We are delighted to share the awesome research happening in the Russo Lab at the annual Entomological Society of America this year! Here's a snapshot of what everyone's presenting. Dr. Laura Russo:Dr. Anne F. Murray:Amani Khalil:Devon Eldridge:Nick Oldham:
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Although we're focused on just vacuuming up pollinators that visit our flowering native plants for our Feed A Bee project, there are so many cool things living in our plots!
From top left to right: Cicada, Ambush bug, Dr. Russo's cool hat and a huge Helianthus occidentalis leaf with a weird face. From bottom left to right: Several awesome Geometridae moth larvae, a tiny tree frog, and a hidden mantis! With conferences going virtual this year, Dr. Russo was asked to make a short video introduction of her work. Naturally, we made it a team thing. Happy to announce the addition of Postdoctoral Research Associate, Anne Murray to the Russo Lab. Her specialty is in chemical ecology and she's our greenhouse guru. She'll be playing working bee, collecting pollen and nectar from our Feed A Bee plants. Here's a picture of her in action, collecting nectar from Physostegia leptophylla, Late Obedient Plant, in a Mint plot at the Plateau AgResearch Center in Crossville, TN.
The Russo Lab was invited to assist with an ongoing effort to sample and identify bee species in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We also were given a personal tour of the insect collections. Some specimens were over 100 years old! Master's students Devon Eldridge (left) and Amani Khalil (right) After years of entomology field work, Dr. Russo can spot and name all sorts of things most folks don't notice. As proof of her hawk eyes, we were sampling in the field one hot, sweaty afternoon and she yells "It's a stylopized wasp! I need it!" Without thinking, I take off running to vacuum up a flying wasp that had been serving as a host to Strepsitera parasites.
Strepsitera are their own insect order and feed on living hosts, like wasps. The wasp in the chamber has a wonky abdomen where the Strepsitera are living. The bottom images are the reared out results. One of our most popular sites is the UT Gardens. This location serves as our urban site for the Feed A Bee study. It's 5 acres of beautiful flowers right on UT's Knoxville campus! Our plants are very, very happy there. Here's proof! Here's the Mint plot at the UT Gardens. Pictured/ hidden on the left is Destiny Matheson and on the right, Amani Khalil. It's not a visit to the Plateau without a picture of these ladies enjoying a sunny day at the Plateau AgResearch Center. Blue skies and green grass. We love field season. Here's another beautiful site at the Organic Farm just south of campus. Below is a picture of the Asteracae plot. Happy sunflowers!
The Combination plot (two species per plant family) at the UT Arboretum has 3 out of 6 plants flowering! We chose to have a garden that represented all three study plant families to test whether mixing up the floral community affected pollinator visitation. Here are a few pollinators we found on the plants. From left to right: Combination plot, Baptisia albescens with a hardworking bumble visiting, and a beetle eating up some Lanceleaf Coreopsis pollen.
One of Dr. Russo’s bee related interests is the microbiome of ground nesting bee nests. How deep do you think a bee can dig in hard, rocky soil? I’ll tell you, it’s way deeper than you think. I found a series of Andrena nests while walking around a local mountain biking trail called Forks of the River Wildlife Management Area in Knoxville. I immediately sent the pictures to Dr. Russo and the next day we spent over 7 hours (!!!) digging up an Andrena nest looking for any pollen that the female bee brought to her nest. We were close, but after about 35 inches, we encountered a large boulder, and the bee dug along the side of the rock making it challenging for us to follow her nest. We heard buzzing, but no hardworking lady in sight. Sadly, we went home empty handed, but with a new appreciation for these ladies. If that doesn’t sound deep, it’s the equivalent of a human digging 380ft with their bare hands (Dr. Russo did the math 😊 ) . Top left: Two nest entrances I found on the trail. Evidence to send to Dr. Russo
Top right: Another piece of evidence for Dr. Russo. Look at that bee booty! Bottom left: We started digging and following her trail with blue chalk. Bottom right: Our progress after 7 hours.... Two more plants started flowering in the Feed A Bee plots! Another mint plant, Blephilia subnuda, and one of our asters, Coreopsis lanceolata! We'll begin pollinator collections on these beauties throughout the entirety of their flowering period. From left to right: Blephilia subnuda, Cumberland Woodmint. Coreopsis lanceolata, Lanceleaf Coreopsis.
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