From a beneficial insect to pests...
It's good to see the wide diversity of topics in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's winter seminar schedule.
Seminar coordinator Christian Nansen, agricultaral entomologist and an assistant professor, has just announced the list of speakers.
The seminars, open to all interested persons, are scheduled on Wednesdays from 4:10 to 5 p.m. beginning Jan. 11 and continuing through March 15 in Room 122 of Briggs Hall, located on Kleiber Hall Drive, UC Davis campus. Plans are to record all the seminars for later viewing on UCTV.
Some seminars are quite technical but all look interesting--especially the one on honey bees. William Meikle, Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, Agricultural Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, will speak March 15 on "Using Continuous Monitoring to Measure Colony-Level Behavior in Social Insects: A Case Study with Honey Bees." Meikle received his doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley.
A familiar name and face is Kelli Hoover, who received her doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1997. Now a professor of entomology at Pennsylvania State University, she'll speak on "Mechanisms of Resistance in Poplar Against the Asian Longhorned Beetle and Its Gut Symbionts" on March 8.
While a grad student at UC Davis, Hoover studied with major professors Bruce Hammock and Sean Duffey (1943-1997). After a one-year postdoctoral position at UC Berkeley, she joined the faculty of the Penn State University Department of Entomology in 1998.
Her research program at Penn State focuses on invasive species, including development of trapping techniques for the Asian longhorned beetle; gut microbial symbionts of the Asian longhorned beetle and hemlock woolly adelgid; functions of key viral genes in transmission of the gypsy moth baculovirus and anti-viral defenses; and biological control of hemlock woolly adelgid.
UC Davis professor Diane Ullman, an expert on flower thrips, will speak Jan. 18 on "Journey into the Microcosm: A Closer Look at the Western Flower Thrips." She describes thrips as tiny insects that pierce and suck fluids from hundreds of species of plants, including tomatoes, grapes, strawberries and soybeans. The pests cause billions of dollars in damage to U.S. agricultural crops as direct pests and in transmitting plant viruses in the genus Tospovirus, such as Tomato spotted wilt virus. “There are 23 additional approved and emerging tospovirus genotypes transmitted by at least 14 thrips species (Thysanoptera: Thripidae),” said Ullman, who has been researching thrips and tospoviruses since 1987.
The seminar schedule:
Wednesday, Jan. 11
Marco Gebiola, postdoctoral fellow, University of Arizona, Tucson
Topic: ""From Embroys to Hybrids: How the Symbiont Cardinium Shapes the Ecology and Evolution of Encarsia Parasitoids"
Wednesday, Jan. 18
Diane Ullman, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Topic: "Journey into the Microcosm: A Closer Look at the Western Flower Thrips"
Wednesday, Jan. 25
Sharon Lawler, professor of entomology, and Ph.D candidate Erin Donley, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Topic: "Effects of Aquatic Vegetation and Its Management on Aquatic Invertebrates"
Wednesday, Feb. 1
Greg Sword, professor and Charles R. Parencia Chair in Cotton Entomology, Department of Entomology, Texas A&M, College Station
Topic: "Fungal Endophytes Can Mediate Resistance to Insects, Nematodes and Drought in Cotton Agroecosytems"
Wednesday, Feb. 8
Jennifer Thaler, professor, Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Topic: "Tritrophic Interactions and the Ecology of Fear"
Wednesday, Feb. 15
Pedro Miura, assistant professor, Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno
Topic: "Age Accumulation of CircRNAs"
Wednesday, Feb. 22
Jared Ali, assistant professor of entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Topic: "Multi-Trophic Interactions and the Chemical Ecology of Plant Defenses in Above and Below Ground Contexts"
Wednesday, March 1
Christian Nansen, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Topic: "Reflectance Profiling as a Tool to Study Insects and Other Objects"
Wednesday, March 8
Kelli Hoover, professor of entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Topic: "Mechanisms of Resistance in Poplar Against the Asian Longhorned Beetle and Its Gut Symbionts"
Wednesday, March 15
William Meikle, Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, Agricultural Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Topic: "Using Continuous Monitoring to Measure Colony-Level Behavior in Social Insects: A Case Study with Honey Bees"
Attached Images:
Honey bees will be one of the topics of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's winter seminars. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This is a western flower thrips, the topic of Professor Diane Ullman's seminar on Jan. 18. She'll discuss "Journey into the Microcosm: A Closer Look at the Western Flower thrips." (Photo by Jack Kelly Clark, UC ANR)