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IIIIINNNNN THISTHISTHISTHISTHIS I I I I ISSUESSUESSUESSUESSUE
http://essig.berkeley.edu
Essig Bulletin
EEEEESSIGSSIGSSIGSSIGSSIG M M M M MUSEUMUSEUMUSEUMUSEUMUSEUM OFOFOFOFOF E E E E ENTOMNTOMNTOMNTOMNTOMOLOGYOLOGYOLOGYOLOGYOLOGY
UUUUUNIVERSITYNIVERSITYNIVERSITYNIVERSITYNIVERSITY OFOFOFOFOF C C C C CALIFALIFALIFALIFALIFORNIAORNIAORNIAORNIAORNIA AAAAATTTTT B B B B BERKELEYERKELEYERKELEYERKELEYERKELEY
Volume 4, Issue 1 Fall 2004
AAAAA L L L L LETETETETETTERTERTERTERTER FRFRFRFRFROMOMOMOMOM THETHETHETHETHE D D D D DIRECTORIRECTORIRECTORIRECTORIRECTORCCCCCHILEANHILEANHILEANHILEANHILEAN B B B B BIODIVERSITYIODIVERSITYIODIVERSITYIODIVERSITYIODIVERSITY, R, R, R, R, REVISITEDEVISITEDEVISITEDEVISITEDEVISITED
- Dr. Elizabeth T. Arias, post-doctoral researcher
The Essig Museum has had an
exciting and productive year, with sev-
eral highlights. First, considerable
progress has been made towards mov-
ing the Essig Museum into space ad-
jacent to the other Berkeley Natural
History Museums (UC Museum of
Paleontology and UC and Jepson Her-
baria) in the Valley Life Sciences
Building. This move has been a long
time in coming – we obtained funds
for new cabinets and physical reloca-
tion in 2000. However, complications
arose in terms of the space we origi-
nally proposed to use, and in July 2003
we started to consider alternative op-
tions for moving the Essig collection
into proximity with the other Berke-
ley Natural History Museums. The
specific option we explored was the
Thanks to a gift from Dr. Evert Schlinger, we contin-
ued our biodiversity research program in the Chilean for-
ests, gathering last December at Talca City. Our group con-
sisted of Diana Silva (CAS), Fred Andrews (CDFA),
Takumasa Kondo (UCD), Marcos Diaz (Curicó), under-
graduate students Ivalú Avila and Barbara Bravo (Metro-
politan University), parataxonomist Sergio Ocares (Los
Lleuques), and later Cristian Muñoz (UTAL).
One of the goals of this expedition was to capture live
spiders from the canopy trees by means of fogging with a
pyrethroid mixed with water to minimize toxicity. Unfor-
tunately, we had rain almost every day, and even hail!! We
fogged at 11 sites in Nahuelbuta, Puyehue, Chiloé, and
Continued on page 6 - “Director”
Continued on page 4 - “Chile revisited”
1. Chile’s Diversity, From the Director
2. Expeditions, Awards, Popular Press
3. Who’s the New Guy?
5. Mekong Delta Blues
8. Grants, Visitors, Arachnology Cngr.
9. Gall Wrangling
- Dr. Rosemary Gillespie
Ivalu and Sergio helping to cross Huelde Lakein Chiloé Island
2
EEEEEXPEDITIONSXPEDITIONSXPEDITIONSXPEDITIONSXPEDITIONS
Over the past year Essig Museum scientists
have travelled far and wide in persuit of their
quarry. In June 2003 Dr. Kip Will, Associate
Director of the Essig Museum, organized the
Second Annual Spring Field Trip to the UC Ber-
keley Angelo Reserve in Mendocino county. In
June 2004 he lead the Third Annual Spring Field
Trip to the UC Berkeley Blodgett Forest Re-
search Station in the Sierra foothills. He and
others are collecting specimens and preparing
as much material as they can to be placed in the
Essig Museum as part of our Survey of Califor-
nian Spiders and Insects.
Dr. Robert Dudley travelled to Barro Colo-
rado Island, Panama, in May 2003 as part of his
research on the ecophysiology of butterfly mi-
grations. He later travelled in October 2003 to
the Institute of Zoology in Beijing, China to visit
their Bombus collections.
Peter Oboyski, a graduate student with the
Essig Museum, assisted the Arthopods of La
Selva Project for two weeks in March 2004. The
project, a collaborative effort of many special-
ists at many institutions, seeks to compare indi-
ces of biodiversity along an elevational gradient
in the montane rainforests of northern Costa
Rica. Pete helped to collect, sort, and curate
Lepidoptera specimens.
You can read more about the adventures
of Drs. Elizabeth Arias (“Chilean Biodiversity,
Revisited”), Bill Shepard (“Who’s the New
Guy?”), and Vince Resh (“Mekong Delta Blues”)
in this issue of the Essig Bulletin.
AAAAAWWWWWARDSARDSARDSARDSARDS
Two Essig Museum scientists were recently
recognized for their contributions to our knowl-
edge of insects. Dr. Kip Will received the Jean
Theodore Lacordaire Award from the Coleop-
terists’ Society which recognizes “the finest work
by young Coleopterists.” He received
PPPPPOPOPOPOPOPULARULARULARULARULAR P P P P PRERERERERESSSSSSSSSS
Besides Vince Resh’s book “Encyclopedia
of Insects,” other Essig Museum scientists have
reached out to broader audiences. Dr. Rosie
Gillespie’s work on “Community assembly
through adaptive radiation in Hawaiian spiders”
graced the cover of the January 2004 issue of
Science (vol 300: 356-359). Gillespie uses the
“chronological arrangement of the Hawaiian Is-
lands to visualize snapshots of evolutionary his-
tory and stages of community assembly.”
Dr. Robert Dudley was featured in the Feb-
ruary 3, 2004 Science section of the New York
Times. His article titled, “When giants had
wings and 6 legs,” discusses gigantism in prehis-
toric insects.
the award for his paper, “Revision of the New
World abariform genera Neotalus n. gen. and
Abaris Dejean (Coleoptera: Carabidae:
Pterostichini),” published in the Annals of
Carnegie Museum 71(3):143-213.
Dr. Vince Resh received the 2003 Profes-
sional / Scholarly Reference Award from the
Association of American Publishers for the book
“Encyclopedia of Insects” that he coedited with
Dr. Ring Carde of UC Riverside. Truly a col-
laborative effort, the book features articles from
over 260 contributers, 18 of which are associ-
ated with the Essig Museum.
3
I was recently asked to introduce myself
to the museum group via the Essig Newsletter.
Although I have been around intermittently for
a while, I am now a more regular show in the
museum. I recently retired early from Cal St U
- Sacramento. CSUS is not very research-ori-
ented, and after 21 years of teaching intensely I
felt the need for more research time. So my dear
wife, Cheryl Barr (Museum Scientist / Collec-
tion Manager), agreed to support me financially
and psychologically so that I could retire and
devote more time to my research. So now I am
a Visiting Scholar at UCB and have space in the
museum to work.
My research centers on the aquatic beetle
families Dryopidae,
Elmidae, Eulichadidae,
Lutrochidae, and
Psephenidae plus scat-
tered aquatic represen-
tatives in a few related
families in the super-
family Byrrhoidea.
Most of these beetles
go under the moniker
“riffle beetles”, al-
though there are some
exceptions like the
“long toed” and “water
penny” beetles. I am
predominantly an al-
pha level taxonomist, which reflects the state of
knowledge of these families world-wide. There
are just too many undescribed taxa to be able to
do much higher level work. So I collect and de-
scribe.
I have worked extensively in North
America where the taxonomy has become some-
what stabilized - hence dull. I now work mainly
with the Neotropical fauna, which is probably
the least known in the world. But I have dabbled
in other faunas with collecting trips in Austria,
Switzerland, Finland, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong
Kong and Australia. The European and Austra-
lian faunas are stable now too, and the Austri-
ans at the Natural History Museum of Vienna
are working heavily on the Oriental fauna so I
have avoided these. The real frontier is in Cen-
tral and South America.
Over the last four years I, and a host of
other entomologists, have worked with Costa
Rica’s Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad
(INBio), conducting insect surveys all over the
country. It is exciting to be in on the basement
level of such a survey - uncollected areas abound.
We are in the process of producing identifica-
tion keys and various other web-related materi-
als that will assist their biologists in making im-
portant environmental decisions. I hope soon
to have my contribu-
tions not only on their
website but also on the
Essig Museum
website.
My current
projects include revi-
sions of some of the
New World genera of
water penny beetles
(Psephenidae) and de-
scription of new Neo-
tropical riffle beetles
(Elmidae). But my fa-
vorite project, and one
that is still in the “wrapping-up” stage, is describ-
ing the biology of a Nevada endemic riffle beetle,
Stenelmis calida, which lives in Devils Hole - a
flooded cave system in a disjunct part of Death
Valley National Park. This beetle cohabits with
the Devils Hole pupfish, the vertebrate species
with the smallest geographic range. Of all the
riffle beetles in the world, S. calida lives in the
hottest, most hypoxic, and deepest wa-
ter. It is truly a unique species.
WWWWWHOHOHOHOHO’’’’’SSSSS THETHETHETHETHE N N N N NEWEWEWEWEW G G G G GUYUYUYUYUY?????-Dr. Bill Shepard, Visiting Scholar
Bill Shepard in action
4
“Chile revisited” - continued from page 1
Villarrica, many times in the rain. The big
(180km long) island of Chiloé in particular is well
known for its high levels of endemism. We
reached the island by boat through the Huelde
(“evil”) Lake, which contains a native cypress
forest. When we arrived on the island it was like
being in a world of spiders with webs everywhere
and in all shapes. At the end of the expedition
we started processing the material at the Met-
ropolitan Uni-
versity for fi-
nal deposition
at CAS. Much
of this mate-
rial from the
forest canopy
is locally en-
demic and
undescribed.
Please let me
know if you
are interested
in borrowing
some of this
material. I also
managed, not
without diffi-
culty, to keep
some of the
spiders that we collected alive and brought them
back with me to the USA.
VVVVVisiting scientistsisiting scientistsisiting scientistsisiting scientistsisiting scientists
From the Universidad de Talca, Cristian
Muñoz enjoyed visiting the Essig Museum for 6
weeks, getting involved in mounting and sort-
ing beetles and exploring UC Berkeley. We also
hosted Alejandro Vera, from the Museo
Nacional de Historia Natural, who spent 4 weeks
mounting and sorting material from the Chil-
ean expeditions (we need so much help in sort-
ing and mounting).
FFFFFiririririrst Chist Chist Chist Chist Chilean lean lean lean lean TTTTTaxaxaxaxaxonomic onomic onomic onomic onomic WWWWWorkshoporkshoporkshoporkshoporkshop
For the first time, I was pleased to con-
duct a taxonomic workshop in arthropod
biodiversity with the voluntary help of Dr.
Michael Irwin from University of Illinois, Ur-
bana and Dr. Diana Silva from CAS. This in-
tense 5 day course (Dec 2-6) was for undergradu-
ate students and national park rangers and was
held at one of the most beautiful parks of Chile
the “Puyehue
National Park”
which is sur-
rounded by vol-
canoes (though
these were
barely visible
because of the
weather). Javier
Labra, adminis-
trator of the
park, provided
lodging for the
teachers. Dr.
Fred Andrews,
Sergio Ocares,
and Takumasa
Kondo helped
the students
during the labs.
Once again, rain was always with us, but the en-
thusiasm and eagerness of students (Kat Allen,
Ivalú Avila, Erica Benavides, Barbara Bravo,
Marcos Diaz) and the park rangers (José Lopez,
Luis Santibañez, Eduardo Mora, Nicolás
Pacheco, José Gayozo, Luis Briones, Nelson
Navarro, and Alvaro Marin) kept the workshop
lively. The course ended happily with consider-
able applause from the students while they re-
ceived their diplomas and, at the same time,
enjoyed a great BBQ and wine at the park Ca-
sino.
Diana collecting spiders with Ivalú in Chiloé
5
The Mekong is widely considered to be the
most important river in the world in terms of
the number of people—estimated at 50 mil-
lion—that depend on it for their survival through
rice production and fishing. This region is a
known biodiversity “hot spot” for mollusks, and
the drainage contains higher fish diversity than
any others except the Amazon and the Congo.
However, remarkably little is known about the
freshwater insect fauna that occurs there.
In March I spent three weeks collecting
aquatic invertebrates in all eleven sub-
catchments of the basin as it flows through Laos,
Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. This was
part of a project to assess the overall environ-
mental quality of the Mekong to develop moni-
toring programs to evaluate the effects of the
large (up to 100-stories tall) dams being built in
Tibet in the upper parts of the river. Working
with a team of a dozen nationals from each of
these “riparian” countries, we quantitatively sur-
veyed the main channel and littoral bottom
MMMMMEKEKEKEKEKONGONGONGONGONG D D D D DELELELELELTTTTTAAAAA B B B B BLLLLLUEUEUEUEUESSSSS
- Dr. Vincent Resh
fauna, along with conducting studies of the dia-
toms, water chemistry, and photosynthetic pig-
ments. The large burrowing mayflies and the
blood-red chironomid midge larvae were visu-
ally striking against the sand and mud that com-
pose the typical river bottom. Odonates (drag-
onflies and damselflies), trichopterans
(caddisflies), and dipterans (true flies) were nu-
merically dominant in the samples, especially
those in the littoral zones.
The Mekong region is not industrially de-
veloped and much of the sewage does not flow
into the river but
a c t u a l l y flows to
wetlands because of
the levees that natu-
rally form during the
a n n u a l f l o o d s .
C o n s e - q u e n t l y,
the river is not the
t y p i c a l p o l l u te d
waterway many ex-
pect to oc- cur in
Asia. Fu- ture trips
are planned and I will keep you informed of our
results through the Essig Bulletin.
Thone Falls
Mekong River braiding through Cambodia and Laos
Taking samples
6
use of new space adjacent to the UC Museum
of Paleontology. Use of this space by the Essig
has now been approved by the UC administra-
tion, and we hope to move the museum within
the next 12-18 months.
The faculty associated with the Essig Mu-
seum are continuing to grow; Cherie Briggs and
Eileen Hebets recently joined the Essig Museum
as faculty curators. Dr. Briggs is an associate pro-
fessor in the Department of Integrative Biology
(IB). Her research combines theoretical models
with laboratory or field observations and experi-
ments to understand the factors affecting the
dynamics of animal populations. Current
projects examine intraguild predation in orchard
crop systems, focusing on the pear psylla, and
coexistence of multiple parasitoid species on the
gall-forming midge, Rhopalomyia californica.
Dr. Hebets is an assistant professor in the
Department of Environmental Science, Policy,
and Management. Her research examines the
evolution and function of complex signaling,
with an emphasis on inter- and intra-specific
communication among arachnids. Her current
research focuses on (1) complex signal
evolution in the wolf spider genus Schizocosa, (2)
sexual selection as a potential driving force in
the rapid diversification of jumping spiders on
the sky islands of Southeastern Arizona, and (3)
sensory ecology, neurobiology and behavior of
amblypygids (Arachnida).
The Essig Museum was been intensely in-
volved in a grant across the Berkeley Natural His-
tory Museums to encourage graduate students
associated with the museums to work together
with local schools. Beginning in September 2003,
graduate students worked with Pittsburg and
Richmond high schools, with the high school
students collecting plants, arthropods and other
natural history objects during field trips and
studying their collections together with those
held in our museums. In addition to learning
various field collection, observation, and census
techniques, the students have been trained to
keep field notes and collection records, to prop-
erly preserve and label specimens, and to use
field guides and keys to identify organisms. In-
cluded among the specimens collected and cata-
logued are >1,000 arthropods, 85 plants, and 20
other items (mammal scat, skulls, skins, etc).
They are now actively adding records to our da-
tabase for the materials they have collected.
“Director” - continued from page 1
Dr. Cherie Briggs Dr. Eileen Hebets
7
Next year, we will be joined by additional
schools, including Berkeley High School; Adams
Middle School, Richmond; Bret Harte Middle
School, Oakland; and Hillview Junior High
School, Pittsburg; and possibly Willard, Martin
Luther King, and Longfellow middle schools in
Berkeley.
Gordon Nishida has been working hard on
databasing
and geo-
referenc-
ing the
E s s i g
Museum
c o l l e c -
tion, with
the si-
m u l t a -
n e o u s
goal of
providing
a data-
base for
the insects of California. He is currently enter-
ing data for all the aphids in the museum. This
group serves to highlight the value of a fully
databased collection in terms of understanding
distributions, and how these have changed over
space and time (see http://bnhm. berkeley. mu-
seum/query/index.php). In addition, he has been
working with Ginger Ogle and Joyce Gross from
the UC Berkeley Digital Library Project to de-
velop the “Exploring California Biodiversity Da-
tabase” (http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/gk12/). This
database serves the students from the GK12
project specifically, and allows them to enter the
data and query the database by family, locality,
school, or collector.
We have established a graduate student cu-
ratorial assistantship for the Essig Museum. This
year the assistantship was offered to Peter
Oboyski. Pete works on the systematics and evo-
lutionary biology of Hawaiian moths in the ge-
nus Cydia (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). Caterpil-
lars of these moths feed in seeds, under bark,
and in twigs of legumes native to Hawaii, and
are the most important insect food resource to
Palila, an endangered Hawaiian honeycreeper.
Dr. Kip Will, the Associate Director of the
m u s e u m ,
has contin-
ued to con-
duct very
successful
col lect ing
trips as part
of our Sur-
vey of Cali-
fornia Spi-
ders and In-
sects (see
E x p e d i -
tions). Kip
also orga-
nized the Third Annual celebration of Darwin
Day, hosted by the Essig Museum, and attended
by many scientists associated with museums
from throughout the Bay Area, including U.C.
Davis.
As with many other museums nationwide,
the budget of the Essig Museum has endured
further cuts this fiscal year because of the State
budget crises. However, we hope that with the
growing interest in the collection and our now
extended curatorial faculty actively working on
its development, we can recoup the financial
losses to some extent through other gains. Cer-
tainly the many activities going on give us little
time to dwell on financial uncertainties!
I look forward to talking with you during
the next year. Please contact me at anytime by
email ([email protected]) or
phone 510-642-3345.
“Director” - continued from page 6
Sean Schoville (left), a GK12 graduate student fellow, gives Richmond High School students a
8
GGGGGRANTSRANTSRANTSRANTSRANTS
Several important grants were garnered by
Essig Museum researchers this past year. Gradu-
ate student Rebecca Carter was awarded a Na-
tional Science Foundation Graduate Student
Fellowship for her work on Argyrodes spiders.
She will be studying how these spiders, which
are kleptoparasites in the webs of other spiders,
modify their behaviors in response to different
host spiders.
Dr. Robert Dudley received the National
Geographic Society Research Grant for his study
of “Optimal migration in butterflies: quantify-
ing the aerodynamic power curves for flight,”
along with his co-investigator R.B. Srygley.
Dr. George Roderick received a $0.5m
grant from the National Science Foundation to
use insect collections for the study of invasive
species. The project will benefit the fields of
natural science, agriculture, and biosecurity, and
will also provide web-accessible information on
alien invasive species for students, researchers,
and policy makers. The grant is a combined ef-
fort of George Roderick, Gordon Nishida, and
John Deck. Says Roderick, “Not only does the
grant make sense for California, it demonstrates
clearly the value of the Berkeley Natural His-
tory Collections for the campus.
From January 2003 through June 2004, the
Essig Museum hosted over 550 visitors for re-
search (100+), educational tours, or events.
Events included the annual meeting of the Lepi-
doptera Society - Pacific Slope in January, and
Darwin Day in February. The museum hosted
tours for several university classes (General En-
tomology, Biology of Tropical Islands, Natural
History of Insects, Introduction to Conserva-
MMMMMUSEUMUSEUMUSEUMUSEUMUSEUM VVVVVISITORSISITORSISITORSISITORSISITORS
1616161616THTHTHTHTH I I I I INTERNNTERNNTERNNTERNNTERNAAAAATIONTIONTIONTIONTIONALALALALAL C C C C CONGREONGREONGREONGREONGRESSSSSSSSSS OFOFOFOFOF
AAAAARARARARARACHNOLOGYCHNOLOGYCHNOLOGYCHNOLOGYCHNOLOGY INININININ G G G G GHENTHENTHENTHENTHENT, B, B, B, B, BELGIUMELGIUMELGIUMELGIUMELGIUM
This past August 2-7th, seven Essig Museum
associates presented findings at the 16th Interna-
tional Congress of Arachnology, in Ghent, Bel-
gium. Rosemary Gillespie presented a talk in a
special symposium on island evolution entitled
“Evolution of spiders on oceanic islands: The ven-
ture of few and the gain of many.” George
Roderick presented “Lava flow vs. gene flow: habi-
tat fragmentation and genetic diversification in
Hawaiian Tetragnatha spiders,” a project carried
out in collaboration with his recently graduated
Ph.D. student, Amy Vandergast. Two of Dr.
Gillespie’s students gave talks on their research -
Sarah Crews spoke on “Evolutionary insights from
the disjunct distribution of the salt flat endemic
spider Saltonia incerta (Banks) (Aranaea:
Dictynidae) in the Southwestern US” and Joe
Spanga discussed “Molecular phylogenetics and
cribellum evolution in RTA-clade spiders.”
New Insect Biology faculty member Eileen
Hebets’ lab was represented by herself, graduate
student Nicole VanderSal, and postdoctoral re-
searcher Andrew Spence. They presented talks
on “The influence of early experience on adult
female mate choice in the wolf spider Schizocosa
uetzi,” “The effect of vibratory cues on jumping
spider color discrimination learning,” and “Pre-
liminary neuro-ethological studies of the whip
spider Phrynus marginemaculatis (Arachnida,
Amblypigi),” respectively.
-Joe Spagna, PhD candidate
tion and Resource Studies, and Insects and Hu-
man Society), as well as several Bay Area high
school classes.
9
In February of this year I received an e-mailmessage explaining that the BBC and Sir DavidAttenborough would be working on a new televisionseries on terrestrial invertebrates: Life in theUndergrowth. One hour of this five hour series wouldinvolve interactions between insects and otherspecies, and they hoped to include some interestinginsect galls. A British colleague of mine hadrecommended Neuroterus saltatorius (Hymenoptera:Cynipidae), the jumping gall, and recommended meas a local contact. When I gave them someinformation about when and where they should planto film this fascinating insect, little did I realize thatI was signing up to be a “gall wrangler.”
The unisexual generation of N. saltatorius formsa spherical gall on the underside of Valley Oak(Quercus lobata) leaves in California.These galls abscise from the leaves inmid to late summer, while the insectinside is still larval, and bounce on anyhard surface they encounter. This“jumping” eventually gains them aniche in a soft covering of detritus ora crack in the hard valley soil. If theydo not find a crevice or soft niche,they continue to jump for up to threedays. The distances moved by thesetiny galls, less than one millimeter in diameter, ismuch greater relative to their body size than that ofthe famous Mexican Jumping Bean, propelled by thelarva of the tortricid moth Cydia deshaisiana.
There are several hypotheses explaining whythese larval Neuroterus wasps expend so much energyto do this. One idea is that the galls are escapingparasitoids, a major concern since as many as 97%of the galls in my samples have been parasitized byAmphidocius schickae (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae).This probably does not explain their jumping sinceI have reared pteromalid parasitoids from galls thatwere isolated after jumping only weeks before andthus must have already been parasitized when theyjumped. Other hypotheses include escape from theunrelenting summer sun or finding a warm protectedplace to overwinter. No studies to date haveinvestigated these possibilities.
My first assignment as a BBC Gall Wranglerwas to help them film an adult female cynipid
emerging from the gall. This generally happens latein March and while I have reared the adult wasps inlittle gelatin capsules, I have never actually seen oneemerge. I had no idea whether this would happenin daylight or at night nor was I certain which of thefew jumping galls I had collected the previous fallhad gall-inducers (Neuroterus) or parasitoids in them.Knowing that only three percent of my galls werelikely to have the correct wasp inside, I carried all50 of my galls with me for a week, checking themwhenever I could. Still I was unable to observe thismiraculous emergence nor get the cameraman tothe correct gall in time.
Observed or not, this spring, many Neuroterussaltatorius females emerged from galls in soil and leaflitter. They found their ways to sprouting oak leavesand carefully laid their eggs in the tissue on the uppersurface of the leaves. When larvae emerged fromthese eggs, their secretions induced the oak to form
tiny bumps, plant galls formed of planttissue, which included separate larvalchambers and rapidly dividingnutritive tissue for the growing wasplarva to consume. Within little over amonth, these larvae grew to adulthoodand both males and females (of thisbisexual generation) emerged in thelate spring. They mated and thefemales laid all female eggs in tissueon the underside of oak leaves.
These emerging larvae induced the formationof spherical jumping galls. In early July the BBCsent a film crew to my home in Stockton, California,from Tucson, Arizona. I went out with the film crewand discovered to my horror that there were hardlyany unisexual generation galls on Valley Oaks thissummer. A month later I had to collect from manydifferent oak trees with help from three otherpeople, to get enough galls to be impressive for thecamera. (In most years thousands fall on the groundnaturally making an impressive sight.) At the sametime, my galls had to be fresh enough (not more thanthree days old) so that they still jumped high. Icollected about three thousand galls in early Augustand flew to Tucson to meet Attenborough and hisBritish film crew. As I sat on the airplane, checkingthe small cloth sack of galls in my carry on luggage,I found that the galls were not jumping. Had theyall become old and begun to pupate?Would I have any galls to “wrangle” for
GGGGGALLALLALLALLALL WWWWWRANGLINGRANGLINGRANGLINGRANGLINGRANGLING FFFFFOROROROROR THETHETHETHETHE M M M M MOOOOOVIEVIEVIEVIEVIESSSSS
- Dr. Kathy Schick, Curatorial Assistant
Jumping gall on oak
10
2003-2004 FRIENDS OF THE ESSIG MUSEUM
MMMMMonetaronetaronetaronetaronetary Gifts:y Gifts:y Gifts:y Gifts:y Gifts:
Grand Benefactor - Virginia Ingham (Michelbacher Fund), Evert Schlinger
Benefactor - Anonymous
Sponsor - Bill Shepard
Patrons - Maurice & Catherine Tauber
Donors - Henry Hespenheide, Paul DaSilva
Specimen Donations:Specimen Donations:Specimen Donations:Specimen Donations:Specimen Donations:
Leo Caltagirone, Gil Challet, Daniel Curoe, Bryan Eya, Scott Haskins, Ron Leuschner, Julio
Micheli, Felipe Noguera, Doug Post, Jack Powers, Kelly Richers, Bill Shepard, Andrew Short,
Mark Stromberg (for Hastings Natural History Reservation), Maurice & Catherine Tauber,
Ron Wielgus
Other Donations (EOther Donations (EOther Donations (EOther Donations (EOther Donations (Equipment, Books):quipment, Books):quipment, Books):quipment, Books):quipment, Books):
Rolf Aalbu, John & Kathy Schick, Bill Shepard
VVVVVoluntoluntoluntoluntolunteer Ceer Ceer Ceer Ceer Curururururatatatatatororororors:s:s:s:s:
Coleoptera - Chuck Bellamy (Buprestidae), Scott Haskins (Scarabaeidae), Jen Jacobs
(Carabidae), Rex Kenner (Haliplidae, Gyrinidae), Doug Post (Dytiscidae), Rob Roughley
(Dytiscidae), Bill Shepard (Coleoptera & minor orders)
Diptera - Jose Manuel Ayala
Heteroptera - Dimitri Forero (Reduviidae), Christiane Weirauch (Reduviidae)
Hymenoptera - Richard Bohart (Sphecidae)
Lepidoptera - Marc Epstein (Limacodidae), Kelly Richers (moths)
the film crew? I must admit to near panic as wecircled Tucson before landing.
Once I arrived in Tucson, I used the tray underthe ice bucket in my hotel room to test the jumpingcapability of my galls. I soon discovered that theycould be irritated (being bounced) into jumping. Thisirritation must also happen as one jumping gallbumps another and a chain reaction of jumpersresults. What a relief! I proudly sheltered my gallsfrom the killing desert sun, producing them for eachof the many “takes” of each scene in this nature film.And they performed beautifully while the film crewexplained to me that I was now an official “gallwrangler.”
Because the film crew had been away fromLondon for two weeks, most of the
time in Australia, they avoided an
extra trip to Sacramento by filming California gallsin a Tucson neighborhood. A week later acameraman travelled to Stockton to get morepictures of these galls in their native habitat. Sadly,even though it was only a week later, by that timemy freshly-collected galls were not jumping nearlyso high and I had to irritate them much more thanthe previous week’s film stars. But we did manageto get some great film shots of galls falling off leavesand wonderful scenes of parasitoids examining gallson the leaves.
And in helping cameramen film theseinteresting wasps inside their galls, I inadvertentlydiscovered more about their biology. I hope somedayto add this new knowledge to further research andfinally explain the jumping behavior perhaps evenbefore this series is finally released in October
2005.
Gall Wrangling - continued from page 9
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Second Annual Essig Museum Collecting Trip (June 2003) to UCBerkeley, Angelo (North Coast) Reserve, Mendocino County.From left to right: (standing) Bob Zuparko, Marie Franc, CherylBarr, Jerry Powell, Roberta Brett (Cal Academy),Kip Will, Joe Spanga, (seated) Steve Lew, PeteOboyski, Kathy Schick.
HHHHHISTORICISTORICISTORICISTORICISTORIC C C C C COLLECTIONOLLECTIONOLLECTIONOLLECTIONOLLECTION FRFRFRFRFROMOMOMOMOM
HHHHHASTINGSASTINGSASTINGSASTINGSASTINGS N N N N NAAAAATURALTURALTURALTURALTURAL H H H H HISTORISTORISTORISTORISTORYYYYY
RRRRREEEEESERSERSERSERSERVVVVVAAAAATIONTIONTIONTIONTION AAAAACQUIREDCQUIREDCQUIREDCQUIREDCQUIRED
A large collection of insects on microscope
slides housed at the Hastings Natural History
Reservation was packed and moved to the Essig
Museum of Entomology by Cheryl Barr (Mu-
seum Scientist) and Bill Shepard (Visiting
Scholar) on October 18, 2003. Most of the col-
lection, compiled by resident researcher Betty
Davis from the 1930’s to 1960’s, is comprised of
rodent parasites. In addition, there are some
slides of plant-feeding insects such as aphids and
thrips. The collection of approximately 7,200
slides, which for the most part consists of iden-
tified specimens that are in excellent condition,
is an invaluable record of the Hastings
Resevation insect fauna and an important taxo-
nomic resource.
Dr. Caroline Chaboo (Ph.D. Cornell, chry-
somelid systematics) has recently joined the lab
of Dr. Kip Will. She will be working on the
molecular systematics and chemical ecology of
leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae).
MMMMMOREOREOREOREORE N N N N NEWEWEWEWEW F F F F FAAAAACECECECECESSSSS AAAAATTTTT THETHETHETHETHE E E E E ESSIGSSIGSSIGSSIGSSIG
Two new volunteers joined the Essig this
fall. Duane Frybarger of San Francisco and An-
drea Freeman of Forestville have begun volun-
teering their assistance at the museum. So far
they have done tasks such as adding locality la-
bels to specimens, counting specimens in a gift,
moving pinned specimens from shippers into
units and bracing large orthopterans preparatory
to our move. With their help we hope to de-
crease our labeling backlog soon.
CCCCCOLLECTINGOLLECTINGOLLECTINGOLLECTINGOLLECTING TTTTTRIPRIPRIPRIPRIP 2003 2003 2003 2003 2003
12
Essig Museum of Entomology
201 Wellman Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-3112
Mailing Address:
UUUUUPCOMINGPCOMINGPCOMINGPCOMINGPCOMING E E E E EVENTSVENTSVENTSVENTSVENTS
* February 12, 2005 - Wellman Hall, 3rd floor.
Darwin Day Celebration - diplays,
drinks and birthday cake.
* April 16, 2005 - Wellman Hall, 2nd floor.
CalDay - displays, lectures, and fun.
* June 2005 - 4th Annual Collecting Trip
Time and place to be determined
And don’t forget to drop by for Museum
Coffee, Fridays during the school year at
10:00 a.m. upstairs in the Essig Museum in
Wellman Hall.
EEEEESSIGSSIGSSIGSSIGSSIG M M M M MUSEUMUSEUMUSEUMUSEUMUSEUM OFOFOFOFOF E E E E ENTOMNTOMNTOMNTOMNTOMOLOGYOLOGYOLOGYOLOGYOLOGY
Director: Rosemary Gillespie
Assistant Director: Kipling Will
Collections Manager: Cheryl Barr
Bulletin Editor: Rebecca Carter
Co-editor: Peter Oboyski
For more information and up to date events
listings check the Essig Museum website :
http://essig.berkeley.edu