Doctoral candidate Zachary Griebenow competing in the Entomology Games at national ESA meeting. (ESA Photo)

His presentation also will be virtual. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.

Zach, a member of Professor Phil Ward's laboratory, says in his abstract:  "Ants belonging to the subfamily Leptanillinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are sister to nearly all other extant Formicidae. Miniscule and subterranean, little is known of them. Contrary to the collecting bias observed in most Formicidae, male leptanilline specimens are acquired more easily than workers or queens. The sexes are almost never collected together, and certain groups are known from males only—some of these being so bizarre as to not resemble ants at all. These restrictions obstruct our understanding of evolutionary relationships among the Leptanillinae."

"My thesis is aimed at leptanilline taxonomy that reflected phylogeny and integrated morphological data from both sexes. I here present the culmination of this work, reliant on phylogenomic inference from ultra-conserved elements (UCEs), supplemented by total-evidence inference from male morphological data and UCEs. I also here summarize my exploration of leptanilline male genital skeletomusculature, a surreal vista illuminated by micro-computed tomography, in collaboration with Ziv Lieberman and others."

Griebenow will be filing his dissertation before May 19. He joined the Ward lab in September 2017. He holds a bachelor of science degree (2017) in agriculture (entomology) from The Ohio State University. He graduated magna cum laude. He minored in music. 

Doctoral candidate Zachary Griebenow on a field expedition.

Griebenow was a member of the UC Davis Linnaean Games team (now renamed Entomology Games) that won two national championships (2018 and 2022) at the Entomological Society of America (ESA) meetings. He also was a member of Ohio State's Linnaean Games team that won second place in the 2017 national championship.

His publication list includes:

Griebenow, Z. H., Isaia, M., and Moradmand, M. (2022). Discovery of a troglomorphic ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Leptanillinae: Yavnella laventa sp. nov.) in southwestern Iran, with the first description of the worker caste of Yavnella Kugler. Invertebrate Systematics, 36, 1118-1138. 

Griebenow, Z. H. (2021). Synonymisation of the male-based ant genus Phaulomyrma (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) with Leptanilla based upon Bayesian total-evidence phylogenetic inference. Invertebrate Systematics, 35(6), 603-636.· 

Griebenow, Z. H. (2020). Morphological and phylogenomic delimitation of tribes in the subfamily Leptanillinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), with a description of the male of Protanilla lini Terayama, 2009. Myrmecological News, 30, 229-250.

Department seminar coordinator is urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke,  assistant professor.   For technical issues (Zoom), she may be reached at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu. (See complete list of spring seminars.)

Danielle Rutkowski is the second consecutive winner of President's Prize for her research presentation at the 2022 Entomological Society of America annual meeting. She studies with community ecologists Rachel Vannette and Rick Karban.

This was Rutkowski's second consecutive President's Prize. 

Doctoral candidate Lindsey Mack and doctoral student Adelaine “Addie” Abrams scored second-place for their research presentations in the highly competitive program. 

Their topics ranged from bumble bees (Rutkowski) and ants (Griebenow) to mosquitoes (Mack) and thrips and aphids (Abrams). 

At the Entomological Society of America (ESA) annual meetings, students are offered the opportunity to present their research and win prizes. They can compete in 10-minute papers (oral), posters, or infographics. The President's Prize winners receive a one-year paid membership in ESA, a $75 cash prize, and a certificate. Second-winners score a one-year free membership in ESA and a certificate. 

Danielle Rutkowski 
Danielle Rutkowski, who studies with community ecologists Rachel Vannette, associate professor, and distinguished professor Richard “Rick” Karban, spoke on “The Mechanism Behind Beneficial Effects of Bee-Associated Fungi on Bumble Bee Health,” at her presentation in the category, Graduate School Plant-Insect Ecosytems: Pollinators.

Her abstract: "Bees often interact with fungi, including at flowers and within bee nests. We have previously found that supplementing bumble bee colonies with these bee-associated fungi improves bee survival and increases reproductive output, but the mechanisms behind these effects are unclear. This research aimed to determine the mechanisms underlying positive impacts of fungal supplementation in the bumble bee, Bombus impatiens. We tested two hypotheses regarding possible nutritional benefits provided by bee-associated fungi. These included the role of fungi as a direct food source to bees, and the production of nutritionally important metabolites by fungi. To test these mechanisms, we created microcolonies bumble bees and exposed each microcolony to one of four treatment groups. These four treatments were created based on the presence of fungal cells and the presence of fungal metabolites. We found that bee survival and reproduction were unaffected by treatment, with trends of decreased survival and reproduction when fungi were present. This contradicts previous results we've found using this bumble bee species, where fungi had a positive impact. It is possible that this disparity in results is due to differences in pathogen pressure between the two experiments, as bees in the first experiment were exposed to large amounts of pathogen through provided pollen, including Ascosphaera and Aspergillus. This pollen was sterilized for subsequent experiments, reducing pathogen load. Therefore, it is possible that bee-associated fungi benefit bees through pathogen inhibition, and future work exploring this hypothesis is necessary to fully understand the role of these fungi in bumble bee health."

Zachary Griebenow, shown here anchoring the national championship UC Davis Entomology Games Team won the President's Prize in his category. He studies with major professor Phil Ward.(Photo by Geoffrey Attardo)

His abstract: "Ants belonging to the subfamily Leptanillinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are sister to nearly all other extant ants. Miniscule and subterranean, little is known of their behavior. Contrary to the collecting bias observed in most ants, male leptanilline specimens are acquired more easily than workers or queens. The sexes are almost never collected in association, and many subclades within the Leptanillinae are known from male specimens only. Our comprehension of evolutionary relationships among the Leptanillinae is further obstructed by oft-bizarre derivation in male phenotypes that are too disparate for phylogeny to be intuited from morphology alone. These restrictions plague our understanding of the Leptanillinae with probable taxonomic redundancy. My thesis aims at leptanilline taxonomy that reflects phylogeny, inferred from both genotype and phenotype, and integrates morphological data from both sexes. Here I present the results of (1) phylogenomic inference from ultra-conserved elements (UCEs), compensating for potential systematic biases in these data, representing 63 terminals; and (2) Bayesian total-evidence inferences from a handful of loci, jointly with discrete male morphological characters coded in binary non-additive or multistate fashion. Notably, these analyses identify worker specimens belonging to the genera Noonilla and Yavnella, which were heretofore known only from males. Given such discoveries across the Leptanillinae, the number of valid leptanilline genera is reduced from seven to three in order to create a genus-level classification that upholds monophyly along with diagnostic utility." 

Her abstract: "Traditional methods of viewing the internal anatomy of insects require some degree of tissue manipulation and/or destruction. Using synchrotron-based x-ray phase contrast microCT (pcMicroCT) avoids this issue and has the capability to produce high contrast, three dimensional images. Our lab is using this technique to study the morphological changes occurring in the mosquito Aedes aegypti during its reproductive cycle. Ae. aegypti is the primary global arbovirus vector, present on all continents except Antarctica. Their ability to spread these viruses is tightly linked with their ability to reproduce, as the production of eggs in this species is initiated by blood feeding. Amazingly, this species produces a full cohort of eggs (typically 50-100) in just 3 days' time following a blood meal. This rapid development represents dramatic shifts in physiological processes that result in massive volumetric changes to internal anatomy over time. To explore these changes thoroughly, a time course of microCT scans were completed over the vitellogenic period. This dataset provides a virtual representation of the volumetric, conformational, and positional changes occurring in tissues important for reproduction across the vitellogenic period. This dataset provides the field of vector biology with a detailed three-dimensional internal atlas of the processes of vitellogenesis in Ae. aegypti."

Addie Abrams won runner-up or second place in the President's Prize competition. Her major professor is Ian Grettenberger.

Her abstract: "Commercial lettuce production in California's central coast represents 70 percent of the production in the United States. Recent discoveries of some chemistries in ground and surface water in the Salinas valley region have placed the insecticidal chemistries used by the industry at risk of increased regulation. Automated thinner-sprayers use plant-detection sensors to apply chemical sprays directly to individual lettuce plants, so that the same amount of product to plants as a standard broadcast sprayer while potentially reducing the amount of pesticide applied per acre by up to 90 percent. Field experiments testing this technology for the control of western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) and aphids, lettuce-currant aphid (Nasovonia ribisnigri) and others, were conducted to compare the efficacy of automated sprays to a conventional broadcast application system. Experiments were conducted in conventionally managed organic romaine lettuce fields using a complete randomized block design. Prior to and at regular intervals after treatment, heads were sampled from experimental and control plots to assess pest pressure. Results from this experiment validate the use of the automated sprayers to apply insecticides for the control of aphid and thrips pests in lettuce and will be discussed in the context of developing best-use-practices for this technology."

The 7000-member ESA, founded in 1889, is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and individuals in related disciplines. Its members,  affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government, are researchers, teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, students, pest management professionals, and hobbyists.

(See all of student competition winners on ESA site)

The UC Davis Entomology Games Team edged out Alabama's Auburn University 75 to 70 to win the national championship at the Entomological Society of America's Entomology Games, waged Tuesday night, Nov. 15 at the ESA meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia.  

This is the fourth national championship for UC Davis since 2015.

The 2022 UC Davis team was comprised of four doctoral candidates from the Department of Entomology and Nematology:  Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, captain;  Jill Oberski of the Ward laboratory; Erin “Taylor” Kelly of the Geoffrey Attardo lab; and  Madison “Madi” Hendrick of the Ian Grettenberger lab.

"The 2022 Entomology Games were once again a highlight of the ESA Annual Meeting for students in entomology from all over the country," said Games Committee chair Meredith Spence Beaulieu, university program manager of Global One Health Academy, North Carolina State University. "My fellow members of the Entomology Games Committee and I congratulate the University of California, Davis, team on their victory, and we commend all the teams and students who participated this year."

The highly anticipated event is a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams. The question categories are biological control, behavior and ecology, economic and applied entomology, medical, urban and veterinary entomology, morphology and physiology, biochemistry and toxicology, systematics and evolution integrated pest management and insect/plant interactions.

Among the questions (paraphrased) asked at the Entomology Games:

• The principal blood sugar of insects is a disaccharide called what? Answer: Trehalose.
• All Neuroptera pupate within shelters spun from silk produced by what anatomical structure? Answer: Malpighian tubules 
• In 1973 Dr. David Gibby of the Washington State University Extension Center started a program to meet the demand for urban horticulture and gardening advice, which has since expanded to all 50 states and 8 Canadian provinces. What is the name of this program? Answer: The Master Gardeners' Program

Gamesmaster Alix Whitener

In the finals, the Auburn team was comprised of Dan Aurell, Chelsia Smith and Dylan Brown. In the preliminary round, Alan Jeon also competed with them.

The student-quiz event, launched in 1982, was formerly known as the Linnaean Games but the ESA Board of Directors changed the name in July of 2020 to "Entomology Games." Students compete first at an ESA branch level, with each branch sponsoring the winning team and runner-up at the nationals. UC Davis won the championship at the Pacific Branch in April. UC Riverside placed second.

The ESA meeting, themed "Entomology as Inspiration: Insects Through Art, Science and Culture," opened Nov. 13 and continues through Nov. 16. It is a joint meeting with the Entomological Society of Canada and the Entomological Society of British Columbia.

The Entomology Games championship match video will be posted soon on ESA's YouTube channel. The full bank of questions will be loaded on this site. The previous UC Davis championships: 

• 2018: The University of California team (UC Davis/UC Berkeley) defeated Texas A&M. Members of the UC Team: captain Ralph Washington Jr., then a UC Berkeley graduate student with a bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Davis; doctoral students Brendon Boudinot, Jill Oberski and Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, and doctoral student Emily Bick of the Christian Nansen lab.
• 2016: UC Davis defeated the University of Georgia. Members of the UC Davis team: captain Ralph Washington Jr., Brendon Boudinot and Emily Bick.
• 2015: UC Davis defeated the University of Florida. Members of the UC Davis team: captain Ralph Washington Jr., and members Brendon Boudinot, Jessica Gillung and Ziad Khouri.

Founded in 1889 and located in Annapolis, Md., the 7000-member ESA is the world's largest entomological organization. It is affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry and government. Members are researchers, teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, students, pest management professionals, and hobbyists. The 2022 president is evolutionary biologist Jessica Ware, associate curator of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

Resources:

• Listen to the 2018 Entomology Games (won by the University of California team, comprised of  three UC Davis graduate students and one UC Berkeley students who is a UC Davis alumnus), posted on YouTube (audio only, no video)
• Watch the 2016 National Linnaean Games Championship Round (won by UC Davis), posted on YouTube
• Watch the 2015 National Linnaean Games Championship Round (won by UC Davis), posted on YouTube

Zachary Griebenow responds to a question at the 2018 Entomology Games. (ESA Photo)

Let The Games begin!

The award-winning UC Davis Entomology Games Team is gearing up for the national competition.

The popular Entomology Games, a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams, takes center stage at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (ESA). This year's meeting is set Nov. 13-16 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Jill Oberski answers a question at the 2018 Entomology Games. (ESA Photo)

A preliminary round will be held from 1 to 3 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 13 in the West Ballroom of the Vancouver Convention Center. The final round is from 5 to 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 15 at the same site. The event was formerly known as the Linnaean Games.

The UC Davis team defeated the UC Riverside team at the 2022 meeting of the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA) to advance to the nationals. UC Riverside also will compete in the nationals as the PBESA runner-up. The Pacific Branch encompasses 11 Western states, parts of Canada and Mexico and several U.S. territories.

Some of the questions asked of the teams at the PBESA meeting, held April 10-13 in Santa Rosa:

1. Give the binomial name of the new record-holder for millipede with greatest number of legs, along with its country of origin. (Answers: Eumillipes persephone; Australia)
2. What is a chemical called that is added to an insecticide that enhances the formulation and efficacy, but is not itself toxic? (Answer: an adjuvant)
3. Name the heme containing enzymes that play a role in the detoxification of xenobiotics such as pesticides. (Answer: Cytochrome P450s)
4. What is the most prevalent virus affecting humans that is vectored by Aedes mosquitoes? (Answer: Dengue) 

In last year's national match, Ka Mea Kolo, an entomology club at the University of Hawaii, defeated Texas A&M to claim the championship. Auburn University won the national championship in 2020, and the University of Florida in 2019.

Since 2015, UC Davis has scored three national championships:

• 2018: The University of California team (UC Davis/UC Berkeley) defeated Texas A&M. Members of the UC Team: captain Ralph Washington Jr., then a UC Berkeley graduate student with a bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Davis; doctoral students Brendon Boudinot, Jill Oberski and Zachary Griebenow of the Phil Ward lab, and doctoral student Emily Bick of the Christian Nansen lab.
• 2016: UC Davis defeated the University of Georgia. Members of the UC Davis team: captain Ralph Washington Jr., Brendon Boudinot and Emily Bick.
• 2015: UC Davis defeated the University of Florida. Members of the UC Davis team: captain Ralph Washington Jr., and members Brendon Boudinot, Jessica Gillung and Ziad Khouri.

The 7000-member ESA, founded in 1889 and located in Annapolis, Md., is the world's largest entomological organization. It is affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry and government. Members are researchers, teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, students, pest management professionals, and hobbyists.

Resources:

• Listen to the 2018 Entomology Games (won by the University of California team, comprised of UC Davis and UC Berkeley students), posted on YouTube (audio only, no video)
• Watch the 2016 National Linnaean Games Championship Round (won by UC Davis), posted on YouTube
• Watch the 2015 National Linnaean Games Championship Round (won by UC Davis), posted on YouTube