If you're concerned about the global decline of insects--and you should be--you won't want to miss the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar by Professor Nathan Rank of the Department of Entomology and Nematology.
He will speak on "Local Adaptation and Population Persistence in a Montane Leaf Beetle" at 12:10 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5 in 122 Briggs Hall and also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672
"Insect populations are experiencing significant declines in many parts of the globe," he says in his abstract. "This is a concern for ecologists because insects are important to ecosystem integrity and concern is growing among members of the public, who are becoming aware of the value of insect diversity and the extent to which insects are an important component of the natural world. I study a case of insect decline in the mountains of California as part of my investigations of ecological and genetic factors mediating the population biology of the montane leaf beetle Chrysomela aeneicollis."
"In this talk, I will review my long-term research on the evolutionary ecology of these beetles and their natural enemies," he continued. "I will explore factors that are associated with population growth versus decline. I will also describe the California Conservation Genomics Project, a statewide effort to identify hot spots of biological diversity across California and inform efforts by land managers and policy makers to plan for responses to impending environmental change. Finally, I will describe a case study of an investigation of genomic variation among California populations of C. aeneicolli."
Host Rachel Vannette, professor and vice-chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, says that Professor Rank "has worked on genetics and adaptation of insects including leaf beetles, global change, pathogen and microbiome dynamics of insects and pests, and also developing scientific 'data nugget' educational materials. See more here and here."
A UC Davis alumnus, Rank received his doctorate in zoology in 1990 and did postdoctoral research at the Free University of Brussels (Belgium), and the University of Basle (Switzerland). He was an assistant professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland) for nearly three years until joining the Sonoma State University faculty in 1995.
His research interests include evolutionary ecology, population and evolutionary genetics, coevolution. and plant-herbivore-enemy Interactions.
Of his research program, Rank says on his website: "I am interested in ecological interactions among plants and their herbivores and pathogens, and in the adaptive significance of genetic variation in natural populations of insects. Since 1984, I have studied populations of the leaf beetle Chrysomela aeneicollis in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, focusing first on effects of insect predators on host plant suitability, and then on population and genetic responses to thermal variation in montane populations. I have also collaborated with researchers in Europe on plant-herbivore interactions in related insects. Finally, I am interested in effects of invasive species on native ecological communities. Ongoing work in this area focuses on the invasive pathogen Phytophthera ramorum, which has spread through Sonoma County woodlands since 2000.
For any Zoom issues, contact seminar coordinator Marshall McMunn at msmcmunn@ucdavis.edu.
And if you're a bumble bee scientist or enthusiast, yes, he's the entomologist who found the dead rusty-patched bumble bee in Kalamazoo, Mich., last August when he was on vacation visiting with his family. He said he came across the endangered species in his mother's driveway. "The rusty-patched bumble bee was the first bee to be put on the endangered species list in 2017, and has been thought to be locally extinct from Michigan for more than 25 years," a Sonoma State University spokesperson said.
His discovery was detailed on
- CBS News Detroit: https://share.google/rOHwmV85JMXVqbFuv
- Michigan Live: https://www.mlive.com/environment/2025/08/incredibly-rare-bumble-bee-ghost-reappears-in-michigan-after-25-years.html
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/548620218
- USFWS LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/usfws_rare-bee-sighting-a-rusty-patched-activity-7363917897510895617-fu33/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAA6VC5EBmG6xBEKwalQxpYT1u3chF42Qwyc
Cover image:
This is the montane leaf beetle, Chrysomela aeneicollis, that Professor Nathan Rank of Sonoma State University studies. It is feeding on Salix orestera, a species of willow known by the common name Sierra willow, or gray-leafed Sierra willow. This image was July 2, 2009 at Bull Lake in the Bishop Creek drainage of California. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)