Keynote speaker Christina Grozinger of Pennsylvania State University

A capacity crowd of 250 will attend the fourth   International Pollinator Conference, to be hosted by the University of California, Davis from Wednesday, July 17 through Saturday, July 20 in the ARC Ballroom.

A welcoming reception will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Good Life Garden at the Robert Mondavi Institute, 392 Old Davis Road.

Themed “Multidimensional Solutions to Current and Future Threats to Pollinator Health,” the event will cover a wide range of topics in pollinator research: from genomics to ecology and their application to land use and management; to breeding of managed bees; and to monitoring of global pollinator populations.

Co-chairs are pollination ecologist Neal Williams and Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. The UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, directed by Amina Harris, is coordinating the conference. Events manager Elizabeth Luu (luu@caes.ucdavis.edu) serves as the conference coordinator.

Keynote speakers are Lynn Dicks, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, England, and Christina Grozinger, distinguished professor of entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research, Pennsylvania State University. Grozinger and Rufus Isaacs of Michigan State University launched the conference in 2012. They are held every third year; this year is the fourth conference.

Dicks will speak at 9 a.m., Thursday, July 18 on "The Importance of People in Pollinator Conservation" while Grozinger will address the crowd at 9 a.m., Friday, July 19 on "Bee Nutritional Ecology: From Genes to Landscapes."

Dicks, an internationally respected scientist, studies bee ecology and conservation. She received the 2017 John Spedan Lewis Medal for contributions to insect conservation. Grozinger studies health and social behavior in bees and is developing comprehensive approaches to improving  pollinator health and reduce declines.

Among the speakers is Rachel Vannette, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who will discuss her hummingbird research.

The agenda:

Wednesday, July 17

• 6:30 to 8 p.m.: Early Registration and welcome reception in the Good Life Garden at the Robert Mondavi Institute, 392 Old Davis Road, Davis.

Thursday, July 18
6:45 to 8:30 a.m., breakfast at Segundo Dining Commons

8:45 a.m. Opening remarks and welcome

9 a.m. Keynote Address: "The Importance of People in Pollinator Conservation" by Lynn Dicks, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK

10 a.m. Session 1: Novel Quantitative Methods in Pollinator Ecology & Management

• "The Role of Bee and Non-Bee Pollinators in Australian Open and Protected Cropping Systems (How do we overcome the pollination challenges?)" - Romina Rader, University of New England, Australia
• "Implementing a Honeybee Foraging Model and REDAPOLL Fruit Set Predictions in Washington State's Decision Aid System" - Vince Jones, Washington State University
• "Using DNA metabarcoding techniques to improve plant-pollinator interaction networks" - Victoria Reynolds, University of Queensland, Australia
• "Citizen Science Data for Mapping Bumblebee Populations" - Claudio Gratton, University of Wisconsin
  
  11:15 to 11:30: Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)
  
  
• "From Theory to Practice: The Bumble-BEEHAVE Model and its Application to Enhance Pollinator Friendly Land Management" - Matthias Becher, University of Exeter, UK
• "A Laboratory System to Study the Effects of Stressors on Honey Bee Health and Fecundity" - Julia Fine, USDA-ARS Davis, Calif.
• "Using Automated Tracking to Link Individual Behavior to Colony Performance in Bumble Bees" - James Crall, Harvard University
  
  Lunch at Segundo Dining Commons (opens from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.)

1:45 p.m. Session 2: Drivers of Host-Pathogen Interactions

• "DWV as a Driver of Host Bee Decline" - Robert Paxton, Martin-Luther University, Germany
• "Novel Transmission Routes and Intensification as Drivers of Disease Emergence and Virulence in Honey Bee viruses" - Mike Boots, UC Berkeley
• "Viral Transmission in Honey Bees and Native Bees Supported by a Global BQCV Phylogeny" - Elizabeth Murray, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

 3 to 3:15: Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)

• "Drivers of Pathogen Distributions in Feral and Managed Honey Bees" - Panuwan Chantawannakul, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
• "Serratia marcescens, a Pathobiont of Honey Bees?" - Kasie Raymann, University of North Carolina Greensboro
• "Foreign Fungi in Native Bees across the Commonwealth of Virginia" - Kathryn LeCroy, University of Virginia
• "Traits as Drivers of Plant-Pollinator-Pathogen Networks" - Quinn McFrederick, UC Riverside and Scott McArt, Cornell University
  
  4:30 p.m.: Poster Session 1 in the ARC Ballroom
  
  
• 6:30 to 8 p.m. Opening Reception
  Robert Mondavi Institute Sensory Building, 392 Old Davis Road, Davis
  Honey Tasting led by Amina Harris, director, Honey and Pollination Center

Friday, July 19
6:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., Breakfast at Segundo Dining Commons

9 a.m. Keynote: "Bee Nutritional Ecology: From Genes to Landscapes," by Christina Grozinger, Penn State University

10 a.m. Session Three: Variable Climates and Changing Pollinators

• "Bee Responses to Climate Change: from Micro- to Macroecology" - Jessica Forrest, University of Ottawa, Canada
• "A Climate Vise of Temperature Extremes May Explain Past and Predict Future Bumble Bee Range Shifts" - Michael Dillon, University of Wyoming
• "Climate Change Effects on Megachilidae Bee Species along an Elevation Gradient" - Lindsie McCabe, Northern Arizona University
  
  10:15 to 11:05: Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)
  
  
• "Testing the Phenological Mismatch Hypothesis for a Plant-Pollinator Iinteraction" - Charlotte de Keyzer, University of Toronto, Canada
• "Phenological Mismatch between Bees and Flowers Early in the Spring and Late in the Summer" - Gaku Kudo, Hokkaido University, Japan
• "Climate Change Impacts on Brazilian Pollinators" - Tereza (Cris) Giannini, Federal University of Para, Brazil
• "Pollinator Health in a Commercial Blueberry System" - Lief Richardson, University of Vermont
  
  Lunch at Segundo Dining Commons (opens from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.)
  
  Optional Discussion: How do you relate your science to justice, equity and advocacy issue

 1:45 Session 4: Causes and Consequences of Pesticide Use: From Use Patterns to Pollination Services

• "A New Framework for Environmental Risk Assessment of Pesticides" - Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, University of Sydney, Australia
• "Potency Paradox: Patterns and Drivers of Insecticide Use in U.S. Agriculture" - Maggie Douglas, Dickinson College
• "Estimating Pollinator Pesticide Exposure" - Maj Rundlof, Lund University, Sweden
  
  Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)
  
  
• "A Risk Assessment of Neonicotinoid Insecticides in New York" - Travis Grout, Cornell University
• "Risk of Exposure in Soil and Sublethal Effects of Systemic Insecticides Applied to Crops on Adult Female Ground-Nesting Bees Using the Hoary Squash Bee as a Model Species" - D. Susan Willis Chan, University of Guelph, Canada
• "Delayed Lethality: The Effects of a Widely-Used Fungicide on Honey Bees (Apis mellifera)" - Adrian Fisher II, Arizona State University
• "Sub-lethal Impacts of Pesticides on Bees" - Troy Anderson, University of Nebraska
  
  Poster Session 2 and Networking at the ARC Ballroom

Saturday, July 21
8 a.m.  Registration at the ARC Ballroom
6:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.: Breakfast at Segundo Dining Commons

9 a.m.: Session 5: Integrative Approaches to Improving Bee Health Across Landscapes

• "Combining Physiological and Ecological Data for More Effective Bee Protection and Conservation" - Cedric Alaux, INRA, France
• "Keeping Bees in a Warming World: Protein Biomarkers for Heat Stress and Queen Failure Diagnostics" - Alison McAfee, North Carolina State University
• "Factors Influencing Colony Survival in Migratory Beekeeping Based on Honey Bee Resistance Traits" - Michael Simone-Finstrom, USDA-ARS, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• "Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Pollinator Communities across North Carolina Agroecosystem" - Hannah Levenson, North Carolina State University
• "The Effects of Land Cover on Habitat Quality for Nesting Bumble Bees" - Genevieve Pugesek, Tufts University
  
  10 to 10:15 a.m. Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)
  
  
• "Improving Bee Health in Canola Pollination" - Shelley Hoover, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry
• "Mitigating Land Use Decisions that Destroy Bee Forage" - George Hansen, Foothills Honey, Oregon, USA
• "Impact of Landscape-Scale Floral Resources Availability on Pollinator Communities" - Aaron Iverson, Cornell University
• "Why are Crops Mainly Visited by Broadly Polylectic Bee Species?" - Katja Hogendoorn, The University of Adelaide, South Australia
  
  12:15 Lunch

1:40: Session 6: Pollinators in Urban Environments

• Presentation by The Wonderful Company
• Honoring new California Master Beekeeper graduates - Elina Niño, UC Davis
• "Floral Trophic Ecology of a North American Metropolis Revealed by Honey Bee Foraging Assay" -
  Doug Sponsler, Penn State University
• "Pollinators and Urban Warming: A Landscape Physiology Approach" - Elsa Youngsteadt, North
  Carolina State University
• "Green Infrastructure to Support Urban Wild bees: Communicating Science to Practitioners" - Scott
  McIvor, University of Toronto, Canada
• "Urban Pollinator Conservation Opportunities: Integrating Research with Policy and Practice" -
  Katherine Baldock, University of Bristol, UK
• "Linking Pollinator Health, Microbiome Composition and Human Provisioning in Anna's Hummingbird
  (Calypte anna) - Rachel Vannette, UC Davis
  
  Break (Light refreshments in the foyer)
  
  
• "Beekeeping Ordinances: Protecting bees and Neighbors" - Tracy Ellis, San Diego County
  Department of Agriculture
• "Beekeeping in the City: Successes and Challenges" - Charlie Blevins, San Francisco Beekeepers'
  Association
• "Electric Power Companies Protecting Pollinators" - Jessica Fox, Electric Power Research Institute,
  Palo Alto
• "The Effect of Land use on a Sexually Selected Characteristic of the Cabbage White Butterfly (Pieris
  rapae) in the United States" - Anne Espeset, University of Nevada, Reno
• "Urban Pollinator Conservation: Bee Campus USA and Bee City USA as a Model for Meaningful
  Community Engagement" - Phyllis Stiles, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Portland,
  Ore.
  
  Closing remarks

(There are no plans to video record the conference)

Do you want to become a beekeeper or do you want to learn more about beekeeping?

The California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP), directed by Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is hosting two short courses in early August: one on “Planning Ahead for Your First Hives” and the other, “Working Your Colonies.”

Each will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus. The deadline to register is Thursday, Aug. 1.

“These courses are foundational to beekeeping husbandry excellence,” said Wendy Mather, program manager. “They are great for folks who are thinking about getting bees next season, as well as those who currently have bees and want to ensure they're doing whatever they can to ensure the success of their hives.”

The classes are not required to become a California Master Beekeeper, but are highly recommended, as “they will help folks prepare to become a science-based beekeeping ambassador,” Mather said. Instructors are Elina Niño and CAMPB educational supervisor Bernardo Niño, a staff research assistant in the Niño lab.

Planning Ahead for Your First Hives
“Planning Ahead for Your First Hives” will take place Saturday, Aug. 3 and will include both lectures and hands-on activities. Participants will learn what's necessary to get the colony started and keep it healthy and thriving. They will learn about bee biology, beekeeping equipment, how to install honey bee packages, how to monitor their colonies (that includes inspecting and monitoring for varroa mites) and other challenges with maintaining a healthy colony.

The course is limited to 25 participants. The $105 registration fee covers the cost of course materials (including a hive tool), lunch and refreshments. Participants can bring their bee suit or veil if they have one, or protective gear can be provided. For more information or to register, see https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/572.

 Working Your Colonies
“Working Your Colonies” will take place Sunday, Aug. 4 and will include both lectures and hands-on activities. Participants will learn what is necessary to maintain a healthy colony. Lectures will cover advanced honey bee biology, honey bee integrated pest management, and products of the hive. Participants also will learn about queen wrangling, honey extraction, splitting/combined colonies, and monitoring for varroa mites.

The course is limited to 25 participants per session. The $175 registration fee covers the cost of course materials, lunch and refreshments. For more information or to register, see https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/559.

 Participants can bring their bee suit or veil if they have one, or protective gear can be provided. All participants are to wear closed-toed and closed-heel shoes, long pants and a long-sleeved shirt.

The California Master Beekeeping Program uses science-based information to educate stewards and ambassadors for honey bees and beekeeping. For more information, contact Mather at wmather@ucdavis.edu.

Two doctoral students from the Jason Bond laboratory, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won first- and second-place awards in the student research competitions at the recent meeting of the American Arachnological Society, held at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.

Rebecca Godwin won first in the poster competition for her research on trapdoor spiders and Lacie Newton won second for her oral presentation on species delimitation. Their major professor, Jason Bond, is the department's Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics.

Godwin titled her work, “Revision of New World Ummidia (Mygalomorphae, Halonoproctidae)”: Her abstract: “Ummidia is a historically taxonomically difficult group of spiders belonging to the infraorder Mygalomorphae, one of the three main lineages recognized within spiders. Mygalomorph life history and their incredibly cryptic appearance make them difficult to identify, as a result they are frequently overlooked by spider systematists. Ummidia Thorell 1875 is a wide-ranging genus of trapdoor spider found both in the Mediterranean region of the Old World and in the New World from the eastern United States south to Brazil. Taxonomic work on New World Ummidia is sparse outside of original descriptions, the most recent of which are over half a century old."

"I am revising the genus Ummidia in the Nearctic region. I have approached this taxonomic problem by examining approximately 700 specimens of Ummidia from various collections (American Museum of Natural History, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Florida State Collection of Arthropods, California Academy of Sciences, and Auburn University Museum of Natural History). Examination of museum material has seemingly confirmed the undescribed diversity of Ummidia; preliminary estimates of New World species ranging between 50 and 60, with particularly high amounts of diversity in the Florida and Virginia. This study, along with many others conducted utilizing museum collections, is indicative of the importance of natural history collections and their usefulness in discovering unknown biodiversity.”

Newton titled her work, “Species Delimitation of the Antrodiaetus Unicolor Species Complex Using a 3RAD Approach.” Her abstract: “Although species delimitation can be highly contentious, the development of reliable methods to accurately ascertain species boundaries is a fundamental and necessary step in cataloguing and describing Earth's quickly disappearing biodiversity. Species delimitation in spider taxa has historically been based on morphological characters; however, certain mygalomorphs are morphologically indistinguishable from each other yet have considerable molecular divergence."

"Previous research by Hendrixson and Bond (2005) described a new sympatric species Antrodiaetus microunicolor in the A. unicolor species complex using morphological criteria (i.e. size and setal character differences) and behavioral criteria (non-overlapping mating seasons). Subsequently, they used two molecular markers COI and 28S and discovered that A. unicolor is paraphyletic with respect to A. microunicolor. To further delineate this species complex, we implement the cohesion species concept and employ multiple lines of evidence for testing genetic exchangeability and ecological interchangeability. Our integrative approach includes extensively sampling homologous loci across the genome using a version of RADseq called 3RAD, assessing population structure across their geographic range, and evaluating ecological similarity by niche-based distribution modeling. Based on our analyses, we conclude that this species complex has two or three species in addition to A. microunicolor.”

Rebecca Godwin
Godwin holds two degrees from Auburn University: her bachelor's degree in zoology in 2004, and her master's degree in wetland biology in 2011. She began her doctoral studies at Auburn University in 2014, and transferred to UC Davis when Bond accepted the UC Davis position in 2018.

Godwin won the Auburn University's Department of Biological Science's Outstanding Service Award in 2016. She is the lead author of research published in 2018 in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution on “Phylogeny of a Cosmopolitan Family of Morphologically Conserved Trapdoor spiders (Mygalomorphae, Ctenizidae) Using Anchored Hybrid Enrichment, with a Description of the Family, Halonoproctidae Pocock 1901.” She currently serves as a graduate teaching assistant in the course, "Biology 2C," at UC Davis.

Godwin's research interests include taxonomy, systematics, and phylogreography of trapdoor spiders, as well as effective science communication and increasing general science literacy.

Lacie Newton
Newton received her bachelor of science degree from Millsaps College, Jackson, Miss., in 2016, and then joined the Auburn University doctoral program. Like Godwin, she transferred to UC Davis with her major professor in 2018. Newton served as an undergraduate teaching assistant at Millsaps College for “Introduction to Cell Biology” and “General Zoology,” and as a graduate teaching assistant in “Introduction to Biology” at Auburn University.

Newton now serves as a graduate teaching assistant at UC Davis for “Introduction to Biology: Biodiversity and the Tree of Life.” She won the 2019-2020 George H. Vansell Scholarship, UC Davis. Her research interests include systematics, species delimitation, and phylogeography of spiders; phylogenetics; comparative transcriptomics of troglophilic and troglobitic spiders; cave biology and conservation.

Both Godwin and Newton volunteer at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's programs on spiders and at the campuswide UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day.

Bond joined the UC Davis faculty after a seven-year academic career at Auburn University, Ala. He served as professor of biology and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences from January 2016 to July 2018, and as curator of arachnids and myriapods (centipedes, millipedes, and related animals) at the Auburn University Museum of Natural History, from August 2011 to July 2018.

Ready, set, throw!

The 16th annual Bruce Hammock Lab Water Balloon Battle--known as "Bruce's Big Balloon Battle at Briggs" or "15 Minutes of Aim"--is set for 3 p.m., Friday, July 12 on the Briggs Hall lawn.

The event will take place on the northwest side of Briggs on the lawn between Briggs and the fire department--"the one still green," said coordinator Christopher Morisseau, a researcher in the Hammock lab. (The traditional site is being prepared for planting.)

Participants will fill 2000 balloons, starting at 1 p.m. on the grass by the loading dock. Morisseau said the policy is "no filling,no throwing" or "bring your own balloons."

It is open to all who want to get wet, and children and spouses are always welcome.

Last year water balloons, water guns, super sprayers, and buckets prevailed in the international soakfest. Twenty-eight researchers in the Hammock lab  from seven countries participated: the United Stares, China, France, Ukraine, Lebanon, Japan and Korea. They included postdoctoral scholars, researchers, graduate students, visiting scholars, visiting graduate students, visiting summer students, short-term visiting scholars and student interns.  

Hammock, a UC Davis distinguished professor who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, hosts the annual event in mid-July when triple-digit temperatures strike the campus. It's an opportunity for the lab members--who work hard throughout the year and play hard for 15 minutes--to engage in a little fun and camaraderie. The thirsty lawn benefits, too.

Hammock, trained as a entomologist, chemist and toxicologist--and who now focuses his research on human health, is recognized for his work on using natural chemical mediators to control inflammation and intractable pain. He co-discovered the soluble epoxide hydrolase, and many of his more than 1100 publications and patents are on the P450 branch of the arachidonate cascade where the soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) degrades natural analgesic and anti-inflammatory compounds.  

Hammock, an alumnus of UC Berkeley with a doctorate in entomology, joined the UC Davis faculty in 1980. He is the founding director (1987-present) of the UC Davis NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) Superfund Research Program and is a founding member (1990-present) of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. He has directed the UC Davis NIH/NIEHS Combined Analytical Laboratory for 25 years.

Highly honored by his peers, Hammock is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, which honors academic invention and encourages translations of inventions to benefit society. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, and the recipient of the Bernard B. Brodie Award in Drug Metabolism, sponsored by the America Society for Pharmacology and  Experimental Therapeutics. He is the first McGiff Memorial Awardee in Lipid Biochemistry. The Eicosanoid Research Foundation recently honored him for work on oxidized lipids.

For more information, contact Morisseau at chmorisseau@ucdavis.edu.