO ecosystem sciences
Title: Unravelling the Complex Bemisia tabaci (Silverleaf Whitefly): From Biotype to Species
Host: Michael Parrella
Wednesday, Feb. 6
Jim Cane
Entomologist, USDA-ARS Bee Biology Lab
Title: Dietary Needs of Adult Solitary Bees: Consequences for Reproduction and Pollination
Host: Leslie Saul-Gershanz
Wednesday, Feb. 13
Steven Reppert
Higgins Family Professor of Neuroscience, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Title: Monarch Butterfly Migration: Behavior to Genes
Hosts: Joanna Chiu and Hugh Dingle
Wednesday, Feb. 20
Nick Mills
Professor, UC Berkeley
Title: Light Brown Apple Moth – Not a Typical Invader
Host: Mary Louise Flint
Wednesday, Feb. 27
Anupama Dahankar
Assistant Professor, UC Riverside
Title: Taste Receptors and Feeding Preferences in Insects
Host: Joanna Chiu
Wednesday, March 6
Sergio Rasmann
Assistant Professor, University of Lausanne
Title: Ecological, Evolutionary and Genetic Drivers of Plant Defenses against Herbivores
Host: Rick Karban
Wednesday, March 13
Anna Whitfield
Associate Professor, Kansas State University
Title: Dissecting the Molecular Interplay Between Plant Viruses and their Arthropod Vectors
Host: Diane Ullman
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Dec. 19, 2012
They are Sarah Staley, mentored by medical entomologist Anthony “Anton” Cornel, associate entomologist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and based at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Parlier; and Don Hoang, mentored by evolutionary geneticist Artyom Kopp, professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology.
The two were among 25 undergraduate students receiving grants from a pool of 62 applicants. Staley submitted her proposal titled “Prevalence of Leucocytozoa Infections in Potential Vector Populations of Black Flies in Alaska.” Hoang's proposal: "The Yeast/Drosophila Relationship: Is it Meant to Last?”
Staley is a junior majoring in neurobiology, physiology, and behavior with a minor in medical entomology. Her project involves assessing the infection rate of Leucocytozoan, one of the parasites that causes avian malaria, in black flies from Alaska. “The results of my research will provide background information as to the prevalence of these parasites within the suspected vector populations, and will serve as a reference frame for future work measuring the effect of climate and habitat change on parasite transmission and avian malaria infections in Alaska,” she says. “Most of the work on avian malaria in the past has been done on mosquitoes, so this will be a new and exciting challenge for me to work on!”
Said Cornel: “In July of 2012 Jenny Carlson (graduate student) and I collected a few hundred black flies in C02 baited traps for a project we were doing on Avian malaria in sub arctic and arctic Alaska. The black flies were collected from Anchorage, Fairbanks and Coldfoot. Leucocytozoa falls under the general umbrella term as an Avian malaria which is a large group of pathogens that cause mild to severe disease in birds."
“Black flies are traditionally known to be the vectors of Leucocytozoa and we are interested to determine if these parasites are transmitted endemically in the colder Alaskan climate, Cornel said. "There are many species of black flies and they are notoriously hard to identify morphologically. Sarah will use these funds to combine morphology and DNA-based technologies to identify Alaskan black flies and to attempt to isolate Leucocytozoa strains and species from the black flies.”
Hoang began working in the Kopp lab in 2011.
"The President's Undergraduate Fellowship Program (PUF) encourages UC Davis undergraduates to carry out an independent research or creative project under the guidance of a UC Davis faculty member," according to the PUF website. "Funding is made available to meet direct costs associated with projects up to a maximum of $2000. Students from all disciplines are encouraged to apply"
"Past projects have involved laboratory research, field studies, survey research, film production, design and creation of art elements, music composition, fine arts performances, travel to library or research collections, and many other endeavors. Group projects are not appropriate; separate, but linked, projects may be considered. The maximum award is $2000."
Applications are reviewed by the PUF Advisory Committee, a multidisciplinary committee of faculty, chaired by the PUF Program coordinator. In evaluating proposals the committee considers the following:
- the educational opportunity that the project will provide for the applicant
- the applicant's academic preparation that is relevant to the project
- the feasibility of the project
- the faculty sponsor's letter of support
- the overall clarity and quality of the proposal
The Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology, restricted to undergraduates, is coordinated by professor Jay Rosenheim, and assistant professors Louie Yang and Joanna Chiu, all of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
The program “aims to provide undergraduates with a closely-mentored research experience in biology,” they wrote on their website. "Because insects can be used as model systems to explore virtually any area of biology (population biology; behavior and ecology; biodiversity and evolutionary ecology; agroecology; genetics and molecular biology; biochemistry and physiology; cell biology), faculty in the program can provide research opportunities across the full sweep of biology. The program’s goal is to provide academically strong and highly motivated undergraduates with a multi-year research experience that cultivates skills that will prepare them for a career in biological research.”
See list of mentoring faculty.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Dec. 19, 2012
The photo, taken by Kathy Keatley Garvey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, shows Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen being stung by a bee. The image was taken in the apiary of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility.
It depicts a Carniolan bee reared by bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey. At the time the image was taken, the bee was defending its hive.
Usually a bee sting results in a clean break, Mussen said. This one shows the bee trailing abdominal tissue.
The photo initially won the first-place (gold) award in a feature photo contest sponsored by the international Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences. The Sacramento Bee featured it, and later it was selected one of the Huffington Post's most amazing photos of 2012 and "Picture of the Day" on a number of websites.
Garvey wrote about "The Sting" in one of her Bug Squad blogs on the UC Agricultural and Natural Resources (UC ANR) site.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
