- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Sarah Silverman, a doctoral candidate who is studying insect demography at UC Davis with major professor James R. Carey, won a second-place award in her category.
Boudinot, who studies classification and evolution of morphology, delivered a 10-minute oral presentation in the Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity Section on "The Protopodal Theory of Genitalic Evolution in the Hexapoda (Arthropoda: Mandibulata: Pancrustacea)."
Boudinot completed his undergraduate work at the Evergreen State College, Olympia, Wash., and spent a year working as a research technician at the University of Utah before starting his graduate work in 2014 with advisor Phil Ward. He focuses his research on evolution and ecology, approached from the perspective of systematics. “I integrate several lines of inquiry to answer historical evolutionary questions, including morphological and molecular phylogenetics, paleontology, and traditional comparative morphology,” Boudinot related. “I specialize on the skeletomusculature system of the male genitalia of the Hexapoda and the classification of the Formicoidea.”
Silverman gave a 10-minute oral presentation in the Diptera-Mosquitoes category of the Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology Section, on “Population as Cohort: Interpreting the Mortality Patterns of Wild-Caught Adult Mosquitoes of Unknown Ages.”
Silverman completed her bachelor's degree in environmental science at McGill University in Montreal. For her undergraduate thesis, she studied the phenology of wild Osmia bees. Her work at UC Davis is in the field of insect demography. “I specifically study insect lifespan in the wild, as well as the the age-structure of insect populations in the wild using an innovative methodological approach: the capture of live-insects in the wild which are then maintained and observed in the lab until death,” she said.
At its annual meetings, the ESA offers graduate students the opportunity to present their research and win coveted prizes. The first-place President's Prize recipient receives a one-year free membership in ESA, a $75 cash prize, and a certificate. The second-place winner receives a one-year free membership in ESA and a certificate.
The oral presentations are evaluated on scientific content (50 percent) and presentation (50 percent). For scientific content, judges score them on introduction and background with pertinent literature cited; objectives clearly stated and concise; materials and methods (study design) clear and concise; results and discussion clear, concise and accurate; and significance of results to field of study. Judges evaluation the presentation on organization, slides and delivery.
Boudinot's previous President's Prizes were for work on the male genitalia of ants, and for providing the first male-based identification material for the ant genera of the New World.
Ants are highly diverse, with over 13,000 known species, Boudinot said. "They are, however, but one stitch in the diversity of all insects, and we are entering a new era for the study of morphology in the 21st century."
The genitalia of male insects are fascinating, he said. "Both male and female insect genitalia are derived from the appendages of a pair of abdominal segments. Evidence from the skeletomusculature indicates that these structures are really legs of a crustacean ancestor that have been modified for numerous reproductive tasks--from copulation and insemination, to singing and silk-spinning."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology is planning scores of insect-related activities for the 103rd annual campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 22.
What's new this year in the department's line-up will be an insect scavenger hunt, replacing the Pollinator Pavillion, said Brendon Boudinot of the Phil Ward lab, chair of the department's Picnic Day Committee.
The campuswide Picnic Day gets underway at 9:30 a.m. with an opening ceremony by the grandstands on North Quad Ave., across from Wickson Hall. The parade starts at 10 a.m. from the same site. Announcement locations are at 2nd and D streets in downtown Davis; F Street in front of PDQ Fingerprinting, and 3rd and C streets in downtown Davis. The UC Davis Entomology Club, advised by forensic entomologist Bob Kimsey, will enter its popular black widow float.
The Briggs Hall activities will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but the cockroach races will close at 2 p.m.
The list of activities at Briggs:
- Honey Tasting (You can sample varietals of honey)
- Bug Doctor (The doctor is in!)
- Cockroach Races (Pick a winner)
- Scavenger Hunt (Do you know your insects?)
- Dr. Death (Forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey will answer your questions)
- Insect Face Painting (Get a bee, lady beetle or another insect painted on your face)
- Little Swimmers and Fly Tying (Watch and identify aquatic insects, a project from the Sharon Lawler lab, and learn "how to tie a fly" from the Fly Fishers of Davis
- Maggot Art (Dip a maggot into a water-based, non-toxic paint and create a painting suitable for framing)
- UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management (UC IPM) (See their many publications and ask questions; youngsters can receive a vial of free lady beetles, aka ladybugs)
- T-shirt sales by the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Students' Association (popular t-shirts include beetles and honey bees)
- Social insects, insect forestry, medical entomology, and more (See a honey bee observation hive from the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility and ants from the Phil Ward lab; and also learn about forest insects and mosquitoes. The Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District will staff a booth)
The Bohart Museum of Entomology in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building will swing open its doors from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The theme: "Bigger, Better and Buglier: Impressive Science at the Bohart." This will be an opportunity to see some of the nearly eight million specimens, visit the live petting zoo (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and taranatulas) and ask questions of the scientists.
The nematology collection will be on display in the Sciences Laboratory Building, across from Briggs.
Theme of this year's Picnic Day is "Growing Together." The schedule can be downloaded from the campus website.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The UC Davis Linnaean Games Team has successfully defended its national championship.
The team, comprised of three UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology graduate students, defeated the University of Georgia in the championship round.
The annual Linnaean Games, sponsored by the Entomological Society of America (ESA), took place at ESA's recent meeting in Orlando, Fla., held in conjunction with the International Congress of Entomology meeting.
UC Davis team members are captain Ralph Washington, a third-year graduate student; Brendon Boudinot, a third-year graduate student; and Emily Bick, a second-year graduate student. They defeated the University of Georgia, the 2012 winner, in the championship match (score, UC Davis 145; Georgia, 55). The UC Davis entomologists earlier outscored Ohio State University, North Carolina State University (champions in 2014), and Texas A&M in advancing to the finals.
Washington is studying for his doctorate with major professors Steve Nadler and Brian Johnson, who respectively specialize in systematics and evolutionary biology of nematodes and the evolution, behavior, genetics, and health of honey bees; Boudinot with major professor Phil Ward, systematics and evolutionary biology of ants; and Bick, with major professor Christian Nansen. Bick is working on ecosystem models to optimize pest management in two systems: invasive aquatic weed species water hyacinth and its biological control agent, Neochetina bruchi; and working to control Lygus bugs using alfalfa as a trap crop in strawberries. UC Davis Extension entomologist Larry Godfrey serves as the advisor.
- Question: “You have just moved into an apartment that has been vacant for weeks but whose prior owners had several cats and dogs. A very few days after you move in you are bitten by a huge number of cat fleas that seem to have appeared out of nowhere. What characteristic behavior of cat fleas biology is probably responsible for this?”
Answer: “Cat flea pupae eclose in response to the presence of a host.” -
Question: Insects inhabiting a very thin water film such as splash zones marginal to streams are called what?
Answer: Madicoles - Question: The insect order Notoptera unites what two former insect orders?
Answer: Notoptera unites Mantophasmatodea and Grylloblattodea - Question: What are the two obvious clinical symptoms that someone is suffering from onchocerciasis?
Answer: Blindness and hanging tissue around lymph nodes, often times the scrotum. - Question: What is the common name for the zygentoman pest that thrives in high humidity and high temperatures and is often found in boiler rooms?
Answer: The firebrat, Thermobia domestica. - Question: Projection neurons travel across what two major regions of the insect brain?
Answer: The protocerebrum and the deutocerebrum.
(Editor's Note: The video of the 2016 Linnaean Games' championship match will soon be posted on the ESA YouTube channel. Meanwhile, here's a link to the 2015 championship game, won by UC Davis. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL21ACF32985978D25
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- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Faculty and graduate students with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology--and others associated with an ENT/NEM lab--got together for a retreat, held Friday, Oct. 14 through Sunday, Oct. 16 at Sagehen Creek Field Station in Truckee.
Doctoral candidate (and photographer) Sandy Olkowski shared some of her photos of the activities, including insect collecting and dinner preparation. She also took a photo of deer at the campsite.
The participants got to know one another and also enjoyed the natural areas around the field station.
Sagehen Creek Field Station in Truckee is approximately 2 hours from Davis. It also the site of Professor Phil Ward's popular "Bug Boot Camp."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
DAVIS--The UC Davis Linnaean Games Team, the reigning national and regional champions, won the 2016 games conducted Monday night, April 4 in Honolulu at the annual meeting of the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America (PBESA)
The team, comprised of captain Ralph Washington Jr., and members Brendon Boudinot, Jessica Gillung and Ziad Khouri, defeated the University of Hawaii in the semi-finals and then went on to nail the championship with a victory over the UC Riverside team.
The Linnaean Games is a college-bowl type competition in which teams answer questions about insects and entomologists. The teams hold practice sessions throughout the year.
Washington is studying for his doctorate with major professors Steve Nadler and Brian Johnson, who respectively specialize in systematics and evolutionary biology of nematodes and the evolution, behavior, genetics, and health of honeybees; Boudinot with major professor Phil Ward, systematics and evolutionary biology of ants; and Jessica Gillung and Ziad Khouri with major professor Lynn Kimsey, who specializes in the biology and evolution of insects. Kimsey directs the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
The Pacific Branch of ESA encompasses 11 U.S. states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming); several U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands; and parts of Canada and Mexico.
The national Linnaean Games will take place at the ESA's meeting, set Sept. 25-30 in Orlando, Fla. It is being held in conjunction with the International Congress of Entomology (ICE). More than 7000 entomologists from throughout the world are expected to attend. The ICE meeting is co-chaired by UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and research entomologist Alvin M. Simmons of the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, Charleston, S.C.
- Question: According to the experiment performed at UCB in 1991, the fastest land insect in the world registered a record speed of 1.5 m/s or 3.36 mph, which was equal to 50 body lengths per second. Name the insect.
Answer: American Cockroach, Periplanetaamericana - Question: According to Alder and Willis (2003), in the history of arthropod borne disease in South Carolina, which insect vectored human disease is known by the names Aigue Fever, Bilious Fever, Country Fever, Intermittent Fever, Remittent Fever, and Tertian Fever?
Answer: Malaria - Question:What animal was imported to Mauritius from India in the 18th century to control the Red Locust, Nomadacris
semptemfasiciata?
Answer: The Mynah Bird - Question: What is the active ingredient in the insecticidal product known as NEEM?
Answer: Azadiracthin - Question: In systematics, what is the term for a group containing a common ancestor and some but not all of its descendants?
Answer: A paraphyletic group
Related Link:
UC Davis Wins National Championship