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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 (gillespi@nature.berkeley.edu) 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

11

BECOME A FRIEND OF THE ESSIG MUSEUM

Your gift to the Essig Museum of Entomology helps support our collections

___________________________________________

Name

__________________________________________

Address

___________________________________________

City State Zip

__________________________________________

Phone Email

_____ Distinguished Benefactor $100,000

_____ Grand Benefactor $10,000

_____ Benefactor $1000

_____ Sponsor $500

_____ Patron $100

_____ Donor $25

Please make checks payable to UC Regents with an annotation, “For the Essig Museum.” Mail your check

and this form to: Essig Museum of Entomology, 201 Wellman Hall, Berkeley CA 94720-3112

All membership fees and donations are tax-deductible to the limit allowed by law.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

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