- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
CA&ES Dean Helene Dillard presented them with the "Friends of the College" award as the crowd applauded in a standing ovation.
The Sacramento couple recently donated $1 million to support the museum's insect collection, a gift that will provide the museum with the financial security to support staff and resources, said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. The Bohart Museum, the seventh largest insect museum in North America, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens.
Patterson, a Bohart associate since 1993, has collected some 50,000 butterfly, moth and other specimens. To date, he has donated more than 15,000 specimens to the Bohart Museum.
During his talk, Patterson related how much he enjoyed researching and collecting butterflies and moths, and working with the Bohart Museum scientists. The $1 million gift represents an inheritance (sale of farmland).
A native of Oakland, Bill began collecting butterflies at age 6. He received a bachelor's degree in entomology from the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 1962. He worked as a technician for UC Davis entomology professor Howard McKenzie from 1958 to 1968, retiring from UC Davis in 1963. Patterson also holds a teaching credential from Sacramento State University and taught math and science as a substitute teacher for 15 years, retiring from teaching in 1985.
Doris Brown, born in Seattle, holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science (Washington State University) and a master's degree in counseling. She worked as an analyst and manager for the federal and state goverment and a private consulting firm. She retired as the chief of Fiscal Programs Division, California Employment Development Department.
Entomologist Jeff Smith, the volunteer curator of the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum, won the 2015 "Friend of the College" award." (See news story)
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. Named for UC Davis professor and noted entomologist Richard Bohart, it is open to the public from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 5 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays.
Among those honored at the CA&ES Award of Distinction ceremony was honey bee geneticist Robert E. Page Jr., named the recipient of the Exceptional Emeriti Award. A UC Davis-trained scientist whose academic career spans UC Davis and Arizona State University, he is known as “the leading honey bee geneticist in the world." (See news story)
Other award winners:
- Alumnus of the Year, Marko Zaninovich (Class of 1964)
- Exceptional Faculty Award, Daniel Sumner, the Frank H. Buck, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics
- Exceptional Staff Award, Shannon Tanguay, budget fiscal officer with CA&ES. (See more on CA&ES website)
CA&ES, directed by Dean Helene Dillard, is globally recognized for its expertise, educational opportunities, and contributions to society, according to its website. "Much of that is due to the great dedication and efforts of our faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of the college. Each year CA&ES recognizes individuals for their achievements, support, leadership and service to the college with an Award of Distinction honoring those contributions."
ESA showcased the winning images on Sunday, Nov. 13 at its joint meeting of the Entomological Society of Canada and the Entomological Society of British Columbia, which opened Nov. 13 and continues through Nov. 16 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Garvey captured the image of the fly, Scathophaga stercoraria, perched on a lavender stem in her family's pollinator garden in Vacaville and titled it “Checking You Out.” Scathophaga play an important role in the natural decomposition of dung.
The Peoria Camera Club, Illinois, sponsors the Insect Salon in conjunction with ESA and the Photographic Society of America. Coordinator Joe Virbickis of the Peoria Camera Club said the images are restricted to insects, spiders, and related arthropods (such as barnacles, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, centipedes, and millipedes.) Each photographer may submit up to four entries. "The range for acceptances is 33-35 percent of eligible images," he said.
This year's competition drew 254 entries. Judges gave acceptances to photographers from 17 countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, England, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and United States. (See acceptances and awards at https://insectsalon.peoriacameraclub.com/results/2022/Html/sect_1.htm)
Two other images that Garvey submitted also gained acceptances. One was of a crab spider nailing a katydid (Did or Didn't I?), and the other of a pollen-covered honey bee (Eureka! I Found It!).
Best of Show. Best of show medal went to Kenneth Gillies of West Lothian, Scotland, United Kingdom, for his “Peppermint Shrimps Inside a Sponge.”
Gillies was joined by the five other top winners:
- Medal for Most Unusual Image: Weihua Ma of Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China, for “Pretending to be a Branch.”
- Medal for Best Storytelling Image: Dre Van Mensel of Tielen, Antwerpen, Belgium, for “It's Mine.”
- Medal for Best Image by a ESA member: Kathy Keatley Garvey of UC Davis/Vacaville, Calif., for “Checking You Out.”
- Medal for Best Image by a non-ESA member, Tim Sanders of Bideford, Devon, England, for “At Work.”
- Medal for Best Peoria Camera Club member: Ladean Spring of Creve Coeur, lll., for “Hummingbird Moth.”
ESA member and noted insect photographer Tom Myers of Lexington, Ky., displayed the Insect Salon images at the ESA meeting. Virbickis assisted in preparing it. Myers is a frequent recipient of Insect Salon awards. His acceptances this year: "European Hornet Vespa Crabro" (honorable mention); "Chalcid Wasp 1"; and "Brood X Cicada Magicicada Sp."
The 7000-member ESA, founded in 1889 and located in Annapolis, Md., is the world's largest entomological organization. It is affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry and government. Members are researchers, teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, students, pest management professionals, and hobbyists.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Her seminar, both in-person and virtual, begins at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 16 in 122 Briggs Hall. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.
Nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is the host.
"Meloidogyne chitwoodi is a root-knot nematode often found in potato growing regions of Northwestern United States," Gleason says in her abstract. "It is a nematode that can infect both potato roots and tubers. In the case of tuber infections, it causes small pimple-like blemishes on the skin, giving the potato a rough, bumpy appearance. Unfortunately, there are no commercially available potato cultivars that are resistant to M. chitwoodi."
"The Gleason lab is undertaking several different lines of research to develop novel tools to combat these nematodes," she said. "For example, we characterize nematode effectors, which give us information about how the nematodes avoid or suppress the plant immune system. In addition, we are developing molecular markers to distinguish the different M. chitwoodi populations that differ in host range and virulence. On the plant side of the interaction, we are studying nematode resistance in potato, including resistance triggered by the potato defense elicitor called Pep1."
Gleason, who joined the WSU faculty in 2016, holds a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from UC Davis (2003). She served as postdoctoral fellow, Disease and Stress Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich UK (2003-2006), postdoctoral fellow, Plant Industry, CSIRO, Perth, Australia (2006-2010); and as junior professor in the Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Physiology, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany (2011-2016).
From her WSU website: "My research centers around plant parasitic nematodes and primarily focuses on root-knot nematodes and their interactions with host plants. These small roundworms are soil borne pathogens that can infect most vascular plants. The root infections cause damage that affects water and nutrient uptake, and this can lead to dramatically reduced crop yields. In order to develop new strategies to combat nematodes, my group studies root-knot nematode secretions that are released into the plant and manipulate host defenses and signaling pathways. One focus of study is on the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne chitwoodi, a serious pathogen of potatoes in the region. We are interested in identifying novel M. chitwoodi pathogenicity genes required for successful potato infection. We are also working to dissect the defense responses triggered during infection of nematode-resistant potatoes. My lab uses a variety of experimental approaches, such as gene expression analyses, generation and characterization of transgenic plants, and heterologous expression of nematode genes in bacteria, to increase our knowledge of the plant/nematode interaction at the molecular level."
Emily Meineke, assistant professor of urban landscape entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, coordinates the department's seminars for the 2022-23 academic year. All 11 seminars will take place both person and virtually at 4:10 p.m. on Wednesdays in Room 122 of Briggs Hall except for the Nov. 9th and Dec. 7th seminars, which will be virtual only, she said. (See list of seminars)
For further information on the seminars or to resolve any technical difficulties with Zoom, contact Meineke at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Let The Games begin!
The award-winning UC Davis Entomology Games Team is gearing up for the national competition.
The popular Entomology Games, a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams, takes center stage at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (ESA). This year's meeting is set Nov. 13-16 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
A preliminary round will be held from 1 to 3 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 13 in the West Ballroom of the Vancouver Convention Center. The final round is from 5 to 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 15 at the same site. The event was formerly known as the Linnaean Games.
The UC Davis team defeated the UC Riverside team at the 2022 meeting of the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA) to advance to the nationals. UC Riverside also will compete in the nationals as the PBESA runner-up. The Pacific Branch encompasses 11 Western states, parts of Canada and Mexico and several U.S. territories.
Some of the questions asked of the teams at the PBESA meeting, held April 10-13 in Santa Rosa:
- Give the binomial name of the new record-holder for millipede with greatest number of legs, along with its country of origin. (Answers: Eumillipes persephone; Australia)
- What is a chemical called that is added to an insecticide that enhances the formulation and efficacy, but is not itself toxic? (Answer: an adjuvant)
- Name the heme containing enzymes that play a role in the detoxification of xenobiotics such as pesticides. (Answer: Cytochrome P450s)
- What is the most prevalent virus affecting humans that is vectored by Aedes mosquitoes? (Answer: Dengue)
In last year's national match, Ka Mea Kolo, an entomology club at the University of Hawaii, defeated Texas A&M to claim the championship. Auburn University won the national championship in 2020, and the University of Florida in 2019.
Since 2015, UC Davis has scored three national championships:
- 2018: The University of California team (UC Davis/UC Berkeley) defeated Texas A&M. Members of the UC Team: captain Ralph Washington Jr., then a UC Berkeley graduate student with a bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Davis; doctoral students Brendon Boudinot, Jill Oberski and Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, and doctoral student Emily Bick of the Christian Nansen lab.
- 2016: UC Davis defeated the University of Georgia. Members of the UC Davis team: captain Ralph Washington Jr., Brendon Boudinot and Emily Bick.
- 2015: UC Davis defeated the University of Florida. Members of the UC Davis team: captain Ralph Washington Jr., and members Brendon Boudinot, Jessica Gillung and Ziad Khouri.
The 7000-member ESA, founded in 1889 and located in Annapolis, Md., is the world's largest entomological organization. It is affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry and government. Members are researchers, teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, students, pest management professionals, and hobbyists.
Resources:
- Listen to the 2018 Entomology Games (won by the University of California team, comprised of UC Davis and UC Berkeley students), posted on YouTube (audio only, no video)
- Watch the 2016 National Linnaean Games Championship Round (won by UC Davis), posted on YouTube
- Watch the 2015 National Linnaean Games Championship Round (won by UC Davis), posted on YouTube
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Her project, “Assessing Preservation of Chemical Compounds in Pressed Plants," will focus on whether herbarium specimens collected over hundreds of years harbor chemical compounds that reveal mechanisms responsible for changing insect-plant interactions.
"In particular, the project will reveal extent to which herbarium specimens that are dried and stored continue to harbor key chemicals—such as defensive chemicals against insects created by plants themselves and pesticides—in their leaves," Meineke said. "This project will inform my lab's future investigations into effects of urbanization and climate change on insect herbivores."
Individual awards ranged from $15,000 to $36,000, or totalling $300,000. This is the 15th year that Hellman fellowships have been awarded to UC Davis faculty. San Francisco philathropists Warren and Chris Hellman established the program in 1995 in partnership with their daughter Frances Hellman, then a newly tenured member of the UC San Diego faculty, and now a professor of physics at UC Berkeley.
Meinke, a native of Greenville, N.C., joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology on March 1, 2020, from the Harvard University Herbaria. As a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow, she studied how urbanization and climate change have affected plant-insect relationships worldwide over the past 100-plus years.
Emily received her bachelor of science degree in environmental science, with a minor in biology, in 2008 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She obtained her doctorate in entomology in 2016 from North Carolina State University, studying with major professors Steven Frank and Robert Dunn. Her dissertation: "Understanding the Consequences of Urban Warming for Street Trees and Their Insect Pests."
Meineke joins three other UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty as recipients of Hellman Fellowships:
- Community ecologist Rachel Vannette, now an associate professor, won the award 2018. (See news story)
- Honey bee scientist Brian Johnson, now an associate professor, received the award in 2015. (See news story)
- Community ecologist Louie Yang, now a professor, won the award in 2012. (See news story)
Although the Hellmans ended their annual fellowship funding on all UC campuses two years ago, they provided endowments to the UC campuses ($6 million to UC Davis) to enable “fellowships in perpetuity,” according to a UC Davis news story.