- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Game over.
The second annual Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble Bee-of-the-Year Contest is over.
On two separate expeditions, but at exactly 2:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 1, UC Davis doctoral candidate Maureen Page of the Neal Williams lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and horticulturist Ellen Zagory, retired director of public horticulture for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, co-won the contest by each photographing a bumble bee foraging on manzanita (Arctostaphylos) in the 100-acre Arboretum.
Fittingly, they both knew and worked with Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), a global authority on bees and a UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor of entomology.
The event also marked the second consecutive year that a member of the Williams lab scored a win. Last year postdoctoral researcher Charlie Casey Nicholson of the Williams lab and the lab of Elina Lastro Niño, claimed the prize by photographing a B. melanopygus at 3:10 p.m., Jan. 14 in a manzanita patch in the Arboretum.
Contest coordinator Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, sought the first bumble bee of the year in the two-county area of Yolo and Solano in memory of Thorp, a 30-year member of the UC Davis faculty. Thorp retired in 1994 but continued his work until several weeks before his death at age 85 at his home in Davis. Every year he looked forward to seeing the first bumble bee.
Page began looking for the bumble bee in the Arboretum on Dec. 31. “I went on a walk through the UC Davis Arboretum at 3 p.m. on New Year's Eve and stopped by a manzanita tree hoping to see a bumble bee,” recounted Page. “After less than a few minutes, I spotted a black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus! However, it was not yet 2022 so I planned to return the following day at 2 p.m. and was similarly lucky--I spotted a bee within minutes of arriving. It was sunny and about 50 degrees Fahrenheit outside when I observed the bumble bee." Bombus melanopygus is the earliest bumble bee species to emerge in this area.
"Although I saw the bee within a few minutes of arriving, I spent an hour trying to get a good photograph," Page said. "In the process of trying to photograph the bee, I saw at least one other Bombus melanopygus visiting manzanita flowers!" She captured the image with her cell phone.
Professor and pollinator ecologist Neal Williams identified the bee image that Zagory took as a yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, but indicated it is way early for this bumble bee to emerge in this area.
Both Zagory and Page and worked with Robbin Thorp, a tireless advocate of pollinator species protection and conservation and the co-author of Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (Princeton University, 2014) and California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday, 2014).
“I indeed knew Robbin Thorp, one of the most generous and kind people I have ever met,” Zagory said. “Dr. Thorp invited me to do a page for their book (California Bees And Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists) about the UC Davis Arboretum All-Stars (pages 230 -232) and he edited a publication we created at the UC Davis Arboretum called Ten Bees and Ten Plants they Love that can be downloaded from the web site at https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/pollinator-gardening.
Both Page and Nicholson are alumni of The Bee Course, which Thorp co-taught from 2002-2018. Page took the course in 2018, and Nicholson in 2015. The nine-day intensive workshop, geared for conservation biologists and pollination ecologists and considered the world's premiere native bee biology and taxonomic course, takes place annually in Portal, Ariz. at the Southwestern Research Station, part of the American Museum of Natural History, N.Y.
Page said she was “also lucky enough to participate in a "Bumble Bee Blitz" organized by Thorp and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service in July 2016 on Mt. Ashland, where we searched for Bombus franklini and Bombus occidentalis-- two very rare west coast bee species. We unfortunately did not find Bombus franklini, which is now recognized as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.”
“Robbin was a brilliant scientist and a dedicated advocate for bumble bee conservation,” Page said. “His death was a great loss and I wish more of my career could have overlapped with his time in Davis.”
As a doctoral candidate in entomology, Page researches and investigates “whether European honey bees compete with native bees for floral resources and how we can use well-planned floral enhancements to mitigate negative effects of competition."
She and Nicholson are the co-leading authors of "A Meta-Analysis of Single Visit Pollination Effectiveness Comparing Honeybees and Other Floral Visitors," the Nov. 30th cover story in the American Journal of Botany. Citing the importance of native bees, Page said: "Native bees provide irreplaceable pollination services. I'm glad to see that flower plantings, like those found in the UC Davis Arboretum, provide food for diverse native bee communities as early as Jan. 1.”
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Newly published UC Davis research in the American Journal of Botany yields some surprising results.
Honeybees are effective pollinators, but when compared to other pollinators, including wild bees, they are rarely the most effective plant pollinators, according to a meta-analysis project led by doctoral candidate Maureen Page and postdoctoral researcher Charlie Casey Nicholson of the Neal Williams laboratory, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Page and Nicholson are the co-leading authors of "A Meta-Analysis of Single Visit Pollination Effectiveness Comparing Honeybees and other Floral Visitors," the cover story of the current edition of the journal, published Nov. 30.
“Although high visitation frequencies make honeybees important pollinators, they were rarely the most effective pollinators of plants and were less effective than the average bee,” said Page. “This suggests that honeybees may be imperfect substitutes for the loss of wild pollinators and ensuring pollination will benefit from conservation of non-honeybee taxa. In the future, we hope other researchers will use the data we have collected to further investigate the factors that influence pollination effectiveness.”
Page and Nicholson began with the premise: “Many animals provide ecosystem services in the form of pollination including honeybees, which have become globally dominant floral visitors. A rich literature documents considerable variation in single visit pollination effectiveness, but this literature has yet to be extensively synthesized to address whether honeybees are effective pollinators,”
The researchers conducted a hierarchical meta-analysis of 168 studies and extracted 1564 single visit effectiveness (SVE) measures for 240 plant species. “We paired SVE data with visitation frequency data for 69 of these studies,” they wrote. “We used these data to ask three questions: (1) Do honeybees (Apis mellifera) and other floral visitors differ in their SVE? (2) To what extent do plant and pollinator attributes predict differences in SVE between honeybees and other visitors? (3) Is there a correlation between visitation frequency and SVE?”
"Surprisingly, honeybees were less effective than other bees as pollinators of crop plants, suggesting that the importance of honeybees as crop pollinators derives largely from their numerical abundance rather than the quality of their floral visits," Page said.
Results. “Honeybees were significantly less effective than the most effective non-honeybee pollinators but were as effective as the average pollinator," they wrote in their results section of the paper. "The type of pollinator moderated these effects. Honeybees were less effective compared to the most effective and average bird and bee pollinators but were as effective as other taxa. Visitation frequency and SVE were positively correlated, but this trend was largely driven by data from communities where honeybees were absent.”
The researchers concluded that “Although high visitation frequencies make honeybees important pollinators, they were less effective than the average bee and rarely the most effective pollinator of the plants they visit. As such, honeybees may be imperfect substitutes for the loss of wild pollinators, and safeguarding pollination will benefit from conservation of non-honeybee taxa.”
Also contributing to the project were Ross Brennan, Anna Britzman, Jessica Greer, Jeremy Hemberger, Hanna Kahl, Uta Müller, Youhong Peng, Nick Rosenberger, Clara Stuligross, Li Wang, and Professors Louie Yang and Neal Williams.
Cover Photo. The cover photo, by Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, shows several species of bees on a sunflower, Helianthus sp. They include a honeybee (Apis mellifera), sunflower bee (Svastra obliqua), and two sweat bees (Halictus tripartitus and Halictus ligatus), as identified by Professor Williams, a pollinator ecologist.
"Honeybees are as effective as the average pollinator, but rarely the most effective pollinators of plants," according to the caption. "Surprisingly, honeybees are less effective than other bees as pollinators of cultivated plants, suggesting the importance of honeybees as agricultural pollinators derives largely from their numerical abundance. Their study confirms a widely held belief that honeybees are not the best pollinators of plants globally and substantiates the growing concern that honeybees may be imperfect substitutes for the loss of wild pollinators."
Charlie Nicholson. Nicholson, a researcher in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology labs of both Professor Neal Williams, and Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño, holds a bachelor of arts degree in biology (evolution, ecology and behavior), 2010, cum laude, from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York. He received his doctorate in natural resources in 2018 from the University of Vermont, where he was a Gund Institute for Environment graduate fellow. In his dissertation, he examined how landscape and farm management affect the multiple benefits provided by wild bees.
Nicholson joined UC Davis as a postdoctoral scholar in the spring of 2019, and receives funding support from the USDA Invasive Species and Pollinator Health Unit. He recently co-authored a paper, “Natural Hazard Threats to Pollinators and Pollination,” published in the journal Global Change Biology, that analyzed 117 published research papers on natural hazards that threaten pollinators and pollination.
Maureen Page. Page received her bachelor's degree in biology, cum laude, from Scripps College, Claremont, Calif., in 2016, and then enrolled in the UC Davis entomology graduate program, with a career goal of becoming a professor and principal investigator. In 2018, she received prestigious three-year fellowship, a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, for her research proposal, “Promoting Food Security by Optimizing Wildflower Plantings to Support Wild and Managed Bees." Long interested in bee research, Page received a 2013 Scripps Environmental Research Grant to establish a solitary bee monitoring program at the Bernard Field Station in Claremont. She created a reference collection and species list of bee diversity at the field station, gaining experience collecting, pinning and identifying bee specimens. She presented her findings at the Scripps Undergraduate Research Symposium. Page later worked on a project categorizing pollen deposition by the yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenkii to California figwort, Scrophularia california.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The hybrid meeting (both in-person and virtual) took place Oct. 31-Nov. 3 in Denver.
Several of the UC Davis highlights, as previously featured on the Department of Entomology and Nematology website:
- UC Davis distinguished professor Frank Zalom, integrated pest management (IPM) specialist and a past president of ESA, was celebrated as an Honorary Member of the ESA, an honor bestowed for his “long-term dedication and extraordinary contributions." (See more here.)
- UC Davis doctoral alumnus Kelli Hoover, a Pennsylvania State University professor internationally known for her research on invasive species, including the Asian longhorned beetle, gypsy moth and spotted lanternfly, was honored as a newly elected Fellow of ESA for her excellence in research. (See more here.)
- Danielle Rutkowski, doctoral candidate in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won a President's Prize in a graduate student competition for her presentation on "Fungicide Impacts on Bumble Bees are Mediated via Effects on Bee-Associated Fungi" in the category, Plant-Insect Ecosystems: Ecology 3." She studies with community ecologist Rachel Vannette, associate professor, and is also advised by community ecologist and professor Rick Karban. (See more here.)
- Maureen Page, with the lab of pollinator ecologist Neal Williams, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won the second-place award in a graduate student competition for her presentation on "Optimizing Pollinator-Friendly Plant Mixes to Simultaneously Support Wild and Managed Bees." She competed in the category, Plant-Insect Ecosystems: Pollinators. (See more here.)
- Kyle Lewald, with the College of Biological Sciences and the Integrated Genomics and Genetics Graduate Group, but a member of the lab of molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won second-place in a graduate student competition for his presentation on "Assembly of Highly Continguous Diploid Genome for the Agricultural Pest, Tuta absoluta." (See more here.)
At the ESA's annual meetings, students are offered the opportunity to present their research and win prizes. There are several components to the competition: 10-minute papers (oral), posters, and infographics. First-place winners receive a one-year free membership in ESA, a $75 cash prize, and a certificate. Second-winners score a one-year free membership in ESA and a certificate.
"Each year approximately 3,500 entomologists and other scientists gather to exchange scientific information," ESA says on hits website. "A program of symposia, conferences, submitted papers, and continuing education seminars provides attendees the opportunity to hear and present research results. The meeting also provides a chance to interact informally with peers and prospective employers."
ESA, founded in 1889 and headquartered in Annapolis, Md.,, is the world's largest organization serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and others in related disciplines. Its 7000 members are in educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Michelle Smith of Corteva Agriscience served as the 2021 president. The newly elected president is Jessica Ware, assistant curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History.
Below are several images shared by Photography G of Denver at the ESA meeting. More images from the ESA meeting are on Flickr.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Three UC Davis doctoral students won major awards in the highly competitive 10-minute student speech competitions at the Entomological Society of America's annual meeting, held Oct. 31-Nov. 3 in Denver. The event involves graduate students presenting their papers or ongoing research, in collaboration with their major professors or co-authors.
Danielle Rutkowski, with the lab of community ecologist Rachel Vannette, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won the first-place award, the President's Prize, in her category, Plant-Insect Ecosystems: Ecology 3, with her presentation on "Fungicide Impacts on Bumble Bees Are Mediated via Effects on Bee-Associated Fungi." Her co-advisor is community ecologist Rick Karban, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Taking home second place was Kassie Hollabaugh of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Maureen Page, with the lab of pollinator ecologist Neal Williams, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, scored second place for her presentation, "Optimizing Pollinator-friendly Plant Mixes to Simultaneously Support Wild and Managed Bees." She competed in the category, Plant-Insect Ecosystems: Pollinators. Hannah McKenzie of Ohio State University won first place, the President's Prize.
Kyle Lewald, with the College of Biological Sciences and the Integrated Genomics and Genetics Graduate Group, but a member of the lab of molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won second in his category, Systems, Evolution and Biodiversity: Genetics and Molecular Biology, with his speech on "Assembly of Highly Continguous Diploid Genome for the Agricultural Pest, Tuta absoluta." Amanda Markee of the University of Florida took home first place, the President's Prize.
Danielle Rutkowski's abstract
Maureen Page's abstract
Tuta absoluta represents one of the largest threats to tomato production worldwide. While initially contained to South America throughout the 20th century, T. absoluta were detected in Spain in 2006 before rapidly spreading throughout Europe and Asia over the next decade. To facilitate study of pesticide resistance, adaptation, and control strategies, researchers require a high quality, highly contiguous, and well-annotated genome assembly. The currently published genome assembly was generated using short-read technology for the purpose of developing molecular markers and studying population genetics; however, due to the genome's large size, heterozygosity, and repetitiveness, the assembly was highly fragmented, making it unsuitable for annotation or functional genomic studies. To address this, we extracted DNA from a single T. absoluta individual for sequencing with long-read PacBio HiFi technology to avoid assembly issues expected due to high genetic diversity and repetitiveness. We have now successfully created a diploid assembly that contains 98% of complete BUSCO groups and 99% of initial raw reads, with an N50 of 6Mb. The genome is 3% heterozygous, and is 60% composed of repeat elements, explaining the fragmented nature of the previous assemblies. By annotating this assembly with previously published RNAseq, protein, and repeat-element datasets, we expect this resource to advance efforts in understanding and developing control strategies for this invasive moth. (Paper co-authored with Joanna Chiu)
At the ESA's annual meetings, students are offered the opportunity to present their research and win prizes. There are several components to the competition: 10-minute papers (oral), posters, and infographics. First-place winners receive a one-year free membership in ESA, a $75 cash prize, and a certificate. Second-winners score a one-year free membership in ESA and a certificate.
The 7000-member Entomological Society of America, founded in 1889 and headquartered in Annapolis, Md.,, is the world's largest organization serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and others in related disciplines. Its members are in educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A total of 10 entomology graduate students will deliver presentations in the 10-minute oral student competitions, and two will present posters. The events are scheduled Monday, Nov. 1.
10-Minute Student Speech Competitions:
- Jill Oberski, doctoral candidate who studies with major professor Phil Ward
Category: Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity: Phylogenetics and Phylogenomics
Title: "Arid-Adapted Pyramid Aants (Formicidae: Dorymyrmex) Show an Amphitropical Distribution and an Ongoing Radiation." - Zachary Griebenow, doctoral candidate who studies with major professor Phil Ward
Category: Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity: Parasites and Symbionts
Title: "Discovery of a Putative Troglomorphic Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Leptanillinae)"
- Lacie Newton, doctoral candidate who studies with major professor Jason Bond
Category: Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity: Phylogentics and Phylogenomics
Title: "Establishing a Robust Combined-Evidence Phylogeny of the Trapdoor Spider Genus Aptostichus (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Euctenizidae)" - Lindsey Mack, PhD student who studies with major professor Geoffrey Attardo
Category: Medical, Urban and Veterinary Entomology: Mosquitoes, Biting Midges and Flies
Title: "Gene Expression Temporal Analysis of Pyrethroid Response in Californian Aedes aegypti" - Danielle Rutkowski, PhD student who studies with major professor Rachel Vannette
Category: Plant-Insect Ecosystems: Ecology 3
Title: "Fungicide Impacts on Bumble Bees are Mediated via Effects on Bee-Associated Fungi" - Maureen Page, doctoral candidate who studies with major professor Neal Williams
Category: Plant-Insect Ecosystems: Pollinators
Title: "Optimizing Pollinator-friendly Plant Mixes to Simultaneously Support Wild and Managed Bees" - Xavier Zahnle, PhD student who studies with major professor Jason Bond
Category: Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity: Evolution
Title: "Deep Homology Influences Llocalized Postembryonic Metamorphosis in Male Genitalia of the Flat-Backed Millipede Pseudopolydesmus serratus (Myriapoda, Diplopoda,Polydesmida,Polydesmidae)" - Erin T. Kelly, doctoral candidate who studies with major professor Geoffrey Attardo
Category: Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology: Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology and Biochemistry
Title: "Using Metabolomic Analysis to Generate Insights into Pyrethroid Metabolism and Resistance in California Aedes aegypti" - Jasmin Ramirez Bonilla, master's student who studies with major professor Ian Grettenberger
Category: Plant and Insect Ecosystems: Field Crops 3
Title: "Stripes and spots: Evaluating an Aggregation Pheromone, vittatalactone, for Western Striped (Acalymma trivittatum) and Western Spotted (Diabrotica undecimpunctata undecimpunctata) Cucumber Beetles" - Madison Hendrick, PhD student who studies with major professor Ian Gettenberger
Category: Plant and Insect Ecosystems: Field Crops 1
Title: "Clarifying Pyrethroid Resistance and Exploring Interactions with Insecticide Use in California Alfalfa Weevil"
Posters:
- Mia Lippey, PhD student who studies with major professors Jay Rosenheim and Emily Meineke
Poster in the Plant-Insect Ecosystems Section, Behavior and Ecology: "Effects of Surrounding Landscapes on the Fork-tailed Bush Katydid (Scudderia furcata) in California Citrus" - Gabriel "Gabe" Foote, PhD student who initially studied with (the late) Steve Seybold and is now advised by Hugh Safford Region 5 Regional Ecologist/Affiliate Faculty (UC Davis).
Poster in Plant-Insect Ecosystems Section, Pollinators, "Landscape and Stand Level Factors Affecting Wild Bee Diversity in the Californian Central Sierra Nevada"
Abstracts:
Speech Competition
Jill Oberski
Zachary Griebenow
Xavier J. Zahnle
In the arthropod subphylum Myriapoda, localized modification of walking legs is taxonomically widespread. Male millipedes (class Diplopoda) exemplify this phenomenon, with diverse postembryonic walking leg transformations including clasping organs, reduced or hyper-enlarged leg pairs, and intromittent copulatory genitalia called gonopods. Gonopods are fully formed in adult males, but usually develop internally through several stadia.
Special attention was paid to the origin and insertion points of muscles as potential points of topological continuity preserved through development. Additionally, a series of juvenile male Pseudopolydesmus stadia was imaged using µCT to investigate the structural transformation of the future gonopod appendage pair. Topological continuity of muscles between walking legs and gonopods could be established for only a few muscles. Moreover, the developmental series revealed near-complete obliteration of appendicular muscles before adult gonopod formation begins, disproving the hypothesis that gonopod muscles are physically retained serialhomologs of those in the walking legs. Therefore, the few structural similarities between muscles in walking legs and gonopods are more likely due to the structure being preserved from the ancestral node of gonopod-bearing millipedes (deep homology) than to developmental continuity within the individual. (Co-authors of paper are Professor Jason Bond and Megan Ma.)
Lindsey Mack
Danielle Rutkowski
Maureen Page
Despite the recognized utility of wildflower plantings to support honey bees and wild bees these two goals have largely been pursued separately. Furthermore, pollinator-friendly plant mixes are currently selected using estimates of flower visitation without considering among-plant differences in nutritional quality or how competition among bees might affect plant use. The nutritional composition of pollen and nectar strongly affects bee health and survival and bees use nutritional information to make plant foraging decisions. Additionally, honey bees, which are generally stocked at high densities in crop lands, have been shown to compete with native pollinators for pollen and nectar resources and such competition may lead to changes in plant choice and narrowing of diet breadth. In this study, I use data on flower visitation patterns and the nutritional quality of nectar and pollen from different plant species in conjunction with recently developed optimization models to identify plant mixes that meet the goals of enhancing honey bee nutrition and maximizing support of diverse bee communities while minimizing competition. (Paper co-authored by Professor Neal Williams)
Madison Hendrick
Posters
Mia Uppey
Gabriel Foote
Kyle Lewald, College of Biological Sciences and Member of the Joanna Chiu Lab
Tuta absoluta represents one of the largest threats to tomato production worldwide. While initially contained to South America throughout the 20th century, T. absoluta were detected in Spain in 2006 before rapidly spreading throughout Europe and Asia over the next decade. To facilitate study of pesticide resistance, adaptation, and control strategies, researchers require a high quality, highly contiguous, and well-annotated genome assembly. The currently published genome assembly was generated using short-read technology for the purpose of developing molecular markers and studying population genetics; however, due to the genome's large size, heterozygosity, and repetitiveness, the assembly was highly fragmented, making it unsuitable for annotation or functional genomic studies. To address this, we extracted DNA from a single T. absoluta individual for sequencing with long-read PacBio HiFi technology to avoid assembly issues expected due to high genetic diversity and repetitiveness. We have now successfully created a diploid assembly that contains 98% of complete BUSCO groups and 99% of initial raw reads, with an N50 of 6Mb. The genome is 3% heterozygous, and is 60% composed of repeat elements, explaining the fragmented nature of the previous assemblies. By annotating this assembly with previously published RNAseq, protein, and repeat-element datasets, we expect this resource to advance efforts in understanding and developing control strategies for this invasive moth. (Co-author is Joanna Chiu)
The 7000-member Entomological Society of America, founded in 1889 and headquartered in Annapolis, Md.,, is the world's largest organization serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and others in
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