April 8, 2011
Beetle display at the Bohart Museum of Entomology during the 2010 Picnic Day. (Photos by Kathy Keatley Garvey)A young child at Briggs Hall excitedly points to the egg, larva, pupa and adult of a fly at the 2010 Picnic Day.DAVIS--Got bugs?
The UC Davis Department of Entomology will have plenty of bugs at the 97th annual UC Davis Picnic Day, set from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, April 16.
Activities will include cockroach races, termite trails, maggot art, honey tasting, and ladybug-giveaways, plus displays on forensic, medical, aquatic, apiculture and forest entomology. Exhibits also will include such topics as fly fishing/fly-tying, insect pests of ornamentals, and pollinators of California.
There are two sites: Briggs Hall, off Kleiber Hall Drive, and the Bohart Museum of Entomology, 1124 Academic Surge, California Drive. All the activities are free and open to the public.
Coordinating the activities at Briggs are forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey and graduate student Andrew Merwin of the Michael Parrella lab. Museum director and entomologist Lynn Kimsey, is planning the events at the Bohart Museum, which houses seven million insect specimens and a “live petting zoo,” featuring Madagascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks.
Visitors to Briggs can cheer for their favorite cockroach at the American cockroach races; watch a termite follow a line drawn with a Bic ink pen (the ink emits a pheromone-like smell), and create a maggot art painting suitable for framing--or at least something to post on their refrigerator.
Maggot Art, a term trademarked by forensic entomologist Rebecca O’Flaherty, a doctoral candidate in entomology at UC Davis, involves dipping a maggot in non-toxic, water-based paint. Participants pick up a maggot with forceps, dip it in the paint and then let it crawl on white paper. O’Flaherty launched Maggot Art in 2001 as a community outreach project to teach youths while she studying entomology at the University of Hawaii.
Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen will offer six kinds of honey for tasting. Each person will receive one toothpick to dip in each honey sample. He also will hand out free samples of Gimbal's Fine Candies, San Francisco. This company helps support honey bee research at UC Davis.
The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) will provide a display in front of Briggs Hall. “We will be giving out live lady beetles to the kids, answering home and garden pest questions, giving out Quick Tips, and displaying less toxic pest management tools and resources,” said Extension entomologist Mary Lou Flint, associate director of Urban and Community IPM Program, UC IPM Program.
“We'll have our interactive IPM Kiosk on display," she said. "This is a touch screen computer with videos, printable information sheets and interactive diagnostic aids for 60 home and garden pests--plus it is fun. It's now in English and Spanish. “
The UC IPM Program will be giving away lady beetles, aka ladybugs. Click to enlarge.Plans also call for a “Bug Doctor” to answer insect-related questions from the public. Assisting Flint will be Steve Dreistadt, Karey Windbiel-Rojas and entomology student volunteers.
All of 158 Briggs will be transformed into fly-tying/fly fishing displays and aquatic entomology exhibits.. Visitors will see approximately 10 insect drawers of mounted insects with fly-tying counterparts. Professor Sharon Lawler will display aquatic insects and she and her lab will answer questions about them.
In 122 Briggs, the emphasis is on living bug displays, with posters, display boards and exhibits. What's planned:
Honey bees: Bee-breeders Michael “Kim” Fondrk and Susan Cobey of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility will display a bee observation hive, and beekeeping equipment such as bee boxes, frames, veils and smokers.
Ants: Doctoral candidate Marek Borowiec and others in the Phil Ward lab will be put together displays on the incredible diversity of ants.
Forest Insects: Graduate student Stacy Hishinuma and forest entomologist Steve Seybold, a chemical ecologist with the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Davis, and an affiliate of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, will show forest insects.
Mosquitoes: Medical entomology graduate students Lizzy Glennon, Jenny Carlson and Brittany Mills, will set up displays about diseases vectored by mosquitoes and other insects. The Yolo County Vector Control will provide an educational exhibit about mosquito abatement.
A termite follows the trail of a pheromone. Click to enlarge.Photo Opportunities: Visitors to both Briggs Hall and the Bohart can photograph each other peering from a cardboard cutout of such insects as a cockroach and a praying mantis.
R. M. Bohart Memories: One of the highlights at the Bohart Museum will a special tribute to Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) for whom the museum is named. The display will include photographs, items from his desk and an old zinc handprinting press, said Lynn Kimsey, who studied with him as an entomology graduate student at UC Davis.
Bohart, who founded the museum in 1946 and retired from the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty in 1980 (but continued his entomological research), identified more than one million mosquitoes and wasps. He authored 230 separate publications, and wrote six books. He spent his sabbaticals on entomological expeditions, visiting museums and collecting insects. In 1960 alone, he visited 21 museums in Europe and eastern United States. His other expeditions took him to South Africa, South America and Australia.
Last year at the Bohart Museum, native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology, and graduate student Emily Bzdyk, who studies with major professor Lynn Kimsey, provided a live display of pollinators, including bumble bees, carpenter bees, leafcutting bees and green metallic sweat bees. They plan to do so again. Native pollinator specialist Neal Williams, assistant professor of entomology, is planning a display at Briggs Hall.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
April 8, 2011
Sarah Dalrymple in front of the bee mural at the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)DAVIS--Graduate student Sarah Dalrymple, a teaching force behind much of the art work in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, University of California, Davis, has been named the recipient of a campuswide 2011 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award.
Dalrymple was singled out for her “extraordinary contributions” as the teaching assistant for Entomology 1, “Art, Science and the World of Insects,” which she taught last fall. The award is sponsored by the Graduate Council and the Office of Graduate Studies.
Nominating her for the award was Diane Ullman, associate dean for Undergraduate Academic Programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the professor of entomology who teaches ENT 001.
Dalrymple received strong support from her major professor, Rick Karban of the Department of Entomology and students who enrolled in her class. She is a member of the Department of Evolution and Ecology’s Population Biology Graduate Group.
Dalrymple will receive the award on Wednesday, April 27 at a ceremony for the recipients and their invited guests. She is one of 10 graduate students campuswide to receive the award, based on their contributions to teaching and learning.
“Sarah is an amazingly dedicated and talented teacher,” Ullman wrote in her letter of nomination. “Her teaching is distinguished by its creativity, depth and cross-disciplinary nature.”
Dalrymple crossed boundaries between biology, art and culture and provided “a high level of expertise and innovation in each area,” Ullman said. “This kind of integration takes courage and the will to reach across disciplinary borders to engage students in a new way of thinking.”
Dalrymple brought her knowledge of ecology and population together with her background in art and taught the graphics studio section of ENT 101, Ullman said. “Of the three sections--ceramics, textile surface design and graphics--graphics is perhaps the most difficult to teach because it is the least forgiving of different skill levels, talents and experience.”
Dalrymple designed a series of sessions that introduced students to scientific concepts and drawing and painting skills. She then led the students in designing, fabricating and installing a bee mural on a shed in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. She earlier led a group of students in crafting the two towers of beehive sculptures that grace the entrance to the garden.
“Students experienced opening bee hives to observe bee behavior first hand and were introduced to experts in honey bee biology and in pollination ecology, “ Ullman said. “They were inspired to reflect on this experience and lecture content by developing their own piece of the overall mural design. This included gathering appropriate research, which sometimes meant identifying and contacting experts across the country.” Among the experts: native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis; bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey of UC Davis and Washington State University; Elizabeth Frost, research associate at the Laidlaw facility; Melissa “Missy” Borel, program manager of the California Center for Urban Horticulture; and artist Donna Billick, who created the bee sculpture in the haven.
Dalrymple also wrote a course blog that engaged students in sharing their reflections on the learning process.
“It has been an amazing experience watching Sarah innovate and hone her teaching approach in the graphics section of Entomology 1,” Ullman said. “She has become a quintessential artist-scientist, perfectly blending visual literacy with scientific research.”
Professor Rick Karban, in his letter of support, described her as a “dedicated teacher who has worked hard to provide a positive and enriching experience for her students.” Her continued high evaluations from her students indicate her expertise, devotion and enthusiasm, he said.
Students gave her near perfect or perfect scores in every area of review. Wrote one: “Sarah was always very willing to help and went out of her way to do so. She is by far the most approachable TA I have had in my career at UC Davis.” Another wrote: “The lecture she gave was amazing and her enthusiasm for the subject was clearly apparent.”
“Sarah’s outstanding dedication, creativity, passion and patience and ability to meld art and science truly set her apart from most educators,” Ullman said.
Dalrymple, a native of Auburn, Ala., received her bachelor’s degree in biology (ecology and evolutionary biology) from the University of Tennessee. She minored in Spanish. During her childhood and teen years, she took many art classes.
Her UC Davis class last fall drew 23 students spanning 12 majors. This was the third year she’s taught the entomology painting studio.
“Each time I teach this class my goal is one, to empower students to take ownership of their work and two, collaborate to unify their artwork under a larger theme,” Dalrymple said. “The students responded with diligent work outside of class and a willingness to work together to make big picture decisions about project details and critique one another’s work. Collaborating in this way, students were able to build off of one another’s ideas to create something I never could have pictured. I came into the class with a general idea of how the mosaic would be laid out, but the students filled in all of the details. Many of these students came into the class with very little art experience, but still produced impressive artwork.”
“The best part of this class is that the students actively contribute to the knowledge and ideas behind the design, so it becomes a more meaningful and empowering learning experience for them,” she said.
After receiving her doctorate, Dalrymple plans to pursue a college teaching career at a small college. “I am excited about teaching basic biology courses and more advanced courses in ecology and evolution,” she said. “Additionally, I would love to someday teach an art-science fusion course modeled after Entomology.”
2011 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award Winners
The Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award recognizes the contributions of graduate students to teaching and learning at UC Davis during 2010. This is the list of the winners and the degrees they are pursuing:
Jessica Marie Beckett – M.S., Community Development
Sarah E. Dalrymple – Ph.D., Population Biology
Benjamin Davis – Ph.D., Computer Science
John S. Garrison – Ph.D., English
Joseph S. Harrington – Ph.D., Spanish
Trine B. Johansen – Ph.D., Anthropology
Ryan C. Kirkbride – Ph.D., Plant Biology
Erin Lea Legacki – Ph.D., Animal Biology
Iago Z. Lowe – Ph.D., Horticulture and Agronomy
Joel S. Steele – Ph.D., PsychologyRelated links:
Thinking 'Outside the Box'
Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven: How It Came to Be
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
June 8, 2011 See News Story ~ See Photos
This is the bee mural on the shed in Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. The numbers lettered on the photo match the legend below, with annotations by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus
Top Row:
1. Honey bee, Apis melliferaby Bryce Sullivan
Our most important managed pollinator of agricultural crops
2. Comparison of pollination efficiency between the Blue Orchard bee,Osmia lignaria propinaua, the Blue Orchard Bee (BOB), and honey bee, Apis melliferaby Maxx Becker
Female BOB are often more effective pollinators than honey bees individually, but managed honey bees can be supplied in greater numbers.
3. Andrena sp. by Chris Wong
A solitary mining bee
4. Bumble bee, Bombus sp. by Laura Chu
Female buzz-pollinating a tomato flower.
5. Squash bees, Peponapis pruinosa. by Madel Soriano
6. Melissodes sp. by Jessa Faustino
Female collecting pollen, sleeping males on right. Note long antennae of male – the reason these bees are called long-horn bees.
2nd Row:
7. Leafcutting bee female, Megachile sp. by Jamie Nakatani
8. Blue orchard bee, Osmia lignaria propinqua (BOB) by Jennifer Tso
9. Bumble bee, Bombus sp. by Robyn Burnett
10. Honey bee, Apis melliferaby Cassie Buckingham
Note large pollen load on hind leg pollen basket
11. Green sweat bee, Agapostemon sp. by Safa Rashid
(Since this female is green, annotator Thorp changed the name from Halictus, which are usually black with white stripes on the abdomen)
3rd Row:
12. Carpenter bee, Xylocopa sp. by Victor Lor
Female making a nest by tunneling into wood.
13. Small carpenter bee, Ceratina sp. by Caitlyn Jones
Note: includes nest she constructs by hollowing out pithy stems, using some of the chewed up pith to partition her brood chambers
14. Leaf cutter bee, Megachile sp. by Andrew Yip
Female carrying leaf piece back to her nest tube to make brood chambers, nest below with larvae in thimble-like leaf brood chambers
15. Wool carder bee, Anthidium manicatumby Christine Chen
Female scraping hairs off leaf to be used to make her brood chambers in some hollow tube
16. Sweat bee, Lasioglossum sp. by Drew Malin
Called sweat bees because they often alight on one’s skin to lap up perspiration for moisture and salts.
17. Green sweat bee, Agapostemon sp. by Anthony Ngo
A male, probably A. texanus, our local species
Bottom Row:
18. Cuckoo sweat bee, Sphecodes sp. by Andrew Robello
Female cuckoo at nest entrance waiting for host sweat bee to leave so she can enter and deposit her egg in the hosts brood chamber.
19. Honey bee, Apis mellifera, by Kiele Argente
20. Cleptoparasitic bee, Triepeolus sp. by Bao Nguyen
A cuckoo bee in the digger bee family
21. Leafcutting bee, Megachile sp. by Brandon Brotoatmodjo
Female cutting leaf piece for her nest construction
22. Bee vision in UV spectrum by Kevin Taylor
Bees vision includes the near ultraviolet, which is invisible to our eye The Artists: Lying in front is Maxx Becker. The group on the left side (front row, left to right): Jamie Nakatani, Safa Rashid, and Andrew Yip; (middle row) Jennifer Tso, Brandon Brotoatmodjo and Anth
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
June 1, 2011
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DAVIS--June is bustin’ out all over—and bugs, too—at the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
The Bohart Museum has scheduled a special weekend open house, themed “June Bugs,” from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 5. The event, free and open to the public, is the last in a series of six special weekend openings held since Jan. 23. The Bohart is located on the UC Davis campus at 1124 Academic Surge, California Drive.
Among the insects featured will be a “June bug,” also known as a fig beetle (Cotinus mutabilis).
“The larvae feed on decaying fruit/plant material and they can be common in compost piles in the central and southern states and southwestern United States in general,” said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor of entomology at UC Davis.
The adults, green and about 1.25 inches long, feed on ripe fruit, particularly figs, she said. They are part of more than seven million insect specimens housed in the museum and collected worldwide.
In addition, the museum features a “live petting zoo,” especially popular among children. Visitors can hold such insects as Madagascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks.
Also popular are the Bohart’s new public microscope on display for folks to examine insects; and a gift shop, where visitors can purchase such items as t-shirts, sweatshirts, posters, insect nets, jewelry and insect candy.
The Bohart administrative staff initiated the special weekend openings to accommodate families and other area residents unable to visit the Bohart Museum during regular visiting hours, Mondays through Thursdays. The museum’s regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. It is closed on Fridays and on major holidays. Admission is free.
The special weekend openings featured “Butterflies” on Jan. 23, “Butterflies”; “Meet the Beetles on Feb. 26; “The Ants Go Marching On” on March 13; UC Davis Picnic Day on April 16; and “Moth-er’s Day (spotlight on moths) on May 7.
The next open house is expected to be in October.
The R. M. Bohart Museum of Entomology, founded in 1946 by noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart, is dedicated to teaching, research and service. The museum houses the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and is also the home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity.
More information is available on the Bohart website or by contacting Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-9464. Due to limited space, group tours will not be booked during the weekend hours.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
June 2, 2011
DAVIS--Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, will speak on native bees on Saturday, June 18 at “A Celebration of the Bees” in Mill Valley.
The celebration, to be held from 1 to 4 p.m. at 221Hillside Gardens and dubbed a “bee-in,” is a community gathering to benefit the beekeeping projects of SuperOrganism: the Marin Pollen Project and the Marin Survivor Stock Queen Bee Project.
The event, sponsored by Savory Thymes, will include a talk on honey bees by master beekeeper and author Mea McNeil of San Anselmo; demonstration and learning stations presented by the Marin Beekeepers’ Association; honey tasting featuring local varieties of honey; mead (honey wine) tasting; and live Celtic music. Hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Thorp, a noted native pollinator specialist, will discuss the diversity of native bees, such as bumble bees, carpenter bees and leafcutting bees, and how residents can provide habitat for them.
He is involved in research on the role of native bees in crop pollination, the role of urban gardens as bee habitat, and declines in native bumble bee populations. He does research in ecology, systematics, biodiversity, and conservation of bees, including pollen specialist bees in vernal pool ecosystems. He is involved with the management of the Jepson Prairie Reserve, a vernal pool ecosystem.Although he “officially” retired in 1994, Thorp maintains an office at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. He monitors the adjacent Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven and Campus Buzzway for species of bees; between March 2009 and July 2010, he has detected 60 different species of bees.
Since 2002, Thorp has served as an instructor in The Bee Course offered annually through the American Museum of Natural History, New York at its Southwest Research Station, Portal, Ariz.
Throughout the year, he presents a number of talks. Most recently, on May 26, he delivered a talk on “Native Bees and Their Lifestyles” to the City of Davis Open Space and Habitat Commission.McNeil will discuss sustainable populations of bees. “Beekeepers are known for being independent individuals, but some local Marin County beekeepers have joined in a cooperative effort,” she said. “Knowing they can expect high loss, they are leaving their bee colonies untreated in order to select strong surviving queens for the propagation of local stock. They are coordinating test equipment, reference materials, seminars, connections with other groups, forage plantings and a program to distribute queen cells. They are looking beyond mere survival to a gentle, productive, local resistant strain of honey bee.”
McNeil says that the bees will be “sentinels for all creatures.” A sampling of pollen from hives across Marin County will be analyzed for pesticide and fungicide content in a toxicology study in cooperation with Pennsylvania State University. “Perhaps their greatest contribution is that they will be a prototype for what can happen everywhere for our ailing bees,” she said.
Tickets are $35 per person and can be purchased from this website. Reservations can be made with Jerry Draper at beecele@superorg.org. Children will be admitted free, but reservations are required, he said.
SuperOrganism is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering sustainable agricultural practices through research, events, publications, lectures, demonstrations, and other means. SuperOrganism takes its name and purpose from the model of a honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony where individuals work selflessly and mindfully towards the common good of the whole.
Savory Thymes supports and educates the public about local and sustainable systems.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
