March 25, 2009
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| Franklin's bumble bee.. Robbin Thorp will speak May 27 on vanishing bumble bees. (Photo by Robbin Thorp) |
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| Male Diachasma alloeum on an apple. The wasp is undergoing evolutionary change. Andrew Forbes will speak April 22 on sequential speciation. (Photo by Andrew Forbes) |
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| Honey bee working an almond blossom. A Virginia Tech entomologist will speak May 13 on bee problems. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) |
DAVIS—Speakers will discuss a variety of topics, from ants, glassy-winged sharpshooters and midges to honey bees and bumble bees, at the spring seminars sponsored by the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Professor and ant specialist Phil Ward, who is coordinating the series, said the spring seminar series will begin Wednesday, April 8 and continue every Wednesday through June 3 in 122 Briggs Hall. The lectures are from 12:10 to 1 p.m. and are free and open to the public.
The schedule:
April 8: David Spiller, specialist in the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology, will speak on “Marine Subsidy Effects on Island Food Webs.” Host is doctoral candidate Fran Keller, UC Davis Department of Entomology
April 15: Christian Peeters, director of the Laboratoire d’Ecologie, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, will speak on “Recurrent Selection Against Winged Queens in Ants, and Shifts in Life History Traits.” Host is professor Phil Ward
April 22: Andrew Forbes, postdoctoral scholar in the Jay Rosenheim lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology, will speak on “Sequential Speciation: Why Are There So Many SMALL
Animals?” Host is his major professor, Jay Rosenheim.
April 29: Andrew Graves, postdoctoral researcher in the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology, will speak on “Attraction, Interruption, and Host Physiology:
Understanding Conifer Bark Beetle Host Selection in Alaska and California.” Host is UC Davis Department of Entomology affiliate Steve Seybold, a chemical ecologist of forestry insects, USDA Forest Service, Davis
May 6: Dominic Reisig, doctoral candidate in the Larry Godfrey lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology, will speak on “Developing IPM for Thrips in California Timothy and a Density-Independent Effect on Thrips Wing Diphenism.” Host is his major professor Larry Godfrey.
May 13: Richard Fell, entomology professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) will speak on “Bee Problems and Colony Losses - Are Things Really That Bad?” Host is Michael Parrella associate dean of the Division of Agricultural Sciences, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and professor of entomology at UC Davis
May 20: Mark Hoddle, biocontrol specialist with the UC Riverside Department of Entomology, will speak on “Biocontrol of Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter in French
Polynesia.” Host is professor Peter Cranston
May 27: Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor and native pollinator specialist, UC Davis Department of Entomology, will speak on “The Plight of a Bumble Bee.” Host is graduate student Ian Pearse.
June 3: Peter Cranston, professor of entomology at UC Davis, will speak on “Ancient Midges.” Host is professor Phil Ward
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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
