- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The open house, themed "Social Wasps," is free and family friendly. Parking is also free.
Kimsey defines social wasps as "wasps that live together and cooperate in a colony, with female workers and a queen; only the queen has babies."
What drew her to study social wasps? "I just like stinging things in general and their anatomy and social behavior are really interesting."
Kimsey lists some of the common myths about social wasps as:
- They are often seen as malevolent beings out to get you and will chase you
- That they serve no purpose except to annoy us
- If you're allergic to bee stings you'll be allergic to wasp stings
- A copper penny place on a sting will make it go away
The public should know that social wasps "provide valuable ecosystem services; do pest control, and assist in nutrient recycling and pollination," she said.
"There are about 2,000 described species of social wasps worldwide," Kimsey said, and probably around 500 species undescribed.
The Bohart Museum has approximately 50,000 vespids in its collection, "and clearly the most popular is the Northern giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia," she said. The press dubbed it "Murder hornet." The Entomological Society of America recently changed its common name, "the Asian giant hornet," to "northern giant hornet."
The hornet, considered the world's largest hornet, is native to Asia. It was first detected in the Pacific Northwest in 2019, and with nests found in 2021.
Kimsey is a recognized authority on insect biodiversity, systematics and biogeography of parasitic wasps, urban entomology, civil forensic entomology, and arthropod-related industrial hygiene. She holds bachelor and doctoral degrees from UC Davis. She joined UC Davis entomology faculty in 1989, and has served as director of the Bohart Museum since 1990.
She plans to retire this year, but not from research and public service.
Kimsey served as president of the International Society of Hymenopterists from 2002-2004, and as a member of the board of directors of the Natural Science Collections Alliance in 2000 and 2001. The Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of Ameica (PBESA) singled her out for its highest honor, the C. W. Woodworth Award, in 2020. She received the PBESA Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity Award in 2014 and was a member of 'The Bee Team' that won the PBESA Outstanding Team Award in 2013. The UC Davis Academic Senate honored her with its Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2016 in recognition of her outstanding work. She received the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES) Exceptional Faculty Award in 2023.
The Bohart Museum also houses a live "petting zoo" (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects, tarantulas and more), and an insect-themed gift shop.
For more information, contact the Bohart Museum at bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or access the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The event, set for Saturday, Feb. 10, will feature 10 museums or collections:
- Anthropology Museum, 328 Young Hall and grounds, open from noon to 4 p.m.
- Arboretum and Public Garden, Habitat Gardens in the Environmental GATEway, adjacent to the Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Bohart Museum of Entomology, Room 1124 and main hall of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Botanical Conservatory, the greenhouses along Kleiber Hall Drive, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- California Raptor Center, 1340 Equine Lane, off Old Davis Road, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Center for Plant Diversity, Katherine Esau Science Hall off Kleiber Hall Drive, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Nematode Collection, Katherine Esau Science Hall, off Kleiber Hall Drive, 10 am. to 2 p.m..
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Room 1394, Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Paleontology Collection, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1309 Earth and Physical Sciences Building, 434 LaRue Road, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, Robert Mondavi Institute Brewery and Food Processing facility, Old Davis Road, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Each year more than 200 volunteers--students, staff and faculty--from across campus help more 4,000 visitors--including other UC Davis students, staff and faculty--"learn about biodiversity through our amazing biological collections," said UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day chair Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
The Bohart Museum founded UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The seminar also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/94350897170.
Kim is a professor with the Department of Plant Medicals, Andong National University, Andong, Korea, and editor-in-chief of the Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology.
His abstract: "EpOMEs, produced from linoleic acid by CPP450, play a crucial role in terminating excessive and unnecessary immune responses at late infection stage in insects. Alternatively, any increase of EpOME level can enhance the virulence of insect pathogens against insect pests.
"This study tested this hypothesis using a specific inhibitor against soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) that degrades EpOMEs, yielding elevated endogenous levels of EpOME. as well as a baculovirus, Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), to infect three different lepidopteran insects by either oral feeding or hemocoelic injection treatments.
"The viral infection quickly (within 1 h) induced the expressions of three phospholipase A2 (PLA2) genes and later (after 12 h) up-regulated the expressions of CYP and sEH genes in Spodopera exigua. As expected, the viral virulence was suppressed by the addition of arachidonic acid (a product of PLA2) but enhanced by the addition of either of EpOME regioisomers. In addition, the treatment with the sEH inhibitor (= AUDA) increased the viral virulence against three different lepidopteran insects. This enhanced effect of EpOMEs on viral virulence was further supported by using RNA interference (RNAi): a RNAi specific to CYP expression decreased the viral virulence while a RNAi against sEH expression significantly enhanced the viral virulence. In response to AcMNPV infection, S. exigua larvae exhibited an apoptosis in the midgut, fat body, and epidermis. Inhibition of apoptosis by a pan-caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD-FMK, significantly increased the viral virulence. Similarly, the addition of AUDA to the viral treatment suppressed the gene expressions of the five inducible caspases and cytochrome C to suppress the apoptosis, which led to significant increase of the viral titers in the tissues. These results indicate that EpOMEs play a role in resolving inflammation from viral infection at late stage by down-regulating antiviral apoptosis in the lepidopteran insects."
For more information, contact UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock at hammocklab-office@ucdavis.edu, Hammock holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.
/span>- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
His seminar will be in Room 122 of Briggs Hall and also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672. Associate professor and nematologist Shahid Siddique of the Department of Entomology and Nematology is the host.
Dillman, a professor of parasiotology and nematology, chairs the UCR Department of Nematology. He holds a bachelor's degree in microbiology from Brigham Young University (2006) and a doctorate in genetics (2013) from the California Institute of Technology.
The abstract of his UC Davis seminar:
Known as an excellent investigator and teacher, Dillman won the 2022 UC Riverside Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement; the 2021 Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Society of Nematologists, and a 2020 Outstanding Investigator Award, Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA).
His lab page details his research. Recently a guest of an episode on the podcast Something Offbeat, he discussed a scientific article on a case of Ophidascaris robertsi infection in a human brain.
Seminar coordinator is Brian Johnson, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. For Zoom technical issues, he may be reached at brnjohnson@ucdavis.edu. The list of seminars is here.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
She took the video in her Madrone tree, Arbutus menziesii, in her back yard. (See video on YouTube)
Contest coordinator Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology and director of the Bohart Museum, applauded the winner as the earliest ever recipient, and the first from Solano County.
Contest rules state that the first person to photograph a bumble bee in either Yolo or Solano and email it to the sponsor, the Bohart Museum, will receive a coffee cup designed with the endangered Franklin's bumble bee, the bee that the legendary Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), a UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor and a 30-year member of the Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty, monitored for decades.
"I've lived in Fairfield since 1970 and I retired from Kaiser Medical Center Vallejo after 33 years," Hansen said. "I'm a longtime gardener and flower-aholic! I'm very interested in soil health, pollinators and in soil microbes. I didn't plant the Madrone tree but I'm happy it provides food for pollinators most of the year. The first year we lived here, 2017, the tree was full of bees. Their buzz sounded like an airplane engine, but since then I've seen fewer and fewer bees."
"On Monday I was out back enjoying the bit of sunshine that had peaked through the clouds when I heard buzzing in my Madrone tree. I went over, looked and I saw a lot of honey bees, but then I looked up and saw the bumble bee. I ran to get my camera hoping I could catch his picture before he flew away."
Hansen retired as a cardiology technician at Vallejo's Kaiser facility, where she performed the cardiology testing for the doctors. "It was one of the most interesting and varied jobs in the facility," she said. "I learned so much during my working years. I was in charge of training new employees so I was able to pass that knowledge on."
Previous record-holders:
2023: Ria deGrassi of Davis, who photographed a B. melanopygus at 12:32, Jan. 8 on a ceanothus in her yard.
2022: Tie between Maureen Page, then a doctoral candidate in the lab of pollination ecologist Neal Williams, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; and Ellen Zagory of Davis, retired director of public horticulture for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. Each photographed a bumble bee on manzanita in the Arboretum at 2:30 p.m., Jan. 1. Page photographed a B. melanopygus, while Zagory captured an image of the yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii.
2021: UC Davis postdoctoral researcher Charlie Casey Nicholson, then of the Williams lab and the Elina Lastro Niño lab, photographed a B. melanopygus at 3:10 p.m., Jan. 14 in a manzanita patch in the Arboretum.
The contest memorializes Professor Thorp, a global authority on bees and a UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor of entomology, who died June 7, 2019 at age 85. He retired in 1994 but continued working until several weeks before his death. Every year he looked forward to seeing the first bumble bee in the area.
Thorp, a tireless advocate of pollinator species protection and conservation, co-authored two books in 2014, during his retirement: Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (Princeton University,) and California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday). Every year he looked forward to finding or seeing the first bumble bee in the area.
Thorp co-taught The Bee Course from 2002 to 2019. An intensive nine-day workshop affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History and held annually at the Southwestern Research Station, Portal, Ariz., it draws participants from around the world, including conservation biologists, pollination ecologists, and other biologists who want to gain greater knowledge of the systematics and biology of bees.
For years, Thorp monitored Franklin's bumble bee, found only in a small range in Southern Oregon and Northern California, and now feared extinct. He last spotted it in 2006.