- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The ESA governing board elected Rosenheim and nine other entomologists as Fellows for their outstanding contributions in research, teaching, extension and outreach, administration or the military. The Fellows' Class of 2020, comprised of five men and five women, will be recognized at ESA's virtual annual meeting, Entomology 2020, Nov. 11-25.
"Jay's substantial contributions to basic and applied entomology are world-renowned, and clearly merit his election as a Fellow of the ESA," said Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Rosenheim, who joined the UC Davis entomology faculty in 1990, is internationally known for his research on the ecology of insect parasitoids and predators, insect reproductive behavior, and the application of big data, or "ecoinformatics," methods in agricultural entomology.
“Rosenheim's work has shown that the structure of insect communities is more complex than the archetypal model of three discretetrophic levels, under which predators eat only herbivores and herbivores eat only plants," ESA wrote in a news release. "Instead, widespread predator-predator interactions (intraguild predation), omnivory, and cannibalism create rich and diverse dynamics that can either enhance or disrupt biological control. Rosenheim has also worked to introduce big data techniques to agricultural entomology. By harnessing the decentralized data gathering efforts of farmers, field scouts, and consultants, large data sets can be created and analyzed to reveal important relationships between pests, natural enemies, and crop performance. Rosenheim's research has also examined how organisms evolve to balance multiple factors that can emerge as limits to reproductive success, and how this shapes insect and plant reproductive traits.”
Rosenheim and two other faculty members of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology--associate professors Louie Yang and Joanna Chiu-- are co-founders and co-directors of the Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology, a mentored research program for undergraduates. Founded in 2011, the program has now trained more than 100 undergraduate researchers.
A native of Yorktown, N.Y, where he developed an interest in biology while exploring the vernal pools behind his Hudson River Valley home, Rosenheim holds a bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Davis (1983) and a doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley (1987). Rosenheim served as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii, and then studied as a Fulbright junior researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
The UC Davis distinguished professor has authored more than 160 peer-reviewed publications. In 2009, he was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Highly honored for his teaching and mentoring, Rosenheim received teaching awards from the Associated Students of UC Davis and the UC Davis Academic Senate, and the 2018 Distinguished Student Mentoring Award from the Pacific Branch, ESA. He has mentored 34 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who are pursuing careers in the private sector, conservation nonprofits, journalism, and academia.
When he was nominated for the Pacific Branch award, his former students praised him for his excellence, kindness and dedication. The awards packet included such comments as “best teacher on campus,” “kind and patient,” and “someone who cares about us and our future.” A former graduate student described Rosenheim as a “successful scientist with a brilliant and inquisitive mind.” Another wrote that he is “one of the most dedicated and effective teachers” he's ever encountered. The ultimate compliment: “Someday I hope to be able to teach and inspire students as well as Jay does.” The Pacific Branch represents 11 states, seven U.S. territories, and parts of Canada and Mexico.
Rosenheim, named a UC Davis distinguished professor in 2018, joined ESA in 1983. He serves on the editorial board of the journals Biological Control and Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, and as a subject-matter editor of Ecology and Ecological Monographs.
Locally, he serves as the volunteer faculty representative for the Jepson Prairie Preserve, a Dixon-area site renowned for its vernal pools. The preserve is owned by the Solano Land Trust, which manages the site with UC Davis, the Nature Conservancy and Jepson Prairie Docents.
Rosenheim and his wife, Shulamit Glazerman, are the parents of four children: Hillel, 20, a student at the State University of New York (SUNY) Binghamton; Leah, 18, soon to begin her studies at SUNY Binghamton; and Eitan, 16, and Meirav, 14 of the family home in Davis.
Other newly elected ESA Fellows are
- Carol Anelli, professor, Department of Entomology and the Honors and Scholars Program at Ohio State University
- Carolina Barillas-Mury, head of the Mosquito Immunity and Vector Competence Section, National Institutes of Health, and formerly with Colorado State University
- David Dame, former medical entomologist with the Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and a former independent consultant
- Richard Hellmich, lead scientist with the USDA–ARS, Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Laboratory, and affiliate professor of entomology, Iowa State University
- Philip Koehler, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of Florida
- Catherine Loudon, vice chair and senior lecturer, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, UC Irvine
- Corrie Moreau, Martha N. and John C. Moser Professor of Arthropod Biosystematics and Biodiversity at Cornell University in the Departments of Entomology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in Ithaca, N.Y.
- James Truman, emeritus professor of biology, University of Washington (UW); former group leader at the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Northern Virginia; and now a UW researcher at the Friday Harbor Laboratories, San Juan Island, Puget Sound.
- Susan Weller, director of the University of Nebraska State Museum and professor of entomology at University of Nebraska–Lincoln
ESA, founded in 1889 and headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, is the world's largest organization serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Its members are affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. See list of ESA Fellows.
(ESA contributed to this news story)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute is gearing up for two virtual events, one in September and the other in October:
- "Sips and Bites: The Hidden World of Honey" from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 9 on Zoom.
- Honey Sensory Workshop from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.on Thursday, Oct. 22.
Honey Sensory Workshop
Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center, said the Honey Sensory Workshop is a "one-day immersion into the complex world of honey. Each student will be guided through tastings and discussions laying the groundwork to understand the variety and nuance of honey." Master presenters are master taster and Italian Certified Expert Honey Taster, Orietta Gianjorio and Amina Harris, educator and founding director and the co-owner of Z Specialty Food, LLC, Woodland.
The course will cover all the basics through lectures and tastings including:
- Sensory evaluation and descriptive analysis
- Mono-varietal honeys
- Crystallization
- Defects
Registration closes Oct. 1. The cost is $160. More information is here.
Sips and Bites: The Hidden World of Honey
This event is part of the Sips and Bites series, "which explores the stories behind foods and drinks with winemakers, brewers, and culinary innovators with tastings and conversations about what inspires them to make their wines, beers, and foods," said Harris, who will serve as moderator. Registration is underway.
Trevor and Claire Tauzer, founders of Sola Bee Farms, Woodland, will discuss how sustainable beekeeping is key to the future of agriculture. They will elaborate on what goes into making honey from a single floral source and yield information about the taste.
Trevor Tauzer, beekeeper and general manager of Tauzer Apiaries/Sola Bee Farms, created Sola Bee Farms in 2011 to sell the family's varietal honey directly to customers. He grew up beekeeping with his father, and following his graduation from UC Santa Cruz, returned to beekeeping in 2008. Trevor says he enjoys running his second-generation family business with his wife Claire, and teaching their 3.5 year old and 1-year-old about honey bees.
Claire Tauzer is the community outreach and brand manager of Tauzer Apiaries/Sola Bee Farms. A former high school teacher, she applies her educational background to help communicate and promote the importance of professional pollination and the benefits of local varietal honey. Sola Bee Farm's Wild Blackberry honey won a Good Food Award in 2019.
Registrants are asked to order a special three-pack of Sola Bee Farms honey (cost is $30) by Wednesday, Sept. 2 to ensure arrival by Wednesday, Sept. 9. (See more information)
The Honey and Pollination Center's recently scheduled Mead Making 301 course, initially set Sept. 14-17, has been canceled.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Boudinot, who studied with major professor Phil Ward of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is the second UC Davis-affiliated entomologist to receive the honor in its 28-year history. Jessica Gillung of the Lynn Kimsey lab, Bohart Museum of Entomology, won the award in 2019.
Snodgrass (1875-1962), a leader in insect morphology, is known for his 76 scientific articles and six books, including Insects, Their Ways and Means of Living (1930) and the book considered to be his crowning achievement, the Principles of Insect Morphology (1935).
Boudinot has them all. “Principles of Insect Morphology and the Anatomy of the Honey Bee were the foundation of my studies,” he said. “I have both, plus his Textbook of Arthropod Morphology and Insects, Their Ways and Means of Living on my desk in the lab.”
The Snodgrass Award, which includes a certificate and cash prize, recognizes outstanding research by a PhD student who has completed a research thesis or dissertation in arthropod morphology, systematics, taxonomy, or evolution. Nominees are scored on honors, awards, achievements and recognition; recommendations of professors and advisors; grantsmanship, publications, creativity and innovation of thesis or dissertation; and contribution to morphology.
Boudinot's dissertation: “Systematic and Evolutionary Morphology: Case Studies on Formicidae, Mesozoic Aculeata, and Hexapodan Genitalia.”
He earlier received the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship to do research on evolutionary and comparative anatomy in Jena, Germany. He will locate to Germany in early 2021 for the two-year fellowship, after completing intensive language studies.
'I Am a Morphologist Because of Robert Evans Snodgrass'
“I am a morphologist because of Robert Evans Snodgrass,” Boudinot wrote in his application. “Although I have had pressure from my earliest undergraduate to become a molecular systematist, it was my chance encounter with Snodgrass's Principles of Insect Morphology late one night in the college library that set the course of my career. I had struggled for years at that point to understand the biodiversity of insects and to untangle the deep morass of arcane terminology, but my vision was illuminated by the conceptual clarity, linguistic simplicity, and exceptional engravings of the Principles. This work continues to hold special dominion over my thinking, as it is through the principle of mechanical function for explaining comparative anatomical observations that I have come to my present understanding of systematic and evolutionary morphology.”
Boudinot wrote that his “career objective, in brief, is to resolve the morphological evolution of insects through the synthesis traditional morphology, as represented by Snodgrass, with recent trends in digital anatomy and bioinformatics. I envision a future wherein students rely not on Borror & Delong, a holdover from Comstock's 19thCentury manual, but rather learn about insect structure, function, classification, and evolution through manipulation of three- and four-dimensional digital anatomical models, substantiated via manual curation and dissection. I want students to see for themselves what I have understood through the study of Snodgrass's work, balanced by contemporary research: The origin of the Arthropoda and morphological transformation through geological time to the resplendent, and endangered, diversity of today.
“In sum, my identity as an entomologist, and as a scientist more broadly, is due to the insights on the language and phenomenology of morphological evolution I gained from the oeuvre of Snodgrass. Without these works, I would probably still be a botanist.”
Boudinot's research interests include the origin and evolution of complex phenotypic systems from the perspective of phylogenetic systematics, including molecular and paleontological evidence. Specializing on morphological identity and evolutionary transformation, the skeletomuscular system of Arthropoda, with emphasis on the male genitalia of Hexapoda and systematics of the Hymenoptera, particularly the Formicidae.
John Henry Comstock Award
Highly honored for his academics, leadership, public service activities, professional activities and publications while at UC Davis, Boudinot received the 2019 John Henry Comstock Award, the top graduate student award given by ESA's Pacific Branch. The branch encompasses 11 Western states, U.S. territories, and parts of Canada and Mexico.
In the Comstock award application, Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, described Boudinot as “A highly respected scientist, teacher and leader with a keen intellect, unbridled enthusiasm, and an incredible penchant for public service.” Boudinot maintained a 4.00 grade point average and published 18 peer-reviewed publications on insect systematics, some landmark or groundbreaking work.
His most recent publications: one on Cretaceous Strepsiptera in Cladistics and the other on the iron maiden ants in Myrmecological News ("Two New Iron Maiden Ants from Burmese Amber (Hymenoptera:
Formicidae: †Zigrasimeciini").
Boudinot received multiple “President's Prize” awards for his research presentations at national ESA meetings. He organized the ESA symposium, “Evolutionary and Phylogenetic Morphology,” at the 2018 meeting in Vancouver, B.C. , and delivered a presentation on “Male Ants: Past, Present and Prospects” at the 2016 International Congress of Entomology meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Boudinot served on—and anchored—three of the UC Davis Linnaean Games teams that won national or international ESA championships. The Linnaean Games, now known as the Entomology Games, are a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competitions on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams.
Brendon served as president of the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association from 2006 to 2019, and co-chaired the department's UC Davis Picnic Day celebration (with forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey) for three years.
Before enrolling in graduate school program at UC Davis in 2014, Brendon received his bachelor's degree in entomology in 2012 from The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Wash. Professor John T. Longino served as his mentor.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The paper appears in the current edition of Journal of Hydrobiologia.
“The water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, isconsidered the world's most economically damaging aquatic weed,” said Bick, now a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
The free-floating perennial, native to the Amazon region of South America, is highly invasive throughout the world. It forms large floating mats when its roots and leaves intertwine. The aquatic weed is a major issue in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in central California.
“This paper is the result of my first dissertation chapter,” said Bick, an agricultural entomologist who received both her master's degree (2017) and doctorate in entomology (2019) from UC Davis. “We aimed to determine if salinity was the reason N. bruchi was not effective at regulating the weed in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta compared with other worldwide locations. The results were not as clear cut as we hoped, as the study was limited in testing only adult weevils. However, the paper makes the case for including salinity as a screening variable for new biological control agents that are candidates for release in the Delta and other partially saline areas. Also, given the thoroughness of the experiments, there is at least one cool modeling paper to come out as a follow-up.”
The paper, titled “Effects of Salinity and Nutrients on Water Hyacinth and its Biological Control Agent, Neochetina bruchi, “was truly an all-hands-on-deck effort,” Bick said. "Specifically, a major project hurdle was the temperature in Davis."
She related that the greenhouse experiments on water hyacinth “weren't producing consistent results due to the high variation—and high heat--in water temperature.” So fellow scientists Danny Klittich, then a UC Davis doctoral student in entomology with the Michael Parrella laboratory, and Bob Starnes, then UC Davis senior superintendent of agriculture, built a giant water bath out of a leftover evaporative cooler from the Parrella lab.
Klittich is now the California Central Coast Agronomist with Redox Chemicals and chief executive officer and founder at HowToGrowRoses.org. Starnes is vice president of agriculture for UAV-IQ (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Intelligence.
In addition to Klittich and Starnes, other co-authors are UC Davis postdoctoral scholar Elvira deLange of the Christian Nansen lab; then doctoral student Cindy Kron of the Frank Zalom laboratory; and undergraduate students Jessie Liu and Derrick Nguyen. Kron, now with UC Cooperative Extension, is the North Coast Area Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Advisor, serving Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties.
The abstract:
“Water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms (Commelinales: Pontederiaceae), is an important aquatic weed worldwide. Previous studies demonstrate that releases of Neochetina bruchi Hustache (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) provide biological control in many locations, but not all. Notably, N. bruchi were unsuccessful at regulating water hyacinth in tidal brackish waters. Abiotic factors, including salinity and nutrients, affect water hyacinth growth, but little is known about the impact of salinity on weevil survival. We hypothesized that N. bruchi has a relatively low salinity tolerance. In a mesocosm experiment, we assessed weed growth in response to a range of salinity and nutrient concentrations. In a laboratory, we assessed adult N. bruchi mortality in response to various salinity concentrations. Results indicate that increasing nutrient concentration increases weed growth. When both nutrient and salinity levels were varied, nutrients increased leaf count, but not biomass, while salinity reduced growth and increased mortality. Increasing salinity concentrations increased adult weevil mortality; required concentrations were higher than that for weeds. Thus, these results did not provide support for the suggested hypothesis. Potential effects of salinity via other exposures to weevils need to be investigated. Elucidating abiotic factors important for weed growth and weevil survival may increase effectiveness of water hyacinth management practices.”
The water hyacinth was introduced in California in 1904. Scientists trace its history in the United States back to 1884 at the New Orleans Exposition. “Samples are said to have been given to fair-goers, and within 4 years, coastal fresh waters were infested from Texas to Alabama. By 1972, the infestation in Florida was estimated to be 200,000 acres,” according to Cornell University. “Large, floating mats of waterhyacinth obstruct navigation, clog irrigation works, disrupt the natural ecology of wetlands in many ways, exacerbate mosquito problems, and are costly to the tourism and recreation industries.”
Two biocontrol agents, weevils N. eichhorniae and N. bruchi, natives of Argentina, and surrounding areas in South America, were released in 1972 and 1974, respectively.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The question is crucial “because it is the foundation of essentially all biological questions,” says spider systematics researcher Lacie Newton, a doctoral student in the Jason Bond laboratory, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and the lead author of newly published research that explores that question.
“For example,” Newton says, “making successful conservation efforts depends on knowing how to identify the threatened/endangered species from other closely related species that are not threatened.”
Her research on folding-door spiders or the Antrodiaetus unicolor species complex led to a journal article published in Molecular Ecology: “Integrative Species Delimitation Reveals Cryptic Diversity in the Southern Appalachian Antrodiaetus unicolor (Araneae: Antrodiaetidae) Species Complex.” UC Davis co-authors are Professor Bond, who is the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, and project scientist James Starrett of the Bond lab.
Folding-door spiders are so named because they close the entrances to their silk-lined burrows by pulling in the rim. They are often described as having stocky brown bodies, thick legs and large fangs.
The five-member research team, also including Professor Brent Hendrixson of Millsaps College, Jackson, Miss., and postdoctoral fellow Shahan Derkarabetian of Harvard University, used an integrative approach with several lines of evidence (morphological, behavioral, molecular, and ecological data) to form a consensus “about where we should draw the lines between species in this complex,” Newton said.
They targeted the Antrodiaetus unicolor species complex, which Newton said, are “great organisms for exploring species boundaries because even though these spiders do not have any obvious visual differences to tell them apart--with the exception of the smaller and lighter brown A. microunicolor-- there are significant genetic differences between certain populations, that is potential 'cryptic' species.”
Said Professor Bond of the journal article: “I think its significance lies in the innovative and multipronged approach (integrative) she employed to evaluating species boundaries. The study emphasizes the importance of using both genomic scale and ecological data rather than relying on traditional morphological features alone to delimit species. Understanding species boundaries is an imperative for cataloging and describing the planet's rapidly disappearing biodiversity.”
Newton won a second-place award for her oral presentation on species delimitation at the 2019 American Arachnological Society (AAS), held at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va. 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." She is active in both AAS and the Society of Systematic Biologists.
First-Generation College Student
Newton, a first-generation college student, is a fifth-year doctoral program student whose research interests include systematics, Araneae, mygalomorph spiders, speciation pattern and process, phylogeography, molecular phylogenetics, and character evolution. She is the recipient of a year-long UC Davis Graduate Research Mentorship Fellowship that supports promising doctoral students that meet diversity criteria.
Born and raised in Eupora, Miss.-- “a very small town with less than 2000 people”--Lacie recalls a childhood that included “a significant amount of time outdoors with my family surrounded by the rich flora and fauna of the Coastal Plain Floristic Province.”
“This experience,” she related, “fostered my interest in biodiversity and later guided me to take additional science classes to learn more about the complexities of the living world.”
What sparked her interest in spiders? “I actually used to be terrified of spiders,” Lacie acknowledged. “It wasn't until fall semester of my sophomore year when I took a zoology course that I began to appreciate not only the vast amount of diversity within spiders but also how amazing they are as a group, such as the tensile strength of spider silk being comparable to steel, spider venoms playing a role in potential medical applications, and a myriad of feeding strategies, etc..”
“As my professor Dr. Brent Hendrixson shared his research interests (systematics of mygalomorph spiders and scorpions) and passion for scientific outreach, I evolved from a guarded student to a fascinated one. Additional summer field courses focused on the biology, evolution, and ecology of arachnids completely changed my career trajectory from becoming a medical doctor to an evolutionary biology professor with research emphasizing evolutionary processes of arachnid study systems, specifically mygalomorph spiders like Antrodiaetus.”
Career as Evolutionary Biologist
The UC Davis doctoral student plans a career as an evolutionary biologist, exploring the evolutionary history of mygalomorph spiders. “My ultimate career goal is to become a biology professor where I can perform research and teach in a vibrant academic setting,” Newton said. “As a professor, my aims are to become an expert in my desired field of evolutionary biology, continue to be involved in the scientific community through collaborations with researchers, and become an advocate for vision and change in science education. “
“To clarify,” she added, “I want to study the evolutionary history of arachnids by using emerging technologies/methods and bioinformatics tools. I also plan to participate in the scientific community by publishing articles in respected journals, attending and presenting at conferences, and collaborating with various researchers. Lastly, I plan to take part in teaching and outreach opportunities to convey my enthusiasm for science to others. I feel outreach is especially important to get children enthusiastic about science and to demystify science for the public.”
Newton aims to become a faculty mentor “who can positively impact students--the way my own undergraduate mentor Dr. Hendrixson affected my life--by using my position as a professor to extend opportunities to mentor high school students, undergraduate students, and graduate students, especially from underrepresented groups such as women and members of the LGBTQ community. Specifically, I want to mentor students about career options available as well as offer my own point-of-view about pursuing a career in a STEM field.”
At UC Davis, Newton served as a teaching assistant for the “Introduction to Biology: Biodiversity and the Tree of Life” course. She is mentor to undergraduate students in the Mentoring Program, Equity in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Entrepreneurship (ESTEME) organization, a graduate student organization dedicated to improving equity and inclusion in STEM fields, entrepreneurship, and leadership positions. She also volunteers on the admissions committee for GOALS, the Girls' Outdoor Adventure in Leadership and Science, a summer science program for high school students to learn science hands-on while backpacking through the wilderness.
In addition, Newton volunteers at the annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day and at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open houses, including one featuring “Eight-Legged Wonders (Spiders).”
The "eight-legged wonders," as she said, fascinate her. It's "not only the vast amount of diversity within spiders but also how amazing they are as a group."