- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Provost Ralph Hexter and Richard Engel, executive director of CAAA, presented the award.
Last year Li received the Department of Entomology’s Outstanding Undergraduate Award in Entomology.
Li, who grew up in Monterey Park, near east Los Angeles where she learned to love insects, was nominated for the senior award by Professor Sharon Lawler of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. “Ivana Li exemplifies the kind of leader, community organizer and entomology that our department seeks to produce," Lawler wrote. "She has especially excelled in her entomology courses and in leadership. Ivana Li is a true entomology and UC Davis success story.”
“Although initially shy, Ivana took advantage of the welcoming atmosphere here to not only develop intellectually, but to flower as a focal personality in the community of entomology students and faculty. She is a key player in virtually all of the outreach our department offers, from leading the Bohart Museum of Entomology tours for schoolchildren and assisting at open houses to developing and hosting UC Davis Picnic Day displays.”
Lawler also praised Li for installing the “major, eye-catching interpretive display of insects that lines a corridor in our department. It is informative, engaging and of a quality that rivals any professional museum.”
Active in the UC Davis Entomology Club, Li has held most of the offices, including president, and her “efforts have been key in making the club thrive,” Lawler said. The club is a valuable forum for outreach, peer mentoring and marketing, according to club advisor Robert Kimsey, forensic entomologist.
Li helped create an important Entomology Club contract with National Park Survey (NPS) to survey Alcatraz Island for wood-boring beetles. Kimsey has done fly research on Alcatraz for several years.
As an artist, Ivana has combined her research with her humorous side via Bohart Museum of Entomology t-shirts and by participating in a landmark paper, “A Phylogeny and Evolutionary History of the Pokémon,” published in the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) in July 2012. The paper is a humorous take on the evolutionary development and history of the 646 fictional species depicted in the Pokémon media over the last 16 years
Li works at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, home of nearly eight million insects. The entomology display she created for the Briggs third-floor hallway, was funded by a Bohart Museum grant, and completed within a four-week period. Assisting her from the Bohart were Lynn Kimsey, museum director and professor of entomology; senior museum scientist Steve Heydon; and Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. Yang wrote the grant.
Visitors can see everything from dragonflies, butterflies and honey bees to beetles, flies, ants and other insects.
The displays:
- Order Lepitopdera, butterflies and moths
- Order Coleoptera, beetles
- Order Hemiptera, true bugs
- Order Hymenoptera, bees, ants and wasps
- Order Diptera, flies, mosquitoes, knats and midges
- Orthopteroid orders, including Mantodea (mantids), Phasmatodea (stick insects) and Blattodea (cockroaches)
- Aquatic insects, including Odonata (dragonflies), Ephemeoptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies), Neuroptera (lacewings and antlions), and Trichoptera (caddisflies)
- Phylum Arthopodea, the largest animal phylum, which includes insects, spiders and crustaceans.
Her future plans include enrolling in graduate school.
Feb. 13, 2013
If you're not closely related, communication won't be as effective.
Newly published research in today's Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences shows that kin have distinct advantages when it comes to plant communication, just as “the ability of many animals to recognize kin has allowed them to evolve diverse cooperative behaviors,” says lead researcher and ecologist Richard Karban, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
For example, fire ants can recognize kin. “Ants will destroy queens that are not relatives but protect those who are,” Karban said.
That ability is less well studied for plants, until now.
“When sagebrush plants are damaged by their herbivores, they emit volatiles that cause their neighbors to adjust their defenses,” Karban said. “These adjustments reduce rates of damage and increase growth and survival of the neighbors.”
The research, “Kin Recognition Affects Plant Communication and Defense,” is co-authored by two scientists from Japan and two from UC Davis: Kaori Shiojiri of the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, Kyoto University, and Satomi Ishizaki of the Graduate School of Science and Technology, Niigata University; and William Wetzel of the UC Davis Center for Population Biology, and Richard Evans of the UC Davis Department of Plant Science.
To simulate predator damage, the researchers “wounded” the plants by clipping them and then studied the responses to the volatile cues. They found that the plants that received cues from experimentally clipped close relatives experienced less leaf damage over the growing season that those that received cues from clipped neighbors that were more distantly related.
“More effective defense adds to a growing list of favorable consequences of kin recognition for plants,” they wrote.
The researchers performed their field work on sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) at Taylor Meadow, UC Sagehen Creek Field Station, near Truckee. They conducted four field experiments over three years “that compared the proportion of leaves that were damaged by herbivores over the growing season when plants were provided with volatile cues clipped from a close relative versus cues from a distant relative,” the scientists wrote.
For closely related kin, they snipped stem cuttings (clones), potted them, and then returned the pots to the field. They determined relatedness “by using microsatellites that varied among individual sagebrush clones.”
The result: “Plants responded more effectively to volatile cues from close relatives than from distant relatives in all four experiments and communication reduced levels of leaf damage experienced over the three growing seasons,” they wrote. “This result was unlikely to be caused by volatiles repelling or poisoning insect herbivores.”
Karban, who has studied plant communication among the sagebrush at the site since 1999, likened the plant communication to neighbors “eavesdropping.” They “hear” the volatile cues of their neighbors as predators damage them.
Plants do communicate, Karban said. A basic form of plant communication occurs when it is being shaded and it responds by moving away.
“Some definitions of communication require that both the sender and receiver benefit by engaging in the behavior,” the researchers wrote. “Sagebrush is a long-lived perennial, making estimates of the costs and benefits of communication difficult although plants that responded to volatile cues from damaged neighbors experienced greater survival at the seedling stage and greater production of new branches and inflorescences over 12 years.”
Karban said that the volatiles released by “experimentally damaged plants are highly variable among individuals.”
“In the future we plan to examine this chemical variability to determine which chemicals are active as signals and why they exhibit so much variability,” Karban said. “Ultimately, we would like to be able to understand the chemical nature of the volatile cues, how plants use them to communicate, and whether as agriculturalists, we can control host plant resistance to herbivores.”
The work was supported by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Related Link
Rick Karban's Lab Research
DAVIS--Professor Steve Nadler of the UC Davis Department of Entomology has been selected to receive the Henry Baldwin Ward Medal, presented by the American Society of Parasitologists (ASP) in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of parasitology.
Nadler will be honored at ASP's 88th annual meeting, set June 26–29 in Quebec City, Quebec. The award, established in 1959, is named for H.B. Ward, the society's first president and founder of the Journal of Parasitology.
Nadler studies the evolutionary biology and molecular phylogenetics of parasites, focusing mainly on nematodes. He joined the UC Davis faculty in 1996, serving as chair of the Department of Nematology from 2005-2011.
A past president of ASP (2007-08), Nadler has published more than 90 journal articles, and co-authored the textbook Foundations of Parasitology. His molecular systematic research is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, and his publications have yielded fundamental insights into host-parasite co-phylogeny and the evolutionary biology of parasites.
The UC Davis professor has served as an associate editor or editorial board member for several journals, including Parasitology, Journal of Parasitology, and Systematic Parasitology.
Nadler received his bachelor's degree in biology from Missouri State University, and his doctorate in medical parasitology from Louisiana State University Medical Center. He completed postdoctoral training at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. He was appointed assistant professor of biological sciences at Northern Illinois University in 1990.
Henry Baldwin Ward (1865-1945), a native of Troy, N.Y., is considered “The Father of American Parasitology.” A zoologist, parasitologist and administrator, he was the first dean of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and later served as professor and head of the Department of Zoology at the University of Illinois until his retirement in 1933.
Founded in 1924, ASP is a diverse group of more than 800 scientists from industry, government, and academia who are interested in the study and teaching of parasitology. ASP members contribute not only to the development of parasitology as a discipline, but also to primary research in such fields as systematics, medicine, molecular biology, immunology, physiology, ecology, biochemistry and behavior.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
DAVIS--Honey bee researcher and apiculturist Brian R. Johnson, a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley, has joined the faculty of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
He is based at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road and at 396 Briggs Hall.
Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, welcomed the new assistant professor.
'The Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility has been the site of very innovative bee research over the years that have contributed to the facility's national and international reputation,” Parrella said. “We are excited about hiring Brian Johnson as the new apiculturist at UC Davis as Brian is committed to moving the science of apiculture forward as well as to conducting problem-solving research to help beekeepers, bee breeders and those stakeholders who rely on pollination services provide by honey bees.”
As a UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow, Johnson worked with Neil Tsutsui of the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management (ESPM) from 2009 until this spring. Earlier, from 2006 to 2009, he served as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at UC San Diego and the University of Bristol, UK.
Johnson received his doctorate in 2004 from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. in behavioral biology (thesis: “Organization of Work in the Honey Bee”). He obtained his bachelor's degree in 1998 from the UC San Diego, where he majored in ecology, behavior and evolution.
“Although I've been studying bees for over 12 years, I still learn something unexpected and important with every new study,” Johnson said. “The colony is like a hugely complex puzzle, with many pieces fitting together in functionally cohesive ways. This brain-teaser aspect of figuring out how a honey bee colony works is I think what first attracted me to bee research.”
A native of Hartford, Conn., Johnson grew up primarily in San Jose but also lived in Omaha, Neb. He has broad interests in evolution, ecology, behavior, genetics, and theoretical biology.
| Johnson, who received his doctorate in behavioral biology from Cornell University, is 'interested in integrative biology, which is biological research on a trait at all levels from genes to ecology and behavior.' |
“Basically, I'm interested in integrative biology, which is biological research on a trait at all levels from genes to ecology and behavior,” Johnson said.
“In the past (prior to the 1980s) bees were more or less healthy, so little effort went into understanding their basic epidemiology,” Johnson said. “When tracheal mites, and then Varroa moved in, great effort went into controlling these pests, but still little effort went into basic bee epidemiology. Now with colony collapse disorder (CCD), the emphasis is finally transitioning from trying to put out fires--by which I mean control nasty pests of current concern--to both trying to put out fires and understand what causes them in the first place.”
“My hope is that Davis can be at the forefront of this endeavor to both control CCD,” Johnson said, “and to understand what factors underlie a healthy or unhealthy population of honey bees.”
He was the lead author of two research studies published this year, “Taxonomically Restricted Genes Are Associated with Eusocial Evolution in the Honey Bee” (BMC Genomics), and “Nestmate Recognition in Social Insects: Overcoming Physiological Constraints with Collective Decision Making” (Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology).
Last year Johnson served as the lead author of “Self Organization, Natural Selection and Evolution: Cellular Hardware and Genetic Software" (BioScience); “Communication in Social Insect Colonies: the Roles of Signals and Cues in Group Level Coordination of Action" (Behavioral Ecology); "Eliminating the Mystery from the Concept of Emergence" (Biology and Philosophy); “Modeling the Adaptive Role of Negative Signaling in Honey Bee Intraspecific Competition" (Journal of Insect Behavior); “Spatial Effects, Sampling Errors, and Task Specialization in the Honey Bee" (Insectes Sociaux); “Deconstructing the Superorganism: Social Physiology, Groundplans, and Sociogenomics" (Quarterly Review of Biology) and “Division of Labor in Honey Bees: Form, Function, and Proximate Mechanisms" (Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology).
He also teamed with other researchers to publish work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PloS Genetics, and the Journal of Insect Biology.
Among his awards: the UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship (2009-2011), project title, "Role of Genotypic Variabiity in Self-Organzing Task Allocation Mechanisms in the Honey Bee"; National Science Foundation (NSF) Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship (2006-2009); and a NSF Predoctoral Fellowship (2000-2003).
Johnson taught biology as an adjunct instructor at West Valley College, Saratoga, Calif., and at Foothill College, Los Altos, Calif. He lectured on "Introduction to Insect Behavior" at UC Berkeley in the fall of 2009 and 2010 and also presented lectures on campus on the evolution and design of superorganisms. As an invited speaker, he discussed "Adaptively Regulated Behavioral Plasticity in the Superorganism" last July at the European Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology, Paris, and also delivered honey bee presentations over the last several years in Brussels, Belgium; Cambridge, UK, and in Illinois and Arizona, among others.
With the addition of Johnson, UC Davis is re-building its bee biology program. UC Davis lost several professors at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility in recent years due to retirement: Norman Gary (1994), Robbin Thorp (1994), Robert Page Jr. (2004) and Christine Peng (2005). Page, former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and now the vice provost and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University, continues to keep his specialized bee stock at UC Davis where bee breeder-geneticist M. Kim Fondrk manages it.
Johnson joins the “bee team” of Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology since 1976; native pollinator specialist Neal Williams, assistant professor of entomology; veteran bee breeders-geneticists Susan Cobey and M. Kim Fondrk; and staff research associate and beekeeper Elizabeth Frost. Cobey maintains a dual research appointment with Washington State University.
Also lending his expertise is native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp. Although officially retired, he continues his research, outreach and publications work from his office in the Laidlaw facility. He is one of the instructors at The Bee Course, held annually at the Southwestern Research Station, Portal, Ariz.
The Laidlaw facility is named for Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. (1907-2003), considered "The Father of Honey Bee Genetics." He served on the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty from 1947 until his retirement in 1974. Although retiring in 1974, he continued his research and outreach programs, publishing his last scientific paper at age 87 and his last book at 90. He died at age 96 at his home in Davis.
Related information:
Brian Johnson's website
Email: brnjohnson@ucdavis.edu
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
May 7, 2012
Communications specialist Kathy Keatley Garvey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology is the recipient of three gold awards for her writing and photography from the international Association for Communication Excellence (ACE), comprised of communicators, educators and information technologists in agriculture, natural resources, and life and human sciences.
ACE annually conducts a Critique and Awards (C&A) program that recognizes excellence in communications skills for individuals involved in the public sector – USDA, land-grant universities, state extension service or experiment stations, and international foundations.
This year Garvey won the first-place award in the news writing competition (about the discovery of a warrior wasp); the first-place award in the feature photo category (a bee sting); and the overall Outstanding Professional Skill Award in the photography division for the sting photo.
In previous years, she received four other gold awards for writing and the overall Outstanding Professional Skill Award in the writing category.
Wrote Eric Mussen in his newest edition of from the UC apiaries, posted online: "This year the coup de grace was one of the world's most appreciated photos – a honey bee trying to leave the scene after stinging me on the wrist. Usually, the break between the sting and abdomen is clean. Occasionally, intestinal tissue remains attached (as it did this time). The judges are still trying to determine how she was able to arrange the lighting, the camera, the wrist and the bee to get that good a shot. That is our secret! The photo has been picked up and used in all sorts of ways. A person in Iraq even placed his own copyright on it!"
ACE will present the awards at its annual conference, June 11-14, in Annapolis, Md.
Garvey, a 25-year UC Davis employee and a former newspaper editor, is an avid writer/editor and photographer. In her leisure time, she captures images of insects but especially prefers honey bees, native bees, dragonflies and butterflies. "I shoot only for educational purposes," she said. Garvey's camera of choice: a Nikon D700 camera equipped with a 105 macro lens and a motordrive. In addition, she writes a nightly Bug Squad blog, featuring insects and the people who study them. Since she began writing the blog on Aug. 6, 2008 on the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) site, she has posted every single weeknight, including holidays and vacations, "not missing a day," Mussen noted. Now nearing 1000 entries, Bug Squad has received some 2.7 million hits. Garvey also shares photos on Flickr, primarily insects. Her Flickr account now includes more than 22,000 photos.
Garvey and her work are featured in a four-page article in the June edition of the American Bee Journal.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
