- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Bob stole the show.
Picture this: UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert “Bob” Kimsey is portraying “Dr. Death” inside Briggs Hall during the 109th annual UC Davis Picnic Day, but just outside the building, another Bob is grabbing the spotlight.
That would be Bob, a two-inch long American cockroach, Periplaneta americana, competing in the Roach Races.
"Roach Bob" is part of the colony that "Dr. Bob" inherited from the late entomology emeritus professor Charles Judson (1926-2015).
Every year someone names a roach “Bob” to honor the colony keeper.
The reddish-brown roaches race inside a tubelike track. An air pump, emitting "a gentle breeze," encourages them to leave the starting gate and head for the finish line--all six legs flying.
This year Bob, Speedster and Charlie proved to be crowd favorites.
“We rotate the roaches so they don't get too stressed from the heat, but Speedster definitely lived up to its name,” said Roach Race coordinator Taylor Kelly, a doctoral candidate in the lab of medical entomologist/geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
“Bob was a definite winner,” said race announcer-roach handler Iris Quayle, a first-year doctoral student in the lab of Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “I don't think the crowd knew they were naming a cockroach after Bob Kimsey but it worked out well. And the aptly named Speedster gave everyone a run for their money!”
Kimsey's wife, Lynn Kimsey, a UC Davis distinguished professor and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, also is honored annually with a roach named “Lynn.” Last year her namesake won a few races; this year, no.
“We had audience members be our Roach Coaches--they encouraged the roaches to run with a gentle breeze of air,” Taylor said. “Later on in the day, we had a very speedy roach named Charlie that clinched 4 rounds back-to-back. Charlie was named by a youngster participating as his Roach Coach. He named the cockroach after his little brother.”
“At the beginning of the day we had some near-escapees and definitely elicited some screams from the crowd when one managed to get free,” Iris said, “but Taylor and I were too fast and were able to get them all back into the colony in the end. We also had some stubborn racers who didn't want to leave their racing tube after the competition.”
Some spectators asked Iris what the experience was like. “I did get a few questions about if I was okay holding them, and if I was scared I would get sick, but once I explained that this was a maintained colony by the college and that cockroaches are only as dirty as their environment, people came around and were even willing to give the racers a little head pat for good luck.”
In between races, the announcers asked if anyone wanted to pet a cockroach. They did, and took cell phone images and videos, too. “It was fun to let folks give the roaches a little head pat, a lot of folks said they seemed more cute after getting up close and personal,” Kelly said. “I hope folks loved roaches a little more after the races!”
Did anyone ask to take one home? “No, but we had many people complain that they already had too many lurking at home,” Taylor quipped.
Taylor was a member of the 2022 UC Davis Entomology Games team that won the national championship at the Entomological Society of America meeting. She also won the 2022 Student Leadership Award from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA) for her leadership in STEM and entomological activities.
Iris recently won first place in the doctoral student research competition at the 2023 PBESA meeting, held in Seattle. Her presentation, “Colorless but Never Dull: Unraveling Population Genetics and Color Evolution in ‘White' Darkling Beetles (Onymacris),” was her first-ever scientific presentation. Iris served a year as a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Post-Baccalaureate Students (NSF-REPS) in the Bond lab before being accepted into the doctoral program in 2022.
Kimsey, an associate adjunct professor and lecturer since 1990, has served as the master advisor for the animal biology (ABI) major since 2010 and an ABI lecturer since 2001. He also serves as the UC Davis Entomology Club advisor. He annually co-chairs the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's Picnic Day activities with a member of the Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA). This year he co-chaired the event with doctoral student Grace Horne of the lab of urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Squirm, maggots, squirm!
If you look behind the scenes of the entomological activities at the 108th annual UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 23 at Briggs Hall, you'll see a Department of Entomology and Nematology doctoral candidate coordinating everything from Roach Races to Maggot Art.
“I'm really excited to get our events up and running again after two years," said Danielle Rutkowski, the UC Davis Graduate Student Association (EGSA) coordinator of the department's Picnic Day activities at Briggs Hall (with forensic entomologist and faculty member Robert Kimsey).
COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the in-person UC Davis Picnic Day in both 2020 and 2021, but not 2022, nor the renewed enthusiasm.
“Coordinating events has been challenging, mostly because I've only been to one in-person Picnic Day myself!" said Rutkowski, who enrolled in the doctoral program in 2018, and is advised by associate professor Rachel Vannette and UC Davis distinguished professor Richard Karban.
"But it's been fun to work with other graduate students and the entomology club to get our exhibits from previous years back together. This is the first Picnic Day for many students in the department, so I want to make sure it's a fun experience for volunteers as well as visitors.”
Entomological activities at Briggs Hall will include Bug Doctor and Doctor Death booths; displays featuring honey bees, ants, mosquitoes, integrated pest management, forest entomology, medical entomology and agricultural entomology; and EGSA's insect-themed t-shirt sales, as well as the crowd-pleasing Roach Races and Maggot Art. And more. (See schedule at Briggs and Bohart Museum of Entomology.)
“The Roach Races are a definite favorite of the public; they're really high energy and a lot of fun," Rutkowski said. "And the (American) roaches are from a colony that the entomology club cares for, so they can return home after a hard day of racing. Maggot Art is another popular event among visitors, and we order the maggots from a bait supplier.”
Rutkowski says there are plenty of events “that I haven't seen before, and I'm looking forward to being a part of them this year. We'll have a lot of displays set up in Briggs 122, which I'm excited to see. We'll be bringing back some previous displays on forest entomology and medical entomology, as well as some new displays on agricultural entomology and caterpillar biology.”
Her research is funded by a three-year USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) pre-doctoral fellowship of $180,000; it provides tuition stipends and research funding to study the impacts and mechanisms of fungicide and bee-associated fungi on bumble bee health. Her other grants or scholarships include a 2020 Academic Senate grant of $25,000 to research the effects of fungicide on the health and microbiome composition of bumble bees; three George H. Vansell Scholarships (2019, 2020 and 2021 totaling $8950) to study the effects of fungicide on the health and microbiome composition of bumble bees; and a 2018-2020 UC Davis Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship of $95,200.
Danielle holds a bachelor of science degree from Cornell University in entomology and biological sciences, with a concentration in ecology and evolutionary biology. She graduated in May 2018 summa cum laude with distinction in research.
At Cornell, Rutkowski did independent research with Professor Jennifer Thaler, carrying out an independent honor's thesis research project on ecological interactions between insect herbivores, plants, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Rutkowski also worked with Thaler on numerous other projects, studying interactions between potato plants, Colorado potato beetles, and their predators, as well as projects studying the interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, tomato plants, and insect herbivores. She also worked with Professor Richard Lindroth at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, investigating how genotype and environmental conditions interact to affect the growth, defense and insect community of aspen trees.
Active in the Entomological Society of America (ESA), Rutkowski presented her research at the annual meetings in 2017, 2018 and 2021, and received the President's Prize (first place) in both 2017 and 2021. Rutkowski has also served as a member of the UC Davis graduate student group, Equity in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Entrepreneurship (ESTEME), planning activities and lessons for middle school students in the Davis area.
But for now, Danielle Rutkowski is juggling (1) her research on bumble bees (2) her dedication to her academic studies and (3) her mentoring and student teaching with (4) her commitment to public service: coordinating the highly popular Roach Races, Maggot Art and other entomological activities at the UC Davis Picnic Day's campuswide open house.