- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The event, titled “Bugs in Ag: What Is Eating Our Crops and What Is Eating Them?” will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane. It is free and open to the public.
The open house will focus on the expertise of Cooperative Extension specialist Ian Grettenberger of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who researches pests of rice and alfalfa, among other crops. He and postdoctoral fellow Buddhi Achhami of the Grettenberger lab will be displaying tadpole shrimp (crustaceans), alfalfa weevils, aphids and other pests, and will field questions.
Grettenberger will display newly hatched tadpole shrimp. Guests will be able to view the pests under a microscope. He also plans to show small rice plants, which “look like grass in water.”
The family art activity will be to make tadpole shrimp hats or puppets and provide "googly eyes" to imitate the compound eyes and and the naupliar ocellus, according to Tabatha Yang, the Bohart Museum education and outreach coordinator. Tadpole shrimp, from genus of Triops, belong to the order Notostraca (tadpole shrimp). The name Triops originates from two Greek words meaning "three" and "eye.”
The Bohart Museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens; a live "petting zoo" comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks (stick insects) and tarantulas; and a year-around gift shop (also online) stocked with insect-themed gifts, such as t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, posters, jewelry, books, puppets, candy and collecting equipment.
The Bohart Museum has been closed to the public for the last two years due to COVID-19 pandemic precautions. The Bohart observed UC Davis Picnic Day by setting up displays in the hallway of the Academic Surge Building. This spring the museum is open to the public, but groups must make reservations and everyone must follow the UC Davis visitor guidelines: https://campusready.ucdavis.edu/visitors?. The museum's "visiting us" page includes more information.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
She will speak on "Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Pest Management Research--My Alfalfa Weevil Stories" in a seminar hosted by agricultural entomologist Ian Grettenberger, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
This the first in a series of the winter seminars to take place on Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m., beginning Jan. 5 and continuing through March 9, announced seminar coordinator and nematologist Shahid Siddique, assistant professor. Both in-person and virtual seminars will be broadcast via Zoom at https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/
"Alfalfa weevil was first found in the Western United States in the early 1900s and continues to be a particularly problematic pest in the Western United States," Jabbour says in her abstract. "I will share current research to improve sustainability of alfalfa weevil management, much of which centers on timing –both harvest timing and pesticide spray timing. I will talk about my favorite things: biological control, interdisciplinarity, farmer perspectives, and new ideas from grad students."
Jabbour says her overall research "is to utilize ecological interactions to design sustainable agricultural systems. Specifically, I study 1) pest management in cropping systems, 2) the effect of biodiversity and habitat heterogeneity on ecosystem services, and 3) the role of farmer decision-making in agricultural management, in collaboration with social scientists. Here in Wyoming, I plan to develop research projects in these areas in relevant field crop and forage systems, in collaboration with faculty and Extension professionals here at the University and with others in the region."
Jabbour holds a bachelor of science degree (2003) from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a doctorate from Pennsylvania State University, where she focused on the biological pest control of insects. She served as a postdoctoral scholar from 2009 to 2010 at Washington State University, where "I studied the effects of pathogen diversity on host mortality of the Colorado potato beetle, gaining perspective in both biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research and the practical realities of 'big ag' potato fields." She completed a second post-doctoral position at the University of Maine, where she engaged in "balanced teaching and research responsibilities."
Jabbour's research at the University of Maine, in collaboration with social scientists and her supervisor Eric Gallandt, characterized New England organic farmer weed management philosophies, she wrote on her website. "This project was a great opportunity for me to incorporate the human dimension of pest management into my ecological research. I also collaborated with MS student Sonja Birthisel to quantify sources of variation of weed seed predation rates in a diverse Maine agricultural landscape. I particularly appreciate learning from the extensive experience of farmers, and I am passionate about supporting local food systems. I enjoy exploring the dramatic landscapes of the West, and feel as if I have just barely begun traveling around the big wondrous expanse that is my new home in Wyoming-- lots of ground to cover! In my spare time, I enjoy hiking, road trips, cooking, yoga, trying to be a runner again, and reading all sorts of things."
The remainder of the seminars in January are:
Jan. 12, 2022
Sylvia Fischer, Mosquito Study Group, Department of Ecology, Genetics and Evolution, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Virtual seminar
Title: "Recent Expansion of Aedes aegypti Distribution: Are the Populations Adapting to Colder Climate Regions?"
Host: Erin "Taylor Kelly, doctoral student in the Geoffrey Attardo lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 19, 2022
Megan Meuti, assistant professor, Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University
Virtual seminar
Title: "How Do Mosquitoes Correctly Interpret Environmental Signals into Complex Seasonal Responses?"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 19, 2022
Megan Meuti, assistant professor, Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University
Virtual seminar
Title: "How Do Mosquitoes Correctly Interpret Environmental Signals into Complex Seasonal Responses?"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 26, 2022
Tobin Hammer, postdoctoral researcher, University of Texas, Austin (he will start as an assistant professor in UC Irvine's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department in January 2022)
In-person seminar
Title: "Diversity and Dynamism in Social Bee Microbiomes"
Host: Rachel Vannette, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
See schedule for complete list of winter quarter seminars. For technical issues, Siddique may be reached at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Both in-person and virtual seminars will be broadcast via Zoom at https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/
The schedule:
Jan. 5, 2022
Randa Jabbour, associate professor, agroecology, University of Wyoming
Virtual seminar
Title: "Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Pest Management Research--My Alfalfa Weevil Stories"
Host: Ian Grettenberger, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 12, 2022
Sylvia Fischer, Mosquito Study Group, Department of Ecology, Genetics and Evolution, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Virtual seminar
Title: "Recent Expansion of Aedes aegypti Distribution: Are the Populations Adapting to Colder Climate Regions?"
Host: Erin "Taylor Kelly, doctoral student in the Geoffrey Attardo lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Jan. 19, 2022
Megan Meuti, assistant professor, Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University
Virtual seminar
Title: "How Do Mosquitoes Correctly Interpret Environmental Signals into Complex Seasonal Responses?"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Tobin Hammer, postdoctoral researcher, University of Texas, Austin (he will start as an assistant professor in UC Irvine's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department in January 2022)
In-person seminar
Title: "Diversity and Dynamism in Social Bee Microbiomes"
Host: Rachel Vannette, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Feb. 2, 2022
Simon Niels Groen, assistant professor, Department of Nematology, UC Riverside
In-person seminar
Title: "Plant Toxins and the Evolution of Host-Parasite Interactions"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Feb. 9, 2022
Vince D'Amico, research entomologist, Communities and Landscapes of the Urban Northwest, U.S. Department of Agriculture
In-person seminar
Title: "Monitoring and Ecological Research in the Forests of the BosWash Megalopolis"
Host: Geoffrey Attardo, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Feb. 16, 2022
Michelle Heck, adjunct associate professor and research molecular biologist, Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, N.Y.
Virtual seminar
Title: Topic to be announced (Her program uses a combination of molecular, genetic, and proteomics approaches to understand how insects transmit plant pathogens and how pathogens manipulate host plants to ensure replication and transmission. A second area of research is the development of new pest management tools to enhance cultural control and to provide new management strategies for insect vector-borne diseases in plants)
Host: Tiffany Lowe-Power, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology
Feb. 23, 2022
Adam Steinbrenner, assistant professor, Department of Biology, University of Washington
In-person seminar
Title: "Plant Immune Recognition of Insect Herbivores"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
March 2, 2022
Erica Henry, postdoctoral scholar, conservation biology, North Carolina State University
In-person seminar
Title: "Insect Conservation in an Uncertain Future"
Host: Emily Meineke, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
March 9, 2022
Melissa Mitchum, professor, plant nematology, University of Georgia
Virtual seminar
Title: "The Tricks Phytonematodes Use to Modulate Plant Development"
Host: Shahid Siddique, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
For any Zoom technical issues, Siddique may be reached at ssiddique@ucdavis.edu.
