- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The UC Davis Entomology Games Team won the championship at the annual meeting of the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America, held April 10-13 in Santa Rosa, by defeating the UC Riverside Entomology Games Team.
As branch champions, the UC Davis team will now advance to the nationals: the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) takes place Nov. 13-16 in Vancouver, British Columbia. UC Riverside will compete as the second-place team.
The UC Davis team, from the Department of Entomology and Nematology, is comprised of doctoral candidate Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, captain; doctoral candidate Jill Oberski of the Ward lab; doctoral student Erin “Taylor” Kelly of the Geoffrey Attardo lab; and doctoral student Madison “Madi” Hendrick of the Ian Grettenberger lab.
The popular event, formerly known as the Linnaean Games, is a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams. The UC Davis team won the preliminaries on April 10 to advance to the championship round on April 11.
Questions dealt with biological control, behavior and ecology, economic and applied entomology, medical-urban-veterinary entomology, morphology and physiology, biochemistry and toxicology, systematics and evolution, integrated pest management and plant-insect interactions, history of entomology, and entomology in popular culture.
Paraphrasing some of the questions:
2. 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)
3. 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)
4. Name the heme containing enzymes that play a role in the detoxification of xenobiotics such as pesticides. (Answer: Cytochrome P450s)
5. What is the most prevalent virus affecting humans that is vectored by Aedes mosquitoes? (Answer: Dengue)
UC Davis has scored three national championships since 2015.
- In 2018, the University of California team (UC Davis/UC Berkeley) won the national championship, defeating Texas A&M. The team included 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.
- UC Davis won the national competition in 2016, defeating the University of Georgia. The UC Davis team included captain Ralph Washington Jr., Brendon Boudinot and Emily Bick.
- UC Davis won the national competition in 2015, defeating the University of Florida. The team included captain Ralph Washington Jr., and members Brendon Boudinot, Jessica Gillung and Ziad Khouri.
The Pacific Branch of ESA encompasses 11 Western states, parts of Canada and Mexico and several U.S. territories.
ESA will host the Nov. 13-16 meeting as a joint meeting with the Entomological Society of Canada and the Entomological Society of British Columbia. The theme is "Entomology as Inspiration: Insects through Art, Science, and Culture."
The 7000-member ESA, founded in 1889, 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
- Medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, will receive the Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology Award
- Doctoral student Erin Taylor Kelly of the Geoffrey Attardo laboratory will receive the Student Leadership Award
- Undergraduate student Gwendolyn "Gwen" Erdosh of the Louie Yang lab will receive the inaugural Dr. Stephen Garczynski Undergraduate Research Scholarship
- The team of doctoral candidate Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, captain; doctoral candidate Jill Oberski of the Ward lab; doctoral student Erin “Taylor” Kelly of the Geoffrey Attardo lab; and doctoral student Madison “Madi” Hendrick of the Ian Grettenberger lab will compete in the Entomology Games.
The awards luncheon is at 12:15, April 12.
Geoffrey Attardo is a global expert on vectorborne diseases, and renowned for his groundbreaking work on tsetse flies. Attardo, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology andNematology in 2017 from the Yale School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, “excels not only as a researcher, but as a teacher, mentor, scientific illustrator, macro photographer,videographer and science communicator,” said UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock in his letter of nomination. (See news story)
Entomology Games. The Entomology Games is a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams. It was formerly known as the Linnaean Games. The preliminary round is from 5 to 6 p.m., April 10. Plans are to hold three rounds with questions from each of the 10 categories: Biological Control, Behavior and Ecology, Economic and Applied Entomology, Medical-Urban-Veterinary Entomology, Morphology and Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology, Systematics and Evolution, Integrated Pest Management and Plant-Insect Interactions, History of Entomology, and Entomology in Popular Culture. (See UC Davis news story)
The final round is from 8 to 10 p.m., April 11. Both the championship team and the runner-up team will represent PBESA at the Entomological Society of America (ESA) meeting, Nov. 13-16 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Last year's national champion was the University of Hawaii, which edged Texas A&M University.
UC Davis has scored three national championships since 2015. In 2018, the University of California team won the national championship, defeating Texas A&M. The team included 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.
UC Davis won the national competition in both 2016 and 2015, defeating the University of Georgia in 2016, and the University of Florida in 2015.
A number of other UC Davis faculty and students will participate in the PBESA meeting. (See schedule.)
PBESA encompasses 11 Western states, parts of Canada and Mexico and several U.S. territories.
- In the United States: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawai'i, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
- U.S. Territories: American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Johnston Atoll, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Midway Islands, Wake Island
- In Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Yukon
- In Mexico: Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Hammer will speak at 4:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076.
Community ecologist Rachel Vannette, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is hosting the seminar.
"How do insects and microbes form symbioses, and why do these partnerships often break down?" Hammer asks in his abstract. "We are addressing these questions with the gut microbiomes of social corbiculate bees. Despite an ancient association with their bee hosts, these symbionts are surprising dynamic over developmental, ecological and macroevolutionary time scales. I will discuss our recent discoveries of symbiont loss in bees, and efforts to understand why and how these losses occur."
Hammer received his bachelor's degree in general biology from UC San Diego in 2009 and his doctorate in evolutionary biology in 2018 from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He served as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas, Austin, from 2018 to 2021.
Hammer's research interests include microbiomes, symbiosis, microbial ecology and evolution, bees, biodiversity, insect-plant interactions and tropical biology.
"We are a new research group at UC Irvine studying the ecology and evolution of symbioses between hosts (especially bees) and microbes," he writes on his lab website. His mission:
- To boldly venture into uncharted waters of symbiosis and bee biology, asking—and doing our best to answer—new questions about how they tick.
- To create a culture where lab members follow their curiosity, have fun, and regularly enjoy homemade baked goods.
- To contribute to making the academic community better reflect the diversity of society, and be a more welcoming, supportive place for historically marginalized scientists.
- To help wild bees, and connect people outside academia to insect biodiversity.
Hammer's most recent publications include
- Hammer, T.J., Le, E., Martin, A.N., Moran, N.A. 2021. The gut microbiome of bumblebees. Insectes Sociaux 68, 287-301.
- Silva Cerqueira, A.E., Hammer, T.J., Moran, N.A., Cristiano Santana, W., Megumi Kasuya, M.C., Canêdo da Silva, C. 2021. Extinction of anciently associated gut bacterial symbionts in a clade of stingless bees. The ISME Journal 15, 2813-2816.
- Hammer, T.J., Le, E., Moran, N.A. 2021. Thermal niches of specialized gut symbionts: the case of social bees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 288, 20201480.
- Hammer, T.J., De Clerck-Floate, R., Tooker, J.F., Price, P.W., Miller, D.G., Connor, E.F. 2021. Are bacterial symbionts associated with gall induction in insects? Arthropod-Plant Interactions 15, 1-12.
- Hammer, T.J., Dickerson, J.C., McMillan, W.O., Fierer, N. 2020. Heliconius butterflies host characteristic and phylogenetically structured adult-stage microbiomes. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 86, e02007-20.
Nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is coordinating the spring seminars. For Zoom technical issues, contact him at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
So writes Makedonka Mitreva, professor of medicine and genetics, Division of Infectious Diseases, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, on her website.
She'll speak on "Multi-omics Applications in Helminth Research" at a virtual seminar at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, April 6 in a seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology will introduce her. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/99515291076.
"My research takes advantage of next-generation genomic and computational approaches to empower the study of infectious diseases, with a focus on neglected tropical diseases caused byhelminths," Mitreva writes in her abstract. "Overcoming the main obstacle related to scarce understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in host invasion and pathogenesis, required generating comprehensive omics datasets from various helminth species. Interrogating such multi-omics data followed by systems biology approaches provided us with opportunity to greatly advance translational helminth research."
She recently joined the editorial board of Frontiers in Parasitology as section chief editor.
Mitreva says her lab "uses systems biology approaches to provide fundamental molecular information for these parasitic infections of importance to global health. The acquired knowledge accelerates both basic and translational research and provides practical results for global health improvement." Her lab's broad interest in global health improvement, she points out, is reflected in many other collaborative projects, including malaria, tuberculosis and medical metagenomics.
Mitreva holds bachelor and master's degrees in biology, 1990 and 1994, respectively, from Saints Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. She received her doctorate in plant sciences, molecular and population genetics in 2001 from the Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands Laboratory of Nematology.
For any technical issues, reach coordinator Shahid Siddique at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.
/span>- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"In summary, I aim to use ecoinformatics (ecological big data, aggregated from multiple sources) to examine the impact of global change on agricultural insect populations," Lippey related. "A consistent challenge for researchers working in natural and managed ecosystems is that data available for characterizing insect responses to global change are severely limited across space and time. As a result, we know very little about how insects are responding to global change over time, and to what extent various global change drivers (e.g., climate change, land use change, pesticides) are responsible for documented changes in insect abundance. Here, I will use long-term data collected in agricultural systems for other purposes to bridge this data gap."
"Because field scouts and farmers collect data in a decentralized way, the availability, size, and accuracy of relevant agricultural data are unrivaled," she noted. "This approach will contribute to the emergence of a novel framework using big data to investigate global change questions across larger spatial and temporal axes than ever before. My results will have implications for the impact of anthropogenic pressure on food production stability, biodiversity, and ecosystem health."
Lippey, who received her bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Davis in 2019, is a graduate student of agricultural entomology in the Rosenheim lab, and an urban entomology graduate student in the Meineke lab. She previously did research in the Louie Yang lab, 2018-2021, as an undergraduate research assistant in insect ecology, and as an undergraduate research assistant in ant systematics with the Philip Ward lab.
In the Yang lab, Lippey investigated the effect of stripes on aversive behavior in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), tsetse flies (Glossina), and mosquitoes (Aedes); studied the effect of size and movement constraints on ontogenetic color change (OCC) of swallowtail larvae (Papilio); and co-authored a collaborative review paper, "The Complexity of Global Change and its Effects on Insects," published in 2021 in the Current Opinion in Insect Science.
In the Ward lab, she studied the phenotypic evolution of the Big-Eyed Tree Ant (Pseudomyrmecinae: Tetraponera) and delivered a presentation on the project at the 2019 UC Davis Undergraduate Research Conference.
Lippey presented a poster on "Effects of Surrounding Landscapes on the Fork-tailed Bush Katydid (Scudderia furcata) in California Citrus" at the 2021 Entomological Society of America conference in Denver.
A talented illustrator, Lippey served as an illustrator and author of BuprestidID, an apolyclave identification key for more than 500 genera of Buprestidae (family of beetles known as jewel beetles or metallic wood-boring beetles) in a project headed by USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.