Bug Squad - Agriculture and Natural Resources Blogs (2024)

A Bee and a Butterfly: Sharing a Lavender Blossom

• Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Ever seen a honey bee and a butterfly sharing a lavender blossom?

Just in time forNational Pollinator Week, June 17-23, we saw this today.

What could be more pollinator friendly than that?

The honey bee, Apismellifera, and the Gulf Fritillary,Agraulis vanillae, meet on many a blossom. The butterfly usually flutters away, departing first.

This time the bee left first.

As Pollinator Partnership says on its website:

"Pollinator Week 2024 is a celebration of the vital role that pollinators play in our ecosystems, economies, and agriculture. Under the inspiring theme Vision 2040: Thriving Ecosystems, Economies, and Agriculture, this year's event urges us to envision a future where pollinators not only survive but thrive. These essential creatures, including bees, butterflies, moths, bats, beetles, and hummingbirds, are the unsung heroes behind the food we enjoy and the beauty that surrounds us. As we reflect on the interconnectedness of our world, let's unite in a collective effort to protect and preserve these crucial pollinators. By understanding the impact of our actions on their habitats and embracing sustainable practices, we can pave the way for a flourishing future..."

The bee and the butterfly would agree--if they could agree.

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Digging the Digger Bees and the Newly Published Research

• Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Microbiologist Shawn Christensen of the Rachel Vannette lab.Have you ever seen the digger bees on the sandy cliffs of Bodega Head, SonomaCounty?

if you hike a short distance up a meandering trail, you'll see a landscape of turrets, the work of solitary, ground-nesting digger bees,Anthophora bomboides standfordina.

The nests remind us tinysandcastles. The female bees did that!

In the early spring you'll see the bees nectaring on wild radish and other flowers.

These digger bees are found along the sandy cliffs of beaches along the Pacific Coast, not just Bodega Head. They're sometimes called the “Stanford bumble bee digger” because its subspecies name, “stanfordiana,” refers to a 1904 Stanford University collection.

They are bumble bee mimics; they mimic the yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombusvosnesenskii.

It wasRobbinThorp(1933-2019), distinguished emeritus professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology(ENT), who alerted us to them. He studied them at the Bodega Marine Reserve and loved to share his research.

So, on every trip to the Bodega Head, we scramble up the trail to see what the bees are doing. Of course, when they're overwintering, we don't see them at all, just the turrets.

Fast forward to today. On the ENTwebsite, we posted a research story today that began 'Microbes found in the immature stages of a solitary bee that nests in sand cliffs along Pacific Coast beaches may be helping the bee defend itself from pathogens and protect it from cold stress, according to newly published research led by microbiologist Shawn Christensen of theRachel Vannette Lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology."

The research publication, “Symbiotic Bacteria and Fungi Proliferate in Diapause and May Enhance Overwintering Survival in a Solitary Bee,”appears in the current issue of the journal,International Society for Microbial Ecology(ISME), and ispostedon the National Library of Science website.

“Contrary to what has previously been assumed and found in other systems, we found that dormant--also called diapausing--bees have more abundant symbiotic bacteria and fungi,” said Christensen, a doctoral candidate and the2024 recipient of the Merton Love Ecology and Dissertation Award, an annual award that celebrates the university's most outstanding doctoral dissertation in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology. He's scheduled to receive his doctorate this month.

Rachel Vannette, associate professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology“We suspect that this may indicate a stage-specific symbiotic relationship, where the microbes could be helping the dormant bee defend itself from pathogens and protect from cold stress during thisparticularly vulnerable stage,” Christensen said. “Working with an undergraduate researcher in the lab, Sriram Srinivas, we found that a symbiotic bacteria—Streptomyces--from the developing bees was able to inhibit the growth of bee pathogens.”

The six-member research team, including colleagues from Cornell University, UC Riverside and the University of Arizona, also found “that the microbiome of this solitary bee is very consistent--the same taxa appear in most brood cells, in similar proportions,” said Christensen. “This is uncommon in solitary species, which normally have variable microbiomes due to lack of social transmission. We are still exploring this unique aspect!”

Vannette, associate professor and vice chair of the department and an international leader in microbial ecology, researches interactions between plants, insects and microbes. She is a principal investigator of a National Science Foundation grant that funded the project.

“Previous work on bee-microbe interactions has shown how gut bacteria benefit honey bees and other corbiculate social bees but these microbes are limited to social bees,” Vannette told us. “We wondered if solitary bees also associate with beneficial microbes and uncovered this previously undescribed partnership between bees, fungi and bacteria. This study opens up new questions in bee ecology and host-microbe interactions: how do solitary bees maintain specific associations with bacteria and fungi? What chemistry are Streptomyces using to suppress fungi? Does this association benefit bees? We think it is likely but ongoing work will examine these questions.”

“We are also thrilled to find this unique symbiosis in a bee species that has been well-studied by previous faculty at UC Davis, includingRobbinThorp,” Vannette said. “UC Davis nematologistHarry Kaya, with graduate studentRobin Giblin, also describedBursaphelenchus seani, a nematode that inhabitsAnthophora bomboides. Our lab is also investigating links between the brood cell microbiome and the nematodes in this bee species.”

Other co-authors of the paper are

• QuinnMcFrederick, assistant professor at UC Riverside whostudiessymbionts(pathogens,commensals, andmutualists) of wild and solitarybees
• BryanDanforth, professor at Cornell University, who specializes in beesystematicsand evolution
• StephenBuchmann, pollination ecologistaffiliated with the Departments of Entomology and of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University ofArizona
• SriramSrinivas, then a UC Davis undergraduate researcher in theVannettelab

Check out Thorp's presentation on digger bees that he deliveredat the “Proceedings of the Symposium on Biodiversity of Northwestern California” in October, 1991, in Santa Rosa.

Also check out the wonderfully donePBSDeep Look Video,This Bee Builds Sandcastles at the Beach.

Let's dig the digger bees.

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Rob Page: The Student, The Professor, The Scientist, The Administrator, The Legend

• Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Robert E. Page Jr.Internationally known honey bee geneticistRobert E. Page, Jr.is spotlighted in the current issue of American Entomologist inMarlin E. Rice's popular Legends feature.

Titled "Robert E. Page, Jr.: The Spirit of the Bee," it's a great article chronicling his life, his love of bees, and his massive number of achievements. Rice captured it well.

Rob, a native of Bakersfield and now 74, received his doctorate in 1980 from UC Davis, studying with major professorNorman Gary and doctoral research mentorHarry H. Laidlaw Jr.He advanced to professor and chair of the Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology). A second career emerged when Arizona State University (ASU) recruited him.

Today Page holds the titles of ASU University Provost Emeritus and Regents Professor Emeritus as well as UC Davis Distinguished Emeritus Professor and Emeritus Chair of the UC Davis Entomology Department.

Page is known for his research on honey bee behavior and population genetics, particularly the evolution of complex social behavior. One of his most salient contributions to science was to construct the first genomic map of the honey bee, which sparked a variety of pioneering contributions not only to insect biology but to genetics at large.

Page pioneered the use of modern techniques to study the genetic basis of social behavior evolution in honey bees and other social insects. He was the first to employ molecular markers to study polyandry and patterns of sperm use in honey bees. He provided the first quantitative demonstration of low genetic relatedness in a highly eusocial species.

He is "arguably the most influential honey bee biologist of the past 30 years," his peers say.

At UC Davis, Page worked closely with Laidlaw. Together they published many significant research papers and the landmark book, “Queen Rearing and Bee Breeding” (Wicwas Press, 1998), considered the most important resource book for honey bee genetics, breeding, and queen rearing.

For 24 years, from 1989 to 2015, Page maintained a UC Davis honey bee-breeding program, managed by bee breeder-geneticist Kim Fondrk. Their contributions include discovering a link between social behavior and maternal traits in bees. Their work was featured in a cover story in the journalNature. In all,Naturefeatured his work on four covers from work mostly done at UC Davis.

Page authored two books:The Spirit of the Hive: The Mechanisms of Social Evolution(Harvard University Press, 2013) and theArt of the Bee: Shaping the Environment from Landscapes to Societies(Oxford University Press, 2020). In 2023, he launched a publicly accessibleYouTube Channel,https://youtube.com/@artofthebee.

UC Davis Professor Emeritus Norman Gary.In the Legends' piece, Page described his major professor, UC Davis Professor Emeritus Norm Gary as "an excellent" bee behaviorist. "I got assigned to the bee lab with Norm Gary, an excellent bee behaviorist. I was out in the field one day and metHarry Laidlaw. He had just retired. I told him I was really interested in genetics and breeding, and how can I learn it. He gave me things to read. He showed me how to do artificial insemination. We did projects together. I did some breeding theory, and he was writing a new book on queen rearing and wanted to make recommendations about breeding, but he had no theory to back it, so I did the theory because I was interested in population genetics. Harry became a mentor whereas Norm Gary was my major professor."

When Rice asked Page "Who was the most influential person in your education," Page replied: "Today, all my research approaches, the way I thought about things, everything I did I can point back to four people. Norm Gary taught me the importance of knowing behavior and having good behavioral assays. He was superb at it. Nobody knows better what bees will do than Norm Gary,but he doesn't care much about why they do it. Which then brings me to my training in evolution from Tim Prout, who was an evolutionary biologist and population geneticist. He taught me population genetics, which I use to develop a population way of thinking about the work that I do. Harry Laidlaw taught me the value of breeding and the value of attention to detail. When we wrote papers together, we went over every word. Harry believed that every word had to be there for a reason. Every word had to be right. Robert A. Metcalf, an incredible guy, really turned me on to social insects, and got me interested in using molecular and biochemical markers. Everything I did for the rest of my career came from those four people."

This week we asked Gary, now 90, what it was like to have Rob as his graduate student.

In a June 17th email,Gary wrote:“When I first met Rob Page at the beginning of his graduate studies, I was immediately impressed that he was a very exceptional student in all respects! He was enthusiastic about insect behavior, especially honey bee behavior. I became his major professor. His fascination with behavior soon evolved into behavioral genetics. Consequently, I encouraged him to conduct his graduate research under the direction of Harry Laidlaw whose research program focused on honey bee genetics."

"Rob and I shared several bee research projects, one of which involved research on honey bees to determine if insects would be adversely affected by exposure to microwaves from solar power satellites that were under consideration as a future source of energy for mankind. Rob excelled in all activities. His enthusiasm was contagious! He richly deserves the many rewards he has received during his career, especially for his superior skills in research, teaching, and leadership in every facet of the academic world.”

You may know Norm Gary as not only a professor, scientist, musician, and author but one of the world's most incredible professional bee wranglers. He used to wear full-body bee suits and play the b-flat clarinet. (See BugSquad blogof Nov. 30, 2016). He once trained bees to fly into his mouth to collect food from a small sponge saturated with his patented artificial nectar. He holds the Guinness World record (109 bees inside his closed mouth for 10 seconds) for the stunt.

It's all about The Bees for Rob Page and Norm Gary.

It's always been about The Bees.

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Introduce Your Children to Insects

• Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Daphne Shuman, 7, loves insects. She visited the Bohart Museum twice in one day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)How can you interest your children in insects?

"For me, at least a lot of my interest developed when my parents gave me a net and a butterfly picture book and then gave me enough independence to explore on my own," recalls UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, who served 34 years as director of the BohartMuseum of Entomologybefore stepping down on Feb. 1.

"Today parents seem to schedule every minute of theirkid's day with scheduled activities," Kimseysaid, "and this simply doesn't allowkidsto explore, and use their imaginations."

So true. Kids are naturally curious. When they see lady beetles, akaladybugs, they check out what they're doing, what they're eating (a menu of aphids and other soft-bodied insects), and how they take flight.

You can ask them questions: What do you think that is? What is it doing? Can you describe it? Do you want it to be your friend? Why or why not? Do you want to write a poem about it? Do you want to photograph it?

They quickly learn that everything eats in the garden. They can watch a honey bee foraging for nectar and pollen, and then get nailed by a praying mantis. Ditto the butterfly. One minute a butterfly is sipping nectar, and the next minute, it's snared in a spider web.

And they never forget metamorphosis: how a butterfly egg magically transforms into a caterpillar, the caterpillar into a chrysalis, and then an adult butterflyeclosesfrom that chrysalis. "Magic" and "miracles" occur right before their eyes!

A great example of the natural curiosity of children occurs every year on the UC Davis campus during the "Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work." Mom and Dad show youngsters where they work, and also visit other workplaces. One of the highlights is theBohartMuseum of Entomology

For the BohartMuseum staff and volunteers, it's a good opportunity to engage in science communication or sci-com.TabathaYang, education and outreachcoordinator organizes the open houses and leads the team. At the recent event, the science communicators included doctoral student EmJochimof the Jason Bond lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; Oliver Smith, a UC Davis entomology student;psychology major Naomi Lila of the UC Davis Entomology Club;SydBenson, a high school intern from Met Sacramento; and animal biology majorJakobLopez wearing a quite appropriate"Have a Nice Day" shirt.

Tabatha Yang (right), the Bohart Museum's education and outreach coordinator, with high school intern Syd Benson of Met Sacramento. She just completed her internship. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)He did and they did.

Everly Puckett, 3, was there with her father, Ryan Puckett with Facilities Management. She wasn't sure she wanted to hold any insects (Madagascar hissing co*ckroaches and stick insects) from the petting zoo but her dad encouraged her to touch a stick insect, aka walking stick.

Ten-year-old Mark Blankenship eagerly helda thorny stick insect. His dad, Mark Blankenship, works for Supply Chain Management.

Eight-year-old Hunter Baker was super interested in the insects and wanted to know more about them. His mother, Kate Schaul, works in security at the UC Davis Library.

Sebastian Carrasco, 3, whose mother Nadia works in UC Davis Health, attended with his father, Lizandro. When asked if he wanted to hold an insect, Sebastian hid behind his father. Then he shook his head and said "Bye, Bye!" to the insect. Clever and creative!

Daphne Shuman, 7, whose mother Amy Shuman, works for Students Affairs, loved the BohartMuseum. In fact she loved it so much she attended the event twice, in the morning and in the afternoon.

Mark Blankenship, 10, peered closely at a stick insect crawling on a hand. His father, Mark, works for Supply Chain Management.

Atlas Scott, 4, attended with his motherDanielle Hoskeywho works for UC Davis Health. He decided he'd rather not become acquainted with the stick insects, but he did hold a tomato hornworm.

Bottom line: they will all remember that day at the BohartMuseum, a day when they were encouraged to look, touch and hold an insect.

And, quite likely, many may enroll in college entomology courses and some may seek entomology as a career.

The BohartMuseum, home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens (plus a gift shop and petting zoo), is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 CrockerLane. Summer walk-in hours are Tuesdays, June 17-Aug, 27, 9 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 4:30 p.m. The museum will be closed to the general public from Sept. 1-Sept. 22.

Director is Professor Jason Bond,the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in the Department of Entomology and Nematology. He's also associate dean of agricultural sciences for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

The next open houses are:

Saturday,July 20: Moth Night at the Museum (inside and outside activities) 7 to 11 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 28: Museum ABC's: Arthropods, Bohartand Collecting, 1 to 4 p.m.

All open houses are free and family friendly. Parking is also free. For more information, contact the BohartMuseum at bmuseum@ucdavis.edu. or call (530) 752-0493.

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Applause for the Pollinators

• Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Bees, butterflies, beetles, birds and bats.

What do they have in common? Skipping the alliteration for a moment, they're all pollinators.

Honey bees grab the most attention, of course, and they do the bulk of the work. But so do bumble bees and other native bees.

But other pollinators include moths, hummingbirds, wasps and flies (especially the syrphid flies, akahover flies or flower flies often mistaken for honey bees by the untrained eye.)

The National Park Servicedescribes pollination as "anything that helps carry pollen from the male part of the flower (stamen) to the female part of the same or another flower (stigma). The movement of pollen must occur for the plant to become fertilized and produce fruits, seeds, and young plants. Some plants are self-pollinating, while others may be fertilized by pollen carried by wind or water. Still, other flowers are pollinated by insects and animals - such as bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, birds, flies and small mammals, including bats."

"At least 75 percent of all the flowering plants on earth are pollinated by insects and animals," they point out on their website. "This amounts to more than 1,200 food crops and 180,000 different types of plants—plants which help stabilize our soils, clean our air, supply oxygen, and support wildlife."

One pollinator that absolutely takes our breath away is the Western tiger swallowtail,Papilio rutulus, especially when it touches down on the colorful Mexican sunflower,Tithoniarotundifola, and begins to nectar.

If you're lucky, you'll see different species sharing the same blossom.

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