How much do you know about praying mantises?

The Bohart Museum of Entomology is hosting an open house, themed "Praying Mantises," on Sunday, Aug. 27 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. It is free and family friendly. 

When asked what's fascinating about praying mantises, Lohit Garikipati, UC Davis entomology graduate (bachelor of science degree, 2019) wrapping up his master's degree with biologist Christopher Oufiero at Towson University,Towson, MD, said:

"What's fascinating about them... hard to pick just one thing! If I had to choose it would be their general awareness about the environment they are in. They are always watching, always waiting, and adjust their posture, behavior, and movement based on various environmental stimuli. They engage in some of the most interesting predatory behaviors; pouncing, lunging, spearing (yes, spearing!) and sometimes throwing themselves off of perches to secure potential prey. Few flightless predators can catch prey out of the air on the wing but many specialized species are more than capable of doing so. They are the insect equivalent of cats in many ways, but with some weird adaptations!"

Garikipati, who participated in many Bohart Museum open houses while a student at UC Davis, won't be at the open house on Aug. 27 but he will be their spirit. He plans to obtain his doctorate in entomology.

According to Kris Anderson of Las Vegas, an alumnus of Cornell University (master's degree in entomology) and author of Praying Mantises of the United States and Canada: "There are just 28 species of Mantodea found within the United States and Canada, the 7 largest of which are invasive species from other parts of the globe."

Some myths about praying mantises, as related by Anderson in his book, available on Amazon: 

Myth: "Mantises sway back and forth while crawling to imitate vegetation blowing in the wind."

Truth: "The peering movement of mantises, demonstrated by the swaying back and forth of their body while ambulating or preparing to leap/take flight, is a behavioral adaptation to gain depth perception of their surroundings and has nothing to do with mimicry. Mantises blend into their environment by remaining motionless against a substrate that they morphologically resemble—not by moving. Peering movements causes the retinal images of nearby objects to be displaced more quickly than those of more distant objects, thus allowing the mantis to gain depth perception of its environment as it navigates forward."

Myth: "Mantises grab insects and immediately bite the neck/head to quickly kill their prey."

Truth: "The spinose forelegs of praying mantises are used to hold onto and prevent their prey from escaping. Once secured in their grip, the mantis will pull the prey forward and begin to meticulously chew upon whatever body part of the prey item is closest to their mouth—be it a leg, a wing, the thorax, abdomen, or head. No specific body region is exclusively targeted and the prey is always eaten alive, bit by bit, dying a slow death."

Myth: "Female mantises cannibalize the males while mating."

Truth: "With over 2,400 species of Mantodea worldwide, only a small fraction of species regularly engage in sexual cannibalism. Most do not. Of those that engage in this practice, the occurrence is not inevitable, as males typically escape and may mate with other partners."

The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946 and directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live insect petting zoo (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas), and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters, jewelry and more.

The Bohart Museum is planning two other open houses this fall: 

Saturday, Sept. 23: Household Vampires

Saturday, Nov. 4: Monarchs

All open houses are free and family friendly. At each event, the focus is on a special theme, but there's also a family arts-and-crafts activity, announced Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.

The Bohart Museum of Entomology has scheduled three fall open houses: 

Sunday, Aug. 27: Praying Mantises

Saturday, Sept. 23: Household Vampires

Saturday, Nov. 4: Monarchs

The open houses, free and family friendly, take place from 1 to 4 p.m. in the insect museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. Parking is free.

At each event, the focus is on a special theme, but there's also a family arts-and-crafts activity. Visitors can view insect displays and hold the Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects from the live petting zoo.

The museum, founded in 1946, is directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey. It houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. In addition to the petting zoo, it houses a year-around, insect-themed gift shop.

(More details are pending)

Emily Bzdyk, who holds a master's degree in entomology from UC Davis, is making national headlines, but not about insects this time.

Bzdyk is garnering widespread news coverage for discovering a 15-million-year-old dolphin skull along the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Calvert County, Maryland.

Bzdyk, a volunteer at the Calvert Marine Museum on Solomons Island, said she was combing the shores along the Calvert Cliffs on Saturday, Aug. 5, when she noticed what appeared to be a two-foot-long fossil bone in the shallow water.

It turned out to be a fossil from the Miocene Epoch, the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period. The Miocene epoch extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago.

Stephen Groff, manager of the Calvert Marine Museum's fossil collection, described it as “a really impressive find,” noting that “it's rare to find a skull in such good condition.”

Bzdyk estimated it will probably take a few months for her to clean the silt and clay from the fossil and prepare it for permanent public display at the museum. Visitors to the museum (open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) are watching her clean the fossil.

“I've been fossil hunting for about a year and a half and I have thousands of shark teeth and other things in my collection,” said Bzdyk, who received her master's degree in entomology from UC Davis in 2012, studying with UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology. At UC Davis, "I focused on a taxonomic revision of the subgenus Litomegachile leafcutter bees with a description of a new species and a key to current species."

A native of Long Island, N.Y., Emily received her bachelor's degree in biology in 2008 from St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM), St. Mary's City, where she minored in environmental studies and studio art. Her senior thesis? A Guide to Native Plants of Historic St. Mary's City, which she also illustrated.

Bzdyk returned to SMCM in 2016 as a visiting instructor of biology. She served as an adjunct faculty member until May 2019.

Her friends says she has an eagle eye for discoveries. She credits her entomological training with that. "Many years in entomology didn't hurt!"

NBCWashington.com headlined her fossil discovery as "Big Win: Woman Finds 15 Million-Year-Old Dolphin Skull Along Chesapeake Bay."

Mike Murillo of WTOP News, which serves the Washington, D.C., area, said that the "Dolphin fossil found in Calvert County could help 'write the books' on ancient marine mammals...It is not uncommon to find fossils from marine mammals. Dolphin skulls are typically found twice a year in southern Maryland. But this find, according to Groff, stands to be the most intact of the finds. It could also turn out to be a species that was previously not known about."

Murillo noted that "During the Miocene period, when the marine mammal swam the earth, the sea level was much higher, according to Groff. What is the beach now was once the ocean floor. Now, as the ocean is eroding away part of the beach, more fossils are being uncovered."

In addition to her interests in biology, entomology and paleontology, Bzdyk enjoys incorporating her scientific illustration and photography skills in her work.  She served as a scientific illustration intern at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2008.

Bzdyk shares her interests in her blog, "Sentimental Entomologist" (Thoughts about insects, birds, nature and life) at http://sentimentalentomologist.blogspot.com/.

In her blog profile, she describes herself as: "I have always loved insects and I studied them in graduate school. Bees, to be precise. I focused my thesis on Litomegachile, a subgenus of Megachile leafcutter bees. I discovered a new species of bee, and published one paper on these bees before I hung up my scientist hat to become a stay at home mom. But that won't stop insects from finding their way into my life."

She also maintains an Instagram account on her discoveries at https://instagram.com/hastalishunter. 

Bzdyk is a 2010 alumna of the globally recognized The Bee Course, an annual 10-day workshop sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History and held at the Southwestern Research Station, Portal, Ariz. One of her instructors was noted bee authority Robbin Thorp 1933-2019), UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor of entomology. Thorp and  Professor Neal Williams of the Department of Entomology and Nematology served on her guidance committee, along with research entomologist Tom Zavortink of the Bohart Museum.

Her husband, Troy Townsend, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at SMCM, received his doctorate in inorganic chemistry in 2013 from UC Davis. He studied biology and chemistry at SMCM, obtaining his undergraduate degree in 2007. The couple has two daughters, ages 6 and 9.

Microbiologist Shawn Christensen, a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the Rachel Vannette laboratory, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and Vannette, his major professor, were among those collaborating with the producers of KQED Science's Deep Look for its wildlife video on bindweed turret bees. 

The newly released video, titled “This Fly Torpedoes a Bindweed Bee's Nest,” appears on YouTube at https://youtu.be/gJHCoP4WqMc.

“Shawn has done a lot of work on this bee and with Deep Look, and he also leads our lab's work on Anthophora bomboides, a bumble bee mimic, and studies microbial associates of pollen and solitary bees,” said community ecologist and associate professor Rachel Vannette, a Chancellor's Fellow and vice chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology. 

The Deep Look crew filmed the bees, Diadasia bituberculata, in a nesting area outside the UC Davis Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve, near Winters. 

The bees, also known as digger bees or chimney bees, are specialists on bindweed, commonly known as morning glory.  “The females use pollen only from one plant species and are active through the late spring and early summer,” said Vannette, an international leader in microbial ecology who studies interactions between plants, insects and microbes. 

Native to California, the bindweed turret bees dig underground nests, many with structures called turrets at the nest entrance. They provision the nests with pollen for their future offspring, and then lay their eggs inside.  

The video shows a female bee fly (family Bombyliidae) hovering over a nest entrance and dropping her eggs inside. The fly eggs hatch into larvae, which eat the bee larvae. Horizontal turrets with sideways entrances (also shown in the video) prevent the flyover egg drop.

Gabriela Quirós, coordinating producer of Deep Look and producer of this video, consulted with the UC Davis scientists, obtaining information on the location of the bee nests, as well as information on the brood cells, pollen, and turrets. The Deep Look production includes UC Davis images taken inside a bee nest. 

Quirós also consulted with seven other scientists: Stephen Buchmann, University of Arizona; Andy Calderwood,Ventura County Deputy Agricultural Commissioner;  Neal Evenhuis, Bishop Museum of Honolulu, Hawaii; Paul Havemann, UC Davis Natural Reserve System; Keng-Lou James Hung,  University of Oklahoma; Doug Yanega, UC Riverside, and James Carey, a naturalist who researches and videos bindweed turret bees in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area. 

Josh Cassidy, Deep Look lead producer and cinematographer, filmed all the footage except for the male bees fighting with each other (00;17;14- 00;25;22 in the video).  James Carey, who filmed that footage, “has been regularly monitoring and filming bindweed turret bees since 2016 in Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa, an open space in the Santa Monica Mountains,” Quirós said. “James also filmed the shot at 04;17-04;21 showing nests in the Santa Monica Mountains covered up at the end of the nesting season."

Evenhuis and Calderwood, both bee fly experts, identified the bee flies as Paravilla fulvicoma.  “Neal explained the life cycle of these bee flies and advised me on the animation,” Quirós said. Deep Look editor and motion graphics expert Kia Simon created the animation of the bee fly larva eating the bee larva. 

“How I got interested in producing an episode of Deep Look about bindweed turret bees was that Rachel Vannette told me about these bees in 2021,” Quirós related. “Rachel told me that Shawn Christensen, a doctoral student in her lab, was studying their pollen. Later, I saw on the Native Bees Facebook group, the videos that James Carey had recorded of bee flies dropping their eggs into the nests of bindweed turret bees in Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa, in the Santa Monica Mountains. I hadn't known about bee flies until I saw his videos.” 

“I became interested in trying to film a video about the interactions between bee flies and bindweed turret bees. I contacted Shawn Christensen in January of this year, and Shawn and I started checking in regularly to figure out when the bindweed bees would emerge. When they finally did come out in large numbers--they were later this year than usual--we were, luckily, ready to jump into action and film an episode.” 

Quirós credited Paul Havemann, manager at the UC Davis Natural Reserve System, as instrumental in finding the filming location. “On a Sunday in early June, he clambered up the mountain at Stebbins to show me where the bees had emerged. On the way out, he told me he'd show me a parking lot where they also had emerged. The parking lot turned out to be a perfect filming location. It is very accessible and there were plenty of bees. We didn't need to haul our gear up the mountain.”

About 70 percent of the world's bee species are ground-nesting.  “Females tirelessly scoop earth with their mandibles, softening it by dousing it with nectar they collected earlier,” Deep Look related. “They work side by side, but each is /queen/ of her own castle.”

More than 4,000 species of bee flies comprise the family Bombyliidae. “How do you tell a bee fly from a bee?” Deep Look asked. “Even though bee flies have hairy bodies like bees, if you look closely, you can tell them apart. Bee flies have big eyes that cover a large area of their heads. And bee flies' antennae are short compared to bees' antennae.”

Viewers are raving about the video with such online comments as: 

• “The camera work is nothing short of amazing. Great job!” (Cassidy's photography equipment included a 100mm and 65mm macro lenses and a probe lens, a wide angle macro lens.)
• “Love the pollen pants, and I felt so bad for the bees whose hard work was spoiled by those pesky bee flies.”
• “This channel truly deserves much more recognition than it has, the amount of information and clear footage is marvelous.”
• "Thanks. It's not often I see a good short video on a native bee species or any native pollinator for that matter."

Christensen, a member of the UC Davis Microbiology Graduate Group and anticipating his doctorate in the spring of 2024, is an evolutionary biologist turned microbiologist. Christensen also researches other native bees,  including Melissodes and Colletes.

Vannette focuses her research on the chemical and microbial ecology of plant-pollinator interactions and how microbes influence plant defense and resistance against insect pests.  On its website, the Vannette lab is described as "a team of entomologists, microbiologists, chemical ecologists, and community ecologists trying to understand how microbial communities affect plants and insects--sometimes other organisms, too. We often study microbial communities in flowers, on insects or in soil. We rely on natural history observations, and use techniques from chemical ecology, microbial ecology and community ecology.  In some cases, we study applied problems  with an immediate application including pathogen control or how to support pollinators.”