In This Issue

Bohart Museum Society

Fall 2018 Newsletter No. 76

Bohart Museum Society Newsletter Fall 2018

SPOTLIGHT ON A SPECIES

Pity the Poor Vampires

By Lynn S. Kimsey

Vertebrate blood seems like a highly nutritional and readily available food source, with so many large-bodied mammals running around, yet only a small proportion of the animal world feeds on blood. Even in the hyperdiverse arthropods only about 15,000 species have developed the ability to feed on vertebrate blood. If blood really is such a great nutritional resource, why do so few animals feed on it? There are four basic problems with feeding on vertebrate blood, host location, biting mechanics, the host’s immune system, and digestion.

Before anything else happens, blood feeders must be able to find the host. Those that feed on mammals and birds have many signals to work with, including elevated body

temperatures, carbon dioxide from the breath and a wide variety of body odors; mammals are particularly stinky. Specialists on reptiles and amphibians have a more difficult time of it. These hosts are cold-blooded and give off about as much carbon dioxide as a plant, so parasites that feed on them we think must rely on odor and touch, but we don’t know for sure how they do it.

To be a blood feeder you also must have mouthparts capable of penetrating or cutting the skin, finding a blood vessel of some sort, and then sucking in the blood. Insects adapted for feeding on plant fluids, such as nectar and sap already have many of these prerequisites. Vertebrate skin is tough and must be entered by cutting an opening and/or inserting needle-like mouthparts. Think of how tough it must be to feed on elephants… Horseflies and deerflies use their mouthparts to cut a small hole in the skin and then lap up blood and other fluids that fill the hole because of the tissue damage, which is why their bites hurt. Mosquitoes on the other hand have needle-like mouthparts that they insert through the skin and into an adjacent blood vessel. Their bites cause relatively little pain, which is important since they cannot escape quickly. A third strategy is used by flies with short mouthparts, like noseeums and black flies. These flies cut a very small hole in the skin and then secrete saliva into the opening and lap up the resulting fluid. The saliva contains enzymes and other proteins that cause cells and capillaries near the bite to leak into the wound area, and this is what they feed on. Our immune response to the proteins in this salivary cocktail is why these bites are so very itchy.

All blood feeders must have ways to prevent the host’s immune system from interfering with their feeding and they must prevent the blood cells from sticking in their mouthparts and esophagus. Consequently, they all have chemicals in their saliva that prevent red

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CONTENTS

Directors Note 1

Spotlight on a Species 1

Museum News 2

Museum History 3

More Museum News 5

Weird Insect News 6

Ask the Bug Doctor 7

Horsefly. Photo courtesy of Alex Wild.

Directors Note-

What could be more appropriate for the fall newsletter than an article about vampires. This newsletter also shows off one of Alex Wild’s awesome photographs. Alex has been kind enough to give me permission to use his photos in our newsletter.

Our summer open houses were a big hit and our upcoming members open house in October should be the best yet. We’re unveiling new exhibits and one very special one in honor of “Doc” Bohart. Please attend the October open house if at all possible. Invitations will be coming out soon.

If you have any suggestions for articles for the newsletter please send them to me.

-Lynn Kimsey

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Bohart Museum Society Newsletter Fall 2018

MUSEUM NEWS

Saying Good-bye

We’re loosing two students to Cornell University in the coming year. Noah Crockett, who’s volunteered in the museum since he was in junior high school, left for Cornell August 1. Grad student Jessica Gillung will be finishing her Ph.D. in December, and is scheduled to begin a postdoctoral research position with Brian Danforth at Cornell January 1, 2019. We hope the snow isn’t too much for them.

Also, several of our undergraduate students have graduated including Minsu Kang and Emma Cluff.

New Faces in the Museum

Bjorn Bush is a high school student who began interning in the museum this summer. His interest in insects started during our Bio Boot Camps.

Socrates Letana, a new graduate student in the museum, has begun working on his Ph.D. on oestrid bot flies. He comes to us from the University of the Philippines and the California Department of Food and Agriculture in Sacramento.

Comings and Goings Museum Open Houses for 2018/19

Bjorn Bush at his birthday party in the museum.

Biodiversity Day Video Take a look at a terrific video created by undergraduate

student Alexander Fisher-Wager highlighting last spring’s Biodiversity Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzdOuHivEms

Socrates hard at work in the museum.

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Bohart Museum Society Newsletter Fall 2018

Bohart Bio Boot Camps

MUSEUM

At the Bohart we engage kids of all ages, but one of our signature programs is Bio Boot Camp for junior high and high school age students. This summer was our 8th year offering Bio Boot Camps. We are able to do this through a partnership with the UC Davis Campus Recreation Youth Programs and a network of scientists and UC organizations. The goal is for these students to learn how to explore the natural sciences.

At the end of June our camp for pre-teens spent several days in Davis exploring the campus and the UC Putah Creek Reserve. They got to go outside and connect with graduate students and undergraduates doing research on everything from bark beetle pheromone traps to blue bird nest box surveys. Then on Thursday we had an overnight experience at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Field Station. In addition to tide pooling with marine biology graduate students and doing cartwheels on the beach at sunset (it is camp afterall!) we rolled up our sleeves and got our hands dirty with a plant restoration project under the guidance of Lewis Reed, the Bodega Marine Reserve steward. It was a fun week and it went by quickly. This year’s camp was led by Marina Vollin, an undergraduate staff member with the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, and Jackson Audley, an Entomology graduate student in the Seybold lab.

In July, a group of high school students

from around the world attended the overnight camp we call BBC 2.0. Despite the fires in California and the pervasive smoke, we found clear air while staying at the wonderful new facilities at the UC Davis Quail Ridge Reserve near Lake Berryessa and the UC Berkeley Sagehen Creek Field Station near Truckee. This camp for high schoolers always blogs at https://biobootcamp2.wordpress.com/

Here is an excerpt from July 25th.

We “awakened” after our first night at Sagehen Creek Field Station. The male dorm slept well but woke up a few times due to chilly toes. Tonight, we’ll make sure to close the windows. The female dorm was too hot, so we’ll make sure to open the windows tonight. In the morning, the kitchen crew woke up early to make breakfast. Five of us went over to a nearby meadow to set up a malaise trap: a mesh tent that serves as a passive insect collecting tool. When insects fly in, they hit the sides of the tent, travel upwards, and get trapped in a 95% ethanol concentration. When we walked back from setting up the trap, we saw a doe and her fawn. A great way to start the morning!

For breakfast, we had delectable make-your-own breakfast burritos, as well as a vegetarian option and fresh fruits. During breakfast, we played a very

intense and high stakes game of Uno. Right afterwards, we received an insightful presentation from the manager of the field station, Jeff. We then visited the fish house (imagine an aquarium tank built straight in to a natural stream) where we saw little creatures including sculpin, juvenile trout, caddisfly larvae, mayfly larvae, and hydra. Afterwards, we learned about stream systems and

macro invertebrates. What is a macro invertebrate? Macro invertebrates are a variety of different arthropods that live in bodies of water.

Here are some more blog comments:

I feel that, so far, my experience has been very eye-opening and I am learn-ing lots about insects and water-shed science. Can’t wait to continue learning and discovering new... to be continued –Andre

So far, I have been having lots of fun and exciting new experiences with my new made friends. I’ve learned so much over these past few days and can’t wait to continue discovering new things! – Audrey

I have been having a really fantastic time. This has been a really unique and cool experience for me. I am looking forward to the rest of my time here at Sagehen Creek. -Noah

A big thank you to Society members! We try make these camps accessible to everyone. This past summer we gave out more scholarships than ever with just over 25% of campers needing some support. We were able to do this through the generosity of the Bohart Society members like you, and a former camper donated his summer job money to help us provide more scholarships. Thank you to everyone who makes these special programs possible! BBC 2.0 campers at Sagehen Creek.

Plant restoration with Bio Boot campers and Lewis Reed. Photo by Tabatha Yang.

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Bohart Museum Society Newsletter Fall 2018

blood cells from sticking together. The blood feeder’s saliva also contains chemicals that prevent the attraction of the host’s white blood cells, which also might interfere with feeding.

Blood is not an easy substance to digest. Oxygen is transported in vertebrate blood by hemoglobin, which is an iron containing molecule. Hemoglobin is the most abundant protein in vertebrate blood and may account for up to 60% of the protein content. Digestion of vertebrate blood results in the production of large amounts of heme, which is a breakdown compound of hemoglobin. Ironically, it turns out that heme is a highly toxic molecule particularly in large amounts because it can cause cell membranes to breakdown, or cause cell to damage by oxidizing fats, proteins and DNA. In addition, heme generates reactive oxygen compounds that also damage cells.

Blood-feeders have evolved a variety of mechanisms to deal with heme toxicity, including heme binding proteins that serve to aggregate and breakdown heme and antioxidant enzymes. All blood-feeders aggregate heme, but they do it in a variety of ways. Kissing bugs and at least some ticks have heme binding proteins with antioxidant properties. Kissing bugs and some mosquitoes have pigments coupled with amino acids that act with heme binding proteins to facilitate excretion.

Based on the fossil record, blood-feeding in arthropods seems to have originated in the Cretaceous. Certain obvious pre-adaptations were necessary to make hematophagy possible, including

Continued from page 1.

piercing, cutting mouthparts and an array of molecules that interfere with the hosts blood clotting, inflammation and immune response. Blood is relatively nutrient poor with very low levels of carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and essential amino acids. Red blood is 92% water and contains blood plasma proteins and trace amounts of amino acids, glucose, fats, salts and waste products including lactic acid, urea and carbon dioxide. As a result, the parasite must ingest huge amounts of blood to obtain enough nutrition, which compounds the problems with heme toxicity. Kissing bugs and mosquitoes consume between 3 and 10 times their body weights in each blood meal, but hard ticks will consume up to 100 times their body weight!

Feeding on large volumes of blood solves some of the nutritional issues but creates others. Obligatory blood feeders, like lice and bed bugs, have microbes housed in special organs that help produce important secondary compounds, such as amino acids and vitamins, from the blood. If these microbes are killed by antibiotics the insect starves. Insects that only blood

feed as adults retain these secondary compounds from the larval stages. Their larvae feed on a wide variety of nutrient rich materials.

Finally, vampire moths are an interesting twist on the usual blood-feeding theme. The majority of blood feeders are female, but in these moths it is the males that blood feed. They evidently do so to obtain nutritionally important salts that are rare in the environment, which they transfer to females during mating.

We all love to hate blood feeding insects but think of how difficult this life style must be.

Anopheles mosquito feeding. Photo courtesy of Alex Nguyen.

Vampire moth. Photo circa 1920.

Blood feeding insects and their taxonomy, number of species and which life stages or sexes blood feed.

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Bohart Museum Society Newsletter Fall 2018

MORE MUSEUM NEWS

Moth Night

Our July open house featured moths, hot chocolate and night time collecting. The event ran from 8-11pm. We had quite a number of experts on hand, including Greg Kareofelas, John DeBenedictis and Norm Smith, to show visitors moths, collecting techniques and other fun activities. About 100 visitors came that evening including our new faculty member, Jason Bond, who studies spiders and millipedes.

Fire and Ice: Extreme Insects

Our open house on extreme insects in August focused on insects that live in seemingly intolerable conditions. We particularly focused on insects attracted by forest fires, like fire beetles and fire flies (not the pretty ones that light up at night). In addition we showed examples of insects that live in hot water, acid run-off, snow and high salinity lakes. Nearly 150 visitors attended the open house.

Crafty Insects

A teapot shaped like a cicada. A quilt with darting dragonflies. A needlepoint with eight different beetles. These were some of the amazing crafts displayed at our "Crafty Insects" open house on September 22. We showcased silk moths, potter wasps, paper wasps, leaf butterflies, and live praying mantids and walking sticks. Approximately 130 people from all over the greater Sacramento region visited. The UCD Entomology Club was on hand to welcome new students and invite them to their weekly meetings. For students who couldn't make it to the open house, we had a craft project. We painted rocks with insect drawings and hid them around campus, as part of the #UCDRocks initiative to spread a little joy on campus. So next time you are on campus look for painted rocks hiding around the campus. What a wonderful way to start the academic year!

Summer Open Houses

Crystal Homicz manning the fire insects exhibit. Photo by LS Kimsey.

Jason Bond and his wife, Kristine, viewing the blacklight sheet with Tabatha Yang and John DeBenedictis (below). Photos by KE Garvey.

Gift Shop Silliness Just in case you need a special gift for someone who needs a laugh or silliness for a child we have just the thing for you, a plush housefly and its friend, Poo.

Noah Crockett and Norm Smith showing visitors the “petting zoo” .

Hallway plans and Members Open House

The entrance to the Bohart Museum is undergoing a major redesign. The display cabinets are being moved and new displays added. We will also be repainting the front door and hallway wall, and are adding new signage and graphics.

The most striking piece of artwork will be unveiled at the members only open house in October. With the financial support of some of our members we purchased a high resolution image of a chrysidid wasp by British photographer Levon Biss (right). This photo was chosen in part to honor of Professor Bohart who spent much of his career studying chrysidid wasps. The photograph is huge and it will be the centerpiece of the museum entrance.

Parnopes grandior cuckoo wasp. Photo by Levon Biss.

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Bohart Museum Society Newsletter Fall 2018

Weird Insect News

Just when you think things can’t get weirder they do. The News is full of odd things that happen or have been observed, and inevitably some of this has to do with insects.

USPS is afraid of fleas…

In early August the U.S. Postal Service notified a middle class neighborhood in the city of Sacramento that they would no longer have mail delivered to their homes because the mailmen were being attacked by fleas!

Haven’t they heard of repellent?

Cockroach Liquor

We recently received an email from a group that was planning to make a mescal-like liquor except that it would have a cockroach in it instead of a maguey worm or something seemingly more edible. We gave them information on

cockroach preservation, how to kill them (freezing) and the best % alcohol to use, plus we recommended the least smelly of the commonly available roaches. They promised to send us a bottle…

Mosquitoes and Worms

A recently published paper by Reeves et al. in Communications Biology expanded our knowledge of mosquito hosts. The colorful Florida mosquito, Uranotaenia sapphirina, specializes on earthworms and leeches! The big question here is how do they find these worms to feed on them, and does feeding on leeches make mosquitoes hyperparasites?!

Beetles Running Wild

Folks in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties have been experiencing mass invasions of tenebrionid beetles by the species Opatroides punctulatus. At night people are finding their larvae climbing up garage ceilings and walls only to disappear come daytime.

Lonestar Ticks and Allergies

The latest new weirdness is that lone star tick bites can cause red meat allergies. This means that most Texans are allergic to red meat! I don’t think so.

Insects Eating Vertebrates

We all know about insects that feed on vertebrate blood, like bedbugs, but how about insects that are vertebrate meat eaters. The largest mantids are apparently happy to capture and eat both living and dead small birds, like hummingbirds, and will even eat frogs. In the U.S., vertebrate predation has been observed in the larger Stagmomantis species.

Oregon Mosquito Festival

Every July Paisley, Oregon, has its annual mosquito festival. The city has major on-going problems with mosquitoes, so they decided to turn it into a business opportunity.

Opatroides punctulatus. Photo courtesy of Jim Tassano.

Paisley, Oregon Mosquito Festival parade. Photo courtesy Lake County Examiner,

Lakeview, OR.

Source: Martin Nyffeler, Michael R. Maxwell, J. V. Remsen, Jr. (2017), Bird predation by praying mantises: a global perspective, The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 129: 331-344.

Lonestar tick. Photo courtesy James Gathany, Wikipedia.

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ASK THE BUG DOCTOR If you have an insect question, need advice, want an identification of something you’ve found, or would like to see an article in the newsletter on a particular topic let us know. Email us at bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.

New Invasives

The Asian long horned tick, Haema-physalis longicornis, is a recent immigrant to the East Coast. Its been found from New York to Arkansas. This tick is native to East Asia and is a livestock pest in New Zealand. So far it hasn’t moved west.

Orchard and grape growers on the East Coast are dealing with an impressive exotic pest, the Asian lantern fly Lycorma delicatula. This pest was first observed in the U.S. in 2014. It feeds on fruit trees and grape vines and can build up into huge numbers in vinyards. Fortunately it seems to require higher humidities than are found on the West Coast.

Bohart Museum Society Newsletter Fall 2018

What the Heck?

This really weird female wasp was recently found in Australia, and the photo posted on-line at the Atlas of Living Australia website, with the question, What family is this thing? There are a couple of possibilities, Mutillidae or Thynnidae, but without actually seeing the specimen its all pretty much speculation.

Beetles, Beetles, and More Beetles

Several very distinctive beetles have come into the museum this summer. The most brightly colored has to be the fig beetle, Cotinis mutalibilis. These beetles commonly breed in compost piles and piles of fruit debris. The larvae feed on decomposing organic material. Adults feed on fruit.

In addition, to these brightly colored beetles. There are some strikingly good bumble bee mimics. The long-horned beetle, Ulochares leoninus, is one of

these. It was recently observed in the Sierras by Josh Wagner.

Brown Widows Are Here

Brown widows (Latrodectus geometricus) are nearly cosmopolitan in distribution. They are thought to have originated in South Africa, and were known from the eastern half of the U.S. for sometime. The first brown widow spiders in our area were found in Sacramento 5-10 years ago. We’re now seeing them in Davis. They are the same shape as the black widow but the coloration is much more colorful and the egg cases have small nubs all over instead of a smooth surface like the egg case of black widows.

These spiders are great hitchhikers and will put their egg cases on the underside of trucks and cars, and even in the wheel wells of cargo jets.

Latrodectus geometricus female with egg case. Photo courtesy of Karlamalie, Park Benches at RUSVM, Public Domain, https://ons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4744770

Ventral view female long horned tick. Photo courtesy of James Gathany, Wikipedia.

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Adult lantern fly (above). Photo courtesy of Henripekka Kallio, Wikipedia.

Juveniles on grape vines (left). Photo courtesy of Rkillcrazy, Wikipedia.

Mystery wasp. Photo by Lyn Cook, Atlas of Living Australia.

Fig beetle. Photo courtesy of User:Jengod, CC BY

-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/

index.php?curid=52510784.

Ulochares leoninus long-horned beetle. Photo by Josh Wagoner.

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Bohart Museum Society c/o Department of Entomology & Nematology University of California One Shields Ave. Davis, CA 95616

Save the date—

Members Halloween open house, October 26, 2018, 5-8pm