DAVIS--They're the national champs!

The UC Davis Linnaean Games Team, comprised of four graduate students in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, won the National Linnaean Games Championship at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Entomological Association of America (ESA), held recently in Minneapolis. See YouTube video at https://youtu.be/_hA05K0NET4.

They did so by correctly answering such questions as:

“What is the smallest insect that is not a parasite or parasitoid?”

“Nicrophorus americanus is listed under what legislative act?” and

“What are the three primary conditions that define eusociality?”

The UC Davis team defeated powerhouse University of Florida 130 to 70 to win its first-ever national championship in the 32-year history of the ESA's Linnaean Team Games.

The Davis team is comprised of captain Ralph Washington Jr., and members Brendon Boudinot, Jessica Gillung and Ziad Khouri, and is advised by faculty members Larry Godfrey, Extension entomologist, and Elina Niño, Extension apiculturist.

The Linnaean Games is a college-bowl type competition in which teams answer questions about insects and entomologists. The teams hold practice sessions throughout the year.

The UC Davis Linnaean Games Team earlier won the regional competition hosted by the Pacific Branch of ESA. They defeated Washington State University in the finals. Both teams competed at the nationals.

Washington is studying for his doctorate with major professors Steve Nadler and Brian Johnson, who respectively specialize in systematics and evolutionary biology of nematodes and the evolution, behavior, genetics, and health of honeybees; Boudinot with major professor Phil Ward, systematics and evolutionary biology of ants; and Jessica Gillung and Ziad Khouri with major professor Lynn Kimsey, who specializes in the biology and evolution of insects. Kimsey directs the Bohart Museum of Entomology.

“They played well and obviously studied hard,” said Gamesmaster Deane Jorgenson, who chaired the event and asked the questions. She is a research scientist at Syngenta, Burnsville, Minn.

The questions that UC Davis correctly answered in the championship game:

Toss-Up Question: What is the smallest insect that is not a parasite or parasitoid?
Answer: Beetles in the family Ptiliidae.

Bonus Question:Some species of mosquitoes lay eggs that can undergo diapause or aestivation. Give at least three cues that trigger the aquatic eggs to hatch. 
Answer: Temperature, immersion in water, concentration of ions or dissolved solutes.

Toss-Up Question: Chikungunya is an emerging vector-borne disease in the Americas. Chikungunya is derived from the African Language Makonde. What means Chikungunya in Makonde?
Answer: Bending up. 

Toss-Up Question: A Gilson's gland can be found in what insect order?
Answer: Trichoptera

Toss-Up Question: Certain Chrysomelid larvae carry their feces as a defensive shield. To what subfamily do these beetles belong?
Answer: Cassidinae.

Bonus Question: The first lepidopteran sex pheromone identified was bombykol. What was the first dipteran sex pheromone identified? Give the trade or chemical name.
Answer: Muscalure, Z-9-Tricosene. It is also one of the chemicals released by bees during the waggle dance.

Toss-Up Question: What famous recessive gene was the first sex-linked mutation demonstrated in Drosophila by T.H. Morgan?
Answer: White

Bonus Question: Cecidomyiidae are known as the gall flies. What is unique about the species Mayetiola destructor, and what is its common name?
Answer: Mayetiola destructor is the Hessian Fly, a tremendous pest of wheat. It does not form galls.

Toss-Up Question: Nicrophorus americanus is listed under what legislative act?
Answer: The Endangered Species Act

Toss-Up Question: In what insect order would you find hemelytra?
Answer: The order Hemiptera.

Toss-Up Question: The subimago stage is characteristic of what insect order?
Answer: The order Ephemeroptera

Bonus Question: A 2006 Science article by Glenner et al. on the origin of insects summarized evidence that Hexapods are nothing more than land-dwelling crustaceans, which is to say that the former group Crustacea is paraphyletic with respect to the Hexapoda. What hierarchical name has been used to refer to this clade?
Answer: Pancrustacea

Toss-Up Question: What are the three primary conditions that define eusociality?
Answer: Cooperative brood care, overlapping generations, and reproductive division of labor

A total of 10 teams competed in the 2015 Linnaean Games:

• Eastern Branch: Virginia Tech University and University of Maryland
• North Central Branch: Michigan State University and Purdue University
• Pacific Branch: UC Davis and Washington State University
• Southeastern Branch: University of Georgia and University of Florida 
• Southwestern Branch: Oklahoma State University and Texas A&M

A YouTube video of the championship game will be posted soon. Last year North Carolina State University defeated the University of Florida to win the finals. The 2014 championship game is online at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA9TsFFmQBE&feature=youtu.be

Related Links:
National Championship on YouTube
Origin of Linnaean Games (Richard Levine in American Entomologist)
Previous Winners (Entomological Society of America)

DAVIS--What's the loudest insect in the world? What is the egg case of a cockroach called? Kissing bugs, in the family Reduviidae, are vectors of what disease? About how long have insects been on earth? Give three official common names for Helicoverpa zea.

Those were some of the questions asked at the 2010 Linnaean Games, a college-bowl type game zeroing in on insects, entomologists and entomological facts. Graduate students from throughout the country compete on teams to determine the championship team

The team from the University of California, Davis, narrowly lost to Ohio State University, which advanced to the finals and then went on to win the championship. The event took place at the Entomological Society of America's 58th annual meeting in San Diego.

The UC Davis team, coached by Extension entomologist Larry Godfrey of the Department of Entomology faculty, consisted of Meredith Cenzer, who is studying for her doctorate with major professor Louie Yang; Matan Shelomi, studying for her doctorate with major professor Lynn Kimsey; Andrew Merwin, studying for his master's degree with major professor Michael Parrella, and Ralph Washington, who received his bachelor's degree in entomology earlier this year and plans to attend graduate school.

During the close competition, the Davis team tied Ohio several times. Finally, with the score knotted at 90-90, the Ohio team edged UC Davis.

Ohio went on to defeat Pennsylvania State University, Georgia and finally, Nebraska to take home the championship. The Ohio team was comprised of Joshua Bryant, Glene Mynhardt, Kaitlin Uppstrom and Nicola Gallagher. Ryan Caesar later participated on the Ohio team.

One of the questions asked of Ohio State-Nebraska in the finals was “Name the individual who received the Entomological Foundation Award for Excellence in Integrated Pest Management.” Neither Ohio State nor Nebraska knew the answer, but UC Davis did. The answer: Frank Zalom, professor of entomology and an IPM specialist at UC Davis.

Tom Turpin of Purdue emceed the program as a trio of judges--J. E. McPherson of Southern Illinois University, Carol Annelli of Washington State University and Susan Weller of the University of Minnesota--scored the answers.

Each branch sponsors a competition and usually sends two to the nationals. Teams and their sponsoring ESA branch:

Pacific Branch: UC Davis and Washington State University

Southeastern Branch: University of Georgia and University of Florida

Eastern Branch: Pennsylvania State University (University of Maryland was also selected but did not participate)

North Central Branch: Ohio State University and the University of Nebraska

Southwestern Branch: New Mexico State and Texas A&M

Answers to the above questions.

Question:
What's the loudest insect in the world?
Answer:
African cicada (Brevisana brevis); it has been measured at 106 decibels, equivalent to a gas mower at 3 feet away.

Question:
What is the egg case of a cockroach called?
Answer:
Ootheca.

Question:
Kissing bugs, in the family Reduviidae, are vectors of what disease?
Answer:
Chagas disease

Question:
About how long have insects been on earth?
Answer:
Some 400-380 million years ago.

Question:
Give three official common names for Helicoverpa zea?
Answer:
Corn earworm, tomato fruitworm, and cotton bollworm

 

 

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Test Your Knowledge

Here are some of the other questions asked at the Linnaean Games:

Question:
Which sexes of cicadas have tymbals and which have tympana?
Answer:
Males have both. Females have only tympana.

Question:
What term is used to describe the antennae found on male mosquitoes?
Answer:
Plumrose

Question:
Crickets are well-known music makers. What are the names of the two specialized structures that allow them to make that wonderful noise and where specifically on the body are they located?
Answer:
File and scraper, located on the forewings.

Question:
At what American school was the first entomology class taught and who was the teacher?
Answer:
Harvard (1805-1822) W.D. Peck

Question:
In the Amazon rain forest, what are the common names of two groups of insects that make up about 1/3 of the biomass of all animals in the habitat?
Answer:
Ants and termites.

Question:
Problems with honey bee hives in what state led to the recognition of colony collapse disorder?
Answer:
Pennsylvania

Question:
Name two orders of insects that are entirely predatory.
Answer:
Odonata and Mantodea

Question:
The monarch is actually the second-most popular state insect. What insect is the most frequently adopted state insect?
Answer:
Honey bee.

Question:
Robert Frost wrote a poem that begins with the lines: “An ant on a table cloth ran into a dormant moth of many times his size.” As you might guess the poem is about ants. What is the title of the poem?
Answer:
Departmental