- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
De Grassi spotted—and videoed--a black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, foraging on a prized ceanothus plant on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 8 in her backyard in Davis.
She recorded the video on her cell phone at 12:32 p.m. to win the third annual contest, sponsored by the Bohart Museum of Entomology and memorializing global bee expert Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), a distinguished emeritus professor of entomology. (See her YouTube video)
De Grassi, a former director of federal policy, livestock, animal health and welfare for the California Farm Bureau Federation, credits the storm, the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, and her working relationships with bee scientists, including Thorp, as having a hand in either her find and/or her interest in plants and pollinators.
The three previous winners (2022 was a tie) each photographed a bumble bee in the 100-acre UC Davis Arboretum. Ironically, de Grassi bought her prized ceanothus at an Arboretum plant sale.
“I was doing clean-up in my backyard after Saturday night's rain and a 50-plus mile-per-hour windstorm,” said de Grassi, now an agricultural policy consultant. “The wind had subsided to a breeze by then. As I walked past my Ray Hartman ceanothus—which I purchased from a UC Davis Arboretum plant sale years ago when I did a garden makeover to be pollinator-friendly—I noticed some extra-long ceanothus branches that needed to be pruned, including some with super-early blooming flowers.”
De Grassi returned with her pole trimmer and started cutting. It was then she noticed a bumble bee foraging on her ceanothus--and when she remembered the “friendly Bohart Museum contest” inviting folks to find and photograph the first bumble bee in the two-county area of Solano and Yolo.
De Grassi knew Thorp from her professional work with the California Farm Bureau Federation and from her friendship with bee scientists Timothy Lawrence and Susan Cobey, formerly of UC Davis. “Tim and Sue were active in the California Farm Bureau's statewide Bee Advisory Committee that I managed,” she said. Lawrence is now a Washington State University Extension county director (Island County) and Cobey, a WSU bee breeder geneticist.
“(The late Extension apiculturist) Eric Mussen was the UC Cooperative Extension liaison to that same committee,” de Grassi remembered, “so as native pollinator topics would arise during committee work, Robbin's name and research naturally became relevant to the discussion. A fond memory I have of Robbin is from a Bohart Museum open house (2017) when I told him about seeing a 1/2 black and 1/2 gold carpenter bee in my front yard. I'd never heard of a gynandromorph until he told me that that's what I saw. He asked me to capture one if I ever saw another.”
“I love documenting nature's cool stuff and especially the surprises we uncover when we pause long enough to notice,” de Grassi commented. The caterpillars she discovered eating her coral fountain (aka “firecracker plant,” Russelia equisetiiformis) led to UC Davis distinguished professor Art Shapiro documenting it as a butterfly larval host.
“Gardening for pollinators has become my passion pastime. I like to give native and managed bees pesticide-free forage.”
As her prizes, de Grassi will receive a coffee cup decorated with a the Franklin's bumble bee, and handmade bee gifts (including a zippered bee-motif bag and bee-motif soaps) from Teresa Hickman of Vacaville, owner of "Handmade by Teresa."
De Grassi holds two degrees from UC Davis: a bachelor's degree in agricultural science and management and a master's degree in animal science. She is a former chair of the UC Davis Department of Animal Science Development Board, and a former member of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association Board and the UC Davis Foundation Board of Trustees.
Postdoctoral researcher Charlie Casey Nicholson of the Neal Williams lab and the Elina Lastro Niño lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won the 2021 contest by photographing a B. melanopygus at 3:10 p.m., Jan. 14 in a manzanita patch in the Arboretum.
UC Davis doctoral candidate Maureen Page of the Neal Williams lab and horticulturist Ellen Zagory, retired director of public horticulture for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, tied for first in the 2022 contest by each photographing a bumble bee foraging on manzanita (Arctostaphylos) in the Arboretum at 2:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 1.
Page, who now holds a doctorate in entomology, photographed a B. melanopygus, while Zagory captured an image of the yellow-faced bumble bee, B. vosnesenskii.
Thorp, a 30-year member of the UC Davis faculty, and a tireless advocate of pollinator species protection and conservation, retired in 1994, but he continued working until several weeks before his death on June 7, 2019 at age 85. In 2014, he co-authored two books: Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (Princeton University,) and California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday). Every year he looked forward to finding or seeing the first bumble bee in the area.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The seminar, set for 4:10 p.m., Pacific Time, will be virtual only, announced seminar series coordinator Emily Meineke, an urban landscape entomologist and assistant professor.
The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.
His abstract: "Because they vector pathogens to humans, mosquitoes impact millions of people every year. The global strategy for the management of mosquito-borne diseases involves controlling vector populations, to a large extent, through insecticide application. However, vector-borne diseases are now resurgent, largely because of rising insecticide resistance in vector populations and the drug resistance of pathogens. In this context, the Vinauger Lab studies the molecular, physiological, and neural basis of mosquito behavior. We rely on a collaborative, integrative, and
multidisciplinary approach, at the intersection between data science, neuro-ethology, molecular biology, and chemical ecology. Our long-term goal is to identify targets to disrupt mosquito-host interactions and reduce mosquito-borne disease transmission."
On his website, Vinauger elaborates: "The ability of mosquitoes to detect, process, and respond to olfactory information emitted by their hosts can affect disease transmission. The magnitude of their responses to host and plant odors varies drastically throughout the day, but, despite their clear epidemiological relevance, the neural and molecular mechanisms acting at the circuit levels to control mosquito behavior remain to be determined. In the lab, we employ an interdisciplinary approach combining behavioral assays, electrophysiological recordings, transcriptomic analysis, and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, to characterize rhythms in odorant detection, perception, and olfactory behavior, thereby identifying the genetic basis of the temporal plasticity in mosquito-host interactions."
Molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology and a Chancellor's Fellow, will serve as the host. "I have very high regard for Dr. Vinauger's integrative and multidisciplinary research into the biochemical and neurophysiological basis of insect behavior," Professor Chiu said. "His research program is innovative and rigorous, leveraging techniques in quantitative behavioral analysis, bioengineering, neurobiology, and computational methods to address exciting and important questions in mosquito biology and behavior."
The Vinauger lab "studies the molecular, physiological, and neural basis of mosquito behavior," according to its website. "We are a group of experimental biologists, relying on a collaborative, integrative, and multidisciplinary approach, at the intersection between data science, neuro-ethology, molecular biology, and chemical ecology. Our long-term goal is to identify targets to disrupt mosquito-host interactions and reduce mosquito-borne disease transmission."
The Vinauger lab's latest publication, "Visual Threats Reduce Blood-Feeding and Trigger Escape Responses in Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes," appears in the Dec. 9, 2022 edition of Scientific Reports.
The abstract:
"The diurnal mosquitoes Aedes aegypti are vectors of several arboviruses, including dengue, yellow fever, and Zika viruses. To find a host to feed on, they rely on the sophisticated integration of olfactory, visual, thermal, and gustatory cues emitted by the hosts. If detected by their target, this latter may display defensive behaviors that mosquitoes need to be able to detect and escape in order to survive. In humans, a typical response is a swat of the hand, which generates both mechanical and visual perturbations aimed at a mosquito. Here, we used programmable visual displays to generate expanding objects sharing characteristics with the visual component of an approaching hand and quantified the behavioral response of female mosquitoes. Results show that Ae. aegypti is capable of using visual information to decide whether to feed on an artificial host mimic. Stimulations delivered in a LED flight arena further reveal that landed Ae. aegypti females display a stereotypical escape strategy by taking off at an angle that is a function of the direction of stimulus introduction. Altogether, this study demonstrates that mosquitoes landed on a host mimic can use isolated visual cues to detect and avoid a potential threat."
Vinauger joined the Virginia Tech faculty in October 2017, after serving as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Washington, Seattle. Educated in France, he received his bachelor of science degree in biology/biological sciences in 2006 from the University of Orléans; his master's degree in 2008 from the University of Tours, France; and his doctorate in 2011 from the University of Tours, Research Institute on Insect Biology.
The UC Davis Department of Entomology seminars are held on Wednesdays through March 15. (See schedule.) Eight of the 10 will be in-person in 122 Briggs Hall, and all will be virtual.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Eight of the 10 seminars are both in-person and virtual, while two will be virtual only. The in-person seminars will take place from 4:10 to 5 p.m. (Pacific Time) on Wednesdays in Room 122 of Briggs Hall, located off Kleiber Drive. All seminars will live-streamed on Zoom and recorded for future viewing. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.
The topics range from bark beetles and meat-eating bees to exit seminars by two UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology doctoral candidates.
Wednesday, Jan. 11--Virtual Only
Clément Vinauger, Ph.D.
Assistant professor
Virginia Tech Department of Biochemistry
Title: "Neural and Molecular Basis of Mosquito Behavior"
Host: Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Jan. 18
Quinn McFredrick, Ph.D.
Assistant professor
UC Riverside Department of Entomology
Title: "The Weird World of Pathogens, Microbes, and Meat-Eating Bees"
Wednesday, Jan. 25
Lisa Chamberland, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral fellow, Jason Bond Lab
UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Title: Pending
Host: Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Wednesday, Feb. 1
Chris Fettig, Ph.D.
Research entomologist
U. S. Forest Service
Title: "Bark Beetles: How Tiny Insects Are Transforming Western Forests with a Little Help from Climate Change'
Wednesday, Feb. 8
Lauren Ponisio, Ph.D.
Assistant professor
University of Oregon Department of Biology
Title: "Disease in Plant-Pollinator Communities"
Host: Rachel Vannette, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Feb. 15
Christine Tabuloc, doctoral candidate
Molecular geneticist, Joanna Chiu lab
UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Title: (Title pending; this is her exit seminar)
Host: Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Feb. 22
Kyle Lewald, doctoral candidate
Molecular geneticist, Joanna Chiu lab
UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Title: "Using Genomic Data to Understand and Prevent the Spread of Tuta absoluta" (exit seminar)
Host: Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, March 1
Dana Nayduch, Ph.D.
Research entomologist
USDA-ARS Center for Grain and Animal Health Research
Title: "Can Surveying Microbial Communities of House Flies Help Us Understand Emerging Threats to Animal and Human Health?"
Wednesday, March 8
Amy Worthington, Ph.D.
Assistant professor
Creighton University Department of Biology
Title: "A Host of Hardships: The Costs of Harboring a Long-Lived Parasite"
Host: Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, March 15 -- Virtual Only
Sylvain Pincebourde, Ph.D.
Researcher
University of Tours, Insect Biology Research Institute
Title: "The Key Role of Microclimates in Modulating the Response of Ectotherms to Climate Change"
Host: Emily Meineke, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
The Department of Entomology and Nematology, ranked among the top entomology departments in the United States, is chaired by nematologist and professor Steve Nadler. Vice chair is molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu.
For further information on the seminars or technical difficulties with Zoom, contact Meineke at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
And UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus Harris Lewin, renowned for his research in comparative mammalian genomics and immunogenetics, did just that when he delivered the inaugural UC Davis New Emeriti Distinguished Lecture on “From Chickens to Cows to Everything: Perspectives from 40 Years in Science."
The lecture, held Dec. 7 in the UC Davis International Center and live-streamed on Zoom to attendees from five countries (United States, South Korea, Australia, Japan and Israel), chronicled his bovine leukemia research that led to his receiving the 2011 Wolf Prize in Agriculture, an award comparable to the Nobel Prize in Agriculture.
Lewin's seminar was the first in a series of three lectures honoring new emeriti and coordinated by UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, former chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology. Lewin's lecture is online at https://youtu.be/sWzEyQTM-qQ.
“The New Emeriti Distinguished Lecture series is a platform to celebrate the accomplishments of retiring colleagues,” Leal said. “They have dedicated their lives to laying the foundation for UC Davis to grow into a premiere academic institution. We are very thankful for their contributions to the university's missions and for making UC Davis a better place for us to succeed."
All lectures are free and open to the public.
In his welcoming address, UC Davis Chancellor Gary May commented: "I'd like to thank Dr. Lewin for giving the first lecture in this series. Harris is the former vice chancellor for research and a distinguished professor emeritus in evolution and ecology. He also holds the Robert and Rosabel Osborne Endowed Chair with work that specializes in the genome evolution of mammals. Like Dr. Lewin, all of our emeriti deserve recognition. They continue to make critical discoveries in their research and scholarship across disciplines. For our new emeriti, I welcome you to this distinguished group and encourage you to stay engaged with campus. Your emeriti play a vital role in keeping our campus on an upward trajectory lending time, talents and treasure to keep our university thriving. The Emeriti Association has resources and support for this newest chapter of our career. We're grateful for your dedication to UC Davis and congratulations on reaching this milestone."
"I had numerous interactions with Harris but the the enduring memory is meeting him right in front of Briggs for coffee," Hammock said, "and he was so excited over his latest paper (genetics) that he was trembling. So he's been fun for a long time."
Lewin thanked his mentors, colleagues, collaborators, family and friends. He recalled his 27 years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he held the E.W. and J.M. Gutgsell Endowed Professorship in Immunogenetics and served as director of the University of Illinois Biotechnology Center, founding director of the W.M. Keck Center for Comparative and Functional Genomics, and founding director of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.
Following his nearly three decades at the University of Illinois, Lewin returned to UC Davis to serve as the vice chancellor for research, 2011-2016. Then UC Davis chancellor Linda Katehi videoed how she was able to recruit him. She praised him for "the stellar job that laid the foundation" for UC Davis to reach the recent billion dollar mark in research funding.
After scores of colleagues lauded Lewin's scientific research, his daughter, Sara Lebwohl, stated that his most important title is "My Da (dy)." Granddaughter Halle, corrected her: "No, it's Grandpa Harris."
Next Two Lectures
UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus Geerat Vermeij, an evolutionary biologist and paleoecologist with the UC Davis Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, will present the second in the three-part New Emeriti Distinguished Lecture series at 3 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 15 on" The Evolution of Power." It will be live-streamed on Zoom; registration is underway at https://bit.ly/3BXh0zA.
In a pre-recorded video, Vermeij told Leal: "I'm going to talk about power. And I'm using power in the sense of physics and engineering, that is to say, energy per unit time. All kinds of biological phenomenon can be expressed in terms of power, so for example, productivity, even fitness, the use of force with respect to time and so on. And it turns out that if you think about various biological functions and interactions in terms of power, you rapidly come to see that the most powerful organisms have the greatest effect on their surroundings, in fact, they modify their own surroundings, often to their own benefit."
"I've looked at the geological effect of power, in all kinds of different ways, and integrated it with our own human history which is also a history of increasing power and I've come to realize that over the great arch of geological time, so hundreds to millions to billions of years, there's been an overall increase in maximum power, that is, accomplished by the most powerful entities in the world. I discuss this at some length and will end by saying that humans have now been the first species of earth to create what I would describe as an economic and power monopoly with all the problems that it has brought."
Vermeij is known for his work on coevolutionary relationships between predator and prey organisms, with a focus on marine mollusks. A native of The Netherlands, he lost his sight to glaucoma at age three, but did not let that deter him. Majoring in biology and geology, he graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1968, and obtained his doctorate in biology and geology from Yale University in 1971. In 1992, Vermeij received a MacArthur Fellowship, the “genius” grant, and in 2000, was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. (See The Shape of Life.)
The series of New Emeriti Distinguished Lectures concludes with the spring lecture by UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus Sharon Strauss of the Department of Evolution and Ecology. It will take place at 3 p.m., Wednesday, April 19 in the International Center and also will be live-streamed on Zoom. Strauss is known for her work on how species evolve as a consequence of community membership (their complex interactions with co-occurring species); direct and indirect effects (through pollinators) of herbivory on male and female plant fitness.
Great Citizen of the Campus. In his opening remarks, Lewin described Leal "as a great citizen of the campus" and "Walter is really the only person who can pull something off like this." Leal won the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award for his four online or virtual symposiums on COVID-19 that drew more than 6000 viewers from 35 countries. Widely recognized for his research, teaching and mentorships, Leal is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, American Association for the Advancement of Science, California Academy of Sciences, Royal Entomological Society and the Entomological Society of America (ESA). The UC Davis Academic Senate named him the recipient of its 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching, and the Pacific Branch of ESA presented him with its 2020 Award of Excellence in Teaching. Leal was recently selected the 2022 recipient of the College of Biological Sciences (CBS) Faculty Teaching Award.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“It's of special interest this year because as of a few days ago the bug was still flying and laying eggs, which will result in non-diapause pupae,” said Shapiro, a noted butterfly expert who researches biological responses to climate change. “Depending on the weather, that could mean an earlier-than-usual emergence. There is even a slight chance the fall brood is not over yet...”
Shapiro, a member of the Department of Evolution and Ecology faculty, has sponsored the “Suds for a Bug” contest since 1972 to determine the first flight of the year in the three-county area of Sacramento, Solano and Yolo. He launched the contest as part of his long-term studies of butterfly life cycles and climate change.
P. rapae is emerging earlier and earlier as the regional climate has warmed, said Shapiro. "Since 1972, the first flight of the cabbage white butterfly has varied from Jan. 1 to Feb. 22, averaging about Jan. 20."
Shapiro, who has monitored butterfly populations of central California since 1972 and maintains a research website at http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/, says the point of the contest "is to get the earliest possible flight date for statistical purposes. The rules require that the animal be captured and brought in alive to be verified. That way no one can falsely claim to have seen one or misidentify something else as a cabbage white."
The contest rules include:
- It must be an adult (no caterpillars or pupae) and be captured outdoors.
- It must be brought in alive to the Department of Evolution and Ecology office, 2320 Storer Hall, UC Davis, during work hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, with the full data (exact time, date and location of the capture) and the contact information of the collector (address, phone number and/or e-mail.) The receptionist will certify that it is alive and refrigerate it. (If it's collected on a weekend or holiday, it can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days--do not freeze it.)
- Shapiro is the sole judge.
The professor said P. rapae inhabits vacant lots, fields and gardens where its host plants, weedy mustards, grow. The male is white. The female is often slightly buffy; the "underside of the hindwing and apex of the forewing may be distinctly yellow and normally have a gray cast,” Shapiro said. “The black dots and apical spot on the upperside tend to be faint or even to disappear really early in the season.”
Shapiro, who monitors butterfly populations in the field for more than 200 days of the year, usually wins the contest. He has been defeated only four times and those were by UC Davis graduate students. Adam Porter won in 1983; Sherri Graves and Rick VanBuskirk each won in the late 1990s; and Jacob Montgomery in 2016. The first three were his own graduate students.
A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Entomological Society and the California Academy of Sciences, Shapiro is the author of A Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions, illustrated by Tim Manolis and published in 2007 by the University of California Press
Recent Beer-for-a-Butterfly Contest statistics:
- 2022: No official contest due to the COVID pandemic, but Shapiro recorded his first-of-the-year P. rapae at 1:25 p.m. on Jan. 19 in West Sacramento, Yolo County
- 2021: No official contest due to the COVID pandemic, but Shapiro collected his first-of-the-year at 1:55 p.m. Jan. 16 on the UC Davis campus, Yolo County
- 2020: Technically, no winner, as Shapiro did not collect the one he spotted in Winters, Yolo County at 11:16 a.m. on Jan. 30 at the Putah Creek Nature Park. "It flew back and forth across Putah Creek and then departed the area, flying out of reach above the trees," he noted. He waited around for 90 minutes to see if it would return. It did not.
- 2019: Shapiro collected the first cabbage white butterfly near the Suisun Yacht Club, Suisun City, Solano County, at 1:12 p.m., Friday, Jan. 25. "It was the earliest recorded in Suisun City in 47 seasons."
- 2018: Art Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
- 2017: Jan. 19: Art Shapiro collected the winner on the UC Davis campus
- 2016: Jan. 16: Jacob Montgomery collected the winner in west Davis
- 2015: Jan. 26: Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
- 2014: Jan. 14: Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
- 2013: Jan. 21: Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
- 2012: Jan. 8: Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
- 2011: Jan. 31: Shapiro collected the winner in Suisun
- 2010: Jan. 27: Shapiro collected the winner in West Sacramento
Shapiro nets many of the winners in mustard patches near railroad tracks in West Sacramento, Yolo County.
As a caterpillar, the insect is a pest of cole crops such as cabbage. UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) says the cabbageworm is active throughout the year in California. "Cabbageworm larvae chew large, irregular holes in leaves, bore into heads, and drop greenish brown fecal pellets that may contaminate the marketed product. Seedlings may be damaged, but most losses are due to damage to marketed parts of the plant," according to the UC IPM website.
Related Link:
Research Publication on Non-Diapause Overwintering Cabbage White Butterfly and Anise Swallowtail
Non-Diapause Overwintering by Pieris rapae (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) and Papilio zelicaon (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) in California: Adaptiveness of Type III Diapause-Induction Curves by Art Shapiro, published in 1984 in Psyche: A Journal of Entomology (open access article)
First paragraph: "Diapause is generally regarded as a physiological adaptation which increases the probability of surviving the adverse season, and thus of reproducing after it is over. Many insect species show geographic differences in the environmental regimes which induce or inhibit diapause (e.g., critical photoperiod) and in the strength of the diapause induced. Such interpopulational differences are commonly viewed as "fine tuning" to local climates, accomplished by natural selection and reflecting a genetic basis (e.g., Istock, 1981). Intrapopulational differences in photoperiodic sensitivity and diapause strength (e.g., chilling requirement) also occur, and have been interpreted as polymorphisms which "spread the risk" of environmental uncertainty over the population (cf. Bradshaw 1973, Shapiro 1979, 1980a). In multivoltine insects in seasonal climates, offspring produced by the last seasonal generation of adults are commonly induced to enter diapause by specific combinations of environmental factors; in mid-latitudes these are likely to be decreasing photophase/increasing scotophase and decreasing or consistently low night temperatures. Warmer nights tend to shorten the critical photoperiod for a given population, or may effectively inhibit diapause altogether under field conditions." (See more)
