Feb. 29, 2012
DAVIS-- Candice Stafford, a plant pathology doctoral candidate in the Diane Ullman lab, will speak on "A Virus at the Helm: Infection with Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus Modifies Thrips Feeding Behavior" at the next Department of Entomology seminar, set for 12:10 to 1 p.m., March 7 in 122 Briggs Hall.
Host is her major professor Diane Ullman, professor of entomology and associate dean for undergraduate academic programs in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Stafford, Ullman and Gregory Walker of UC Riverside published their research on the thrips feeding behavior last May in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (See UC Davis news story.)
Thrips--tiny insects that pierce and suck fluids from tomatoes, grapes, strawberries and hundreds of other plant species--show altered feeding behavior when they’re infected with Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV), the scientists said in their published work.
Male Western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) infected with TSWV fed up to three times more than uninfected males, Stafford pointed out.
Stafford most recently spoke on her research at the Northern California Entomology Society meeting Feb. 2 in Sacramento.
Biosketch
Stafford received her bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Riverside and then went on to complete her master's in entomology under Greg Walker at UC Riverside. "For my master's, I examined feeding behaviors of the beet leafhopper Circulifer tenellus, with a focus on feeding behaviors involved in the transmission of Beet severe curly top virus," she said. "Then I came to Davis to do my PhD on thrips-tospovirus interactions with Diane Ullman. Although initially my project was going to be a purely molecular approach to investigating thrips-tospovirus interactions, I was so intrigued by their feeding behavior and the potential affects that tospovirus infection could have on it, that Diane and I decided to make this a major component of my PhD work."
Coordinating the UC Davis Department of Entomology's winter seminars are assistant professors Louie Yang and Joanna Chiu. Some of the talks will be webcast and then can be viewed on UCTV. Professor James R. Carey is spearheading the project.
The complete list of speakers:
Jan. 11: Denise Ferkey, assistant professor, State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, will speak on "Regulation of Chemosensory Signaling in C. elegans."
Hosts: Valerie Williamson, professor of nematology, and Ed Lewis, professor of nematology and entomology and acting chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Site: 12:10 to 1 p.m., 122 Briggs Hall.
Webcast and posted on UCTV: Yes.
Jan. 18: Anurag Agrawal, professor of ecology at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., will speak on "Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Defenses."
Host: Andrew Merwin of the Michael Parrella lab.
Site: 12:10 to 1 p.m., 122 Briggs Hall.
Webcast and Posted on UCTV: Yes
Jan. 25: Mary Louise Flint, Cooperative Extension specialist and associate director for Urban and Community IPM, UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program, will speak on "Educating the Urban Public about Insect Pests and their Management."
Site: 12:10 to 1 p.m., 122 Briggs Hall.
Host: Frank Zalom
Webcast and Posted on UCTV: No.
Feb. 1: T’ai Roulston, research associate professor and curator, State Arboretum of Virginia, will speak on "Pollen as a Resource for Pollinators: What Governs Quality?"
Site: 12:10 to 1 p.m., 122 Briggs Hall.
Host: Neal Williams, assistant professor of entomology.
Feb. 8: Damian Elias, assistant professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley, will speak on "Multimodal Communication in Jumping Spiders."
Site: 12:10 to 1 p.m., 122 Briggs Hall.
Host: Leslie Saul of the Neal Williams lab.
Feb. 15: Jamesina J. Scott, district manager and research director, Lake County Vector Control District, will speak on "Aedes japonicus -- Tracking an Invasive Mosquito We Knew Very Little About."
Site: 12:10 to 1 p.m., 122 Briggs Hall.
Host: Brittany Mills of the William Reisen lab.
Webcast and Posted on UCTV: No.
Feb. 22: Jennifer Thaler, associate professor, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., will speak on "Interactive Effects of Host Plant Quality and Predation Risk."
Site: 12:10 to 1 p.m., 122 Briggs Hall.
Host: Billy Krimmel of the Jay Rosenheim lab
Webcast and Posted on UCTV: No.
Feb. 29: Jay Rosenheim, professor of entomology at UC Davis, will speak on "Ecoinformatics for IPM: Expanding the Applied Insect Ecologist's Tool-Kit."
Site: 122 Briggs Hall.
Host: Kelly Hamby of the Frank Zalom lab.
Webcast and posted on UCTV: Yes.
March 7: Candice Stafford, graduate student researcher in the Diane Ullman lab, will speak on "A Virus at the Helm: Infection with Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus Modifies Thrips Feeding Behavior."
Site: 12:10 to 1 p.m., 122 Briggs Hall.
Host: Diane Ullman, professor of entomology and associate dean for undergraduate academic programs in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
March 14: Ulrich Mueller, W. M. Wheeler Lost-Pines Professor of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, will speak on "Ant-Microbe Interaction and Evolution."
Site: 12:10 to 1 p.m., 122 Briggs Hall.
Host: Marek Borowiec of the Phil Ward lab.
March 21: Stephen Welter, professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley, and associate dean of instruction and student affairs, will speak on "Pheromone Mating Disruption Systems for Management of Insects in Perennial Crops: New Successes with Old Problems."
Site: 12:10 to 1 p.m., 122 Briggs Hall.
Host: Steve Seybold, UC Davis Department of Entomology affiliate
Contact information:
Louie Yang: (530) 754-3261 or lhyang@ucdavis.edu
Joanna Chiu: (530) 752-1839 or jcchiu@ucdavis.edu
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Feb. 28, 2012
DAVIS-- Just call it a case of identity theft.
A walking stick insect looks so much like a twig, that at first glance, you see nothing but its habitat.
A second look--or maybe a third or fourth--reveals a camouflaged insect.
In keeping with insect "identity theft," visitors to the Bohart Museum of Entomology will be treated to the theme, "Hide 'n' Seek: Insect Camouflage" at its special weekend opening from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, March 10. The museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge building on California Drive, UC Davis campus.
The open house is free and open to the public.
"We will have specimens from the collection like leafy katydids and bark-like moths and butterflies with clear wings," said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator at the Bohart Museum.
"There will be live walking sticks to hold and touch," Yang said, "and people will have a chance to make some stick insects made from pipe cleaners that they can take and hide around their homes."
Staff and students will be on hand to answer questions.
The Bohart Museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis, houses a global collection of more than seven million insect specimens, the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and is also the home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity. Noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) founded the museum in 1946.
The Bohart Museum also features a year-around live “petting zoo” with such permanent residents as walking sticks and Madagascar hissing cockroaches.
The Bohart Museum's remaining weekend schedule for the 2011-2012 academic year includes:
Saturday, March 10, 1 to 4 p.m., “Hide ‘n’ Seek: Insect Camouflage”
Saturday, April 21: 10 to 3 p.m., UC Davis Picnic Day
Saturday, May 12, 1 to 4 p.m., “Pre-Moth’ers Day”
Sunday, June 3, 1 to 4 p.m., “Bug Light, Bug Bright…First Bug I See Tonight.”
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.
More information is available on the Bohart website or by contacting Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0493. Due to limited space, group tours will not be booked during the weekend hours.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Feb. 22, 2012
The UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology is sponsoring a series of spring quarter lectures, to be held from 4:10 to 5:30 p.m. on Thursdays in 2 Wellman.
Among the speakers will be Josh Tewksbury of the University of Washington; he will be hosted May 10 by Louie Yang, assistant professor of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
(Download flier; see website for up-do-date changes)
Tewksbury's topic is "Catchers in the Rye: Climate Change, Biodiversity and Food Security."
Tewksbury, the Walker Professor of Natural History in the Biology Department, says on his website: "I am interested in the context of diversity - the physical and biological environment in which individuals, populations and communities exist. I think this context defines a lot of diversity, and to a large extent, determines the resilience of biological diversity in the face of change -- human caused and otherwise. My research spans a wide range of traditional topics in ecology, evolution and conservation, from ecological and evolutionary studies of plant animal interactions to studies of global climate change impacts on physiology, ecology, and species interactions, and long-term studies of landscape fragmentation and connectivity. I favor experimental investigations into ecology and evolution based on an understanding of natural history -- the particulars of place -- and general theory. I am currently directing the Conservation of Living Systems graduate program in the UW college of the environment, and serving on a number of boards focused on increasing and sustaining basic connections between people and the natural world.
Tewksbury received his bachelor's degree from Prescott College in 1992 and his doctorate from the University of Montana in 2000. He did postdoctoral work in Florida, South Carolina, and Bolivia, before joining the University of Washington faculty in 2003.
The seminar schedule as of Feb. 22:
April 5
Convergence and Contingencies among North American and South African Grasslands
Melinda Smith, Yale University
Host: Lauren Porensky, lemcgeoch@ucdavis.edu
April 12
Transcription Factor Evolution Integrates Signaling with Gene Expression
Gunter Wagner, Yale University
Host: Artyom Kopp, akopp@ucdavis.edu
April 19
Parasites and Food Webs
Kevin Lafferty, UC Santa Barbara and USGS
Host: Lauren Camp, lcamp@ucdavis.edu
April 26
Eco-evolutionary Spatial Dynamics
Sponsored by Storer Life Sciences Endowment
Ilkka Hanski, University of Helsinki
Host: Alan Hastings, amhastings@ucdavis.edu
May 3
Using Plant-soil Interactions to Understand and Manage Communities and Ecosystems
Valerie Eviner, UC Davis
May 10
Catchers in the Rye: Climate Change, Biodiversity and Food Security
Joshua Tewksbury, University of Washington
Host: Louie Yang, lhyang@ucdavis.edu
May 17
To Be Announced (See website for up-do-date changes)
Alan Hastings, UC Davis
May 24
The Hidden Half of Ecosystem Responses to Climate Change: What Happens Belowground?
Christine Hawkes, University of Texas at Austin
Host: Kelly Gravuer, klgravuer@ucdavis.edu
May 31
Genomic Changes Associated with Speciation in Plants Sponsored by Storer Life Sciences Endowment
Loren Rieseberg, University of British Columbia, Indiana University
Host: Matt Hufford, mbhufford@ucdavis.edu
June 7
To Be Announced (See website for up-do-date changes)
Merton Love Award Winner
The seminars are sponsored by: College of Biological Sciences, Department of Evolution and Ecology, Center for Population Biology, Graduate Group in Ecology, College of Letters & Science Division of Social Sciences, Department of Environmental Science & Policy, Department of Wildlife, Fish & Conservation Biology, Department of Anthropology, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, Center for Theoretical Ecology, Kearney Foundation of Soil Sciences, Biological Invasions & IGERT REACH and John Muir Institute for the Environment.
See more seminars, Evolution and Ecology
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Feb. 19, 2012
DAVIS--The Department of Entomology's spring-quarter seminar series begins April 3 and continues through June 5. All seminars will take place from 12:05 to 1 p.m. in Room 1022 of the Life Sciences Addition, corner of Hutchison and Kleiber Hall drives. Note that Nancy Moran's venue and time differs. She is a Major Issues speaker.
Coordinating the seminars are assistant professors Joanna Chiu and Brian Johnson.
Under the coordination of professor James R. Carey, the seminars will be recorded for later posting on UCTV.
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"
Host: To be announced
April 10
Claudio Gratton
Associate professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Title: "Sustainable Bioenergy Landscapes: Can We Balance Our Need for Production and Biodiversity?"
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
** Major Issues Speaker
MAJOR ISSUES IN MODERN BIOLOGY SERIES
The Tracy and Ruth Storer Endowment in the Life Sciences funds the Major Issues in Modern Biology Lecture series. This lecture series is designed to bring to Davis eminent biologists whose current work represents the cutting edge of their fields of inquiry. The format for these presentations is an afternoon lecture, presented to the campus-wide community of biologists, followed by a social hour and dinner with faculty members and students whose work and interests are closely related to that of the speaker. The content of the lecture is expected to focus on the individual’s own work and should seek, by example of that work, to represent the kinds of research issues that occupy the leaders in this field. The lectures are open to the entire campus audience.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
Feb. 17, 2012
DAVIS--Bonnie Blaimer, doctoral candidate in the Phil Ward lab, will give her exit thesis presentation on the Crematogaster Ant, aka the "Acrobat Ant," at 4:30 p.m., Monday, March 12, in 122 Briggs.
Her talk is entitled "The Evolution, Biogeography and Systematics of Crematogaster Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), with a Taxonomic Focus on the Malagasy Region."
A more exciting title, she commented, is "How Acrobat Ants Took Over the World, Rafted to Madagascar and Speciated."
Her thesis abstract:
The genus Crematogaster, also known by its common name "acrobat ant," is a globally distributed and species-rich group of ants. My dissertation research focused on the evolution and phylogenetic systematics of Crematogaster ants, with a particular emphasis on illuminating the origin and affinities of the Crematogaster of Madagascar, and the timescale of their colonization of the island. I reconstructed a molecular framework phylogeny from five nuclear genes in order to infer the origin and biogeographic history of Crematogaster. This has further allowed me to improve the previous morphological subgeneric classification of the genus. A second component of my research concentrated on revising the taxonomy of Crematogaster in the Malagasy region by using both morphological and molecular methods. The phylogenetic results of my thesis will significantly contribute to current understanding of ant evolution, whereas the taxonomic part of my research will form a basis for ecological studies and for conservation decisions in Madagascar.
Blaimer said she became interested in Crematogaster ants, and taxonomy and evolution, in general, while working as an intern with the California Academy of Sciences in Madagascar.
She completed her master's degree in forest sciences in 2006 in Freiburg, Germany. Blaimer joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology as a graduate student in 2007.
Related Link:
National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894