Tom Turpin adding levity to the Linnaean Games. Note the butterfly-shaped tie.

Until recently, praying mantids were thought to be deaf.  We now know that 65 percent of all mantid species can hear.  Where do the tympanal organs occur in mantid species?

Give up?

The answer: The two tympanal membranes face one another inside a narrow groove between the metathoracic legs (hind legs).

That was just one of the questions asked at the 2011 Linnaean Games, a traditional part of the annual meetings of the Entomological Society of America (ESA).  It's a spirited college-bowl type of game in which students respond by ringing a bell and shouting out the answers. The winning team receives a huge trophy--and bragging rights.

The UC Davis Linnaean Team, fresh from winning the ESA Pacific Branch championship, journeyed to Reno to compete in this year's Games. Like the other branch winners, UC Davis was there not just to compete, but to have fun and enjoy the camaraderie.

Fun, they did. For the occasion, emcee Tom Turpin, professor of entomology at Purdue, wore his trademark butterfly bow tie. His sharp eyes quickly noticed the bright red bow tie of UC Davis graduate student Matan Shelomi.

So Turpin leaves the podium and walks over to Shelomi to congratulate him on his fashionable choice of ties. The audience erupts into applause. 

Then, let the Games begin! When it was all over, the University of Nebraska took home the trophy.

In the championship game, pitting Nebraska against North Carolina State, it was touch-and-go for awhile until Nebraska pulled solidly ahead.

Think you can answer some of the questions? Give them a try. (Answers below)

1.If you donate blood, you are asked about your exposure to babesiosis.  What is the common name of the arthropod group that is the main vector of this disease?

2. What is the term for the separation of the cuticle from the epidermis during  molting?

3. What does acuminate mean?

4. What is the common and scientific name of the beetle described by LeConte that is a significant pest of corn and was introduced into Europe in the 1990s.  The larvae feed on corn roots.

5. What is the meaning of rugose?

6. Most ants use chemical trailing to navigate to and from the nest.  However, as a result of high winds and blowing sand, ants that inhabit dessert environments use a different mechanism.  How do desert ants find their way?

7. What is the name of insecticidal extract derived from dried chrysanthemum           flowers and what chemical is typically added as a synergist to help the performance of this material?

Answers:

1. Ticks
2. Apolysis
3. Tapering to a long point.
4. Western Corn Rootworm  (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera)
5. Wrinkled
6. They have the ability to count steps.  A recent study experimentally altered the length of ant legs after their search for food.  They found that ants with longer legs overshot the nest while ants with their legs shortened didn’t go all the way back to the nest.  They then placed all the ants in the nest, and the next day all ants went out in search of food and came exactly back to the nest, showing that desert ants have some kind of pedometer. Source:  http://www.entsoc.org/buzz/ants-count
7. Pyrethrum – Piperonyl butoxide.

Quick! What's the answer to this question?

"I am a blood feeder; I have no hair but have a comb. What am I?"

That was the final question posed when the University of California, Davis competed Monday night with the University of Hawai-Manoa team for the championship of the Linnaean Games, Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America (PBESA).

The Linaean Games are college bowl-type games featuring questions about insects, entomologists and entomological facts. Each branch of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) can send two teams to the nationals. This year ESA meets in Reno Nov. 13-16.

So, UC Davis and the University of Hawaii are in a dead heat at the PBESA meeting in Hawaii. Tied game. Buzzers ready. And then comes that final question. "What am I?"

"A flea," Emily Symmes of the UC Davis team correctly answers.

Yes, a flea! A flea, indeed.

Emily Symmes, who is studying for her doctorate with major professor Frank Zalom, joined the winners' circle with her fellow teammates who also did equally well: Matan Shelomi, studying for his doctorate with major profesor Lynn Kimsey; Meredith Cenzer, studying for her doctorate with major professor Louie Yang; and James Harwood, studying for his doctorate with major professor James R. Carey.

Winning at the branch level is indeed an accomplishment, as well as a fun endeavor. The PBESA encompasses 11 U.S. states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming); several U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands; and  parts of Canada and Mexico.

If you've never been to any of the Linnaean Games, you can see videos online by Googling "Linnaean Games." See if you can answer those questions.

Might be another question about fleas in there, too.

The industrious honey bee buzzed around a lot during the Linnaean Games at the Entomological Society of America’s recent meeting in San Diego.

Not the honey bee itself—questions about the honey bee.

The Linnaean Games, a college-bowl type quiz featuring insects, entomologists and entomological facts, drew nine teams, with Ohio State University defeating the Univesity of Nebraska in the championship game.

But back to the bees.  One of the questions asked was: “The monarch (butterfly) is actually the second most popular state insect. What insect is the most frequently adopted state insect?”

You guessed it—the honey bee.

Another time the Linnaean judging panel posted a photo on the screen and asked the Linnaean teams: “Considering this pest of honey bee hives, what is its common name and the family to which it belongs?”

It was the small hive beetle, Nitidulidae.

Can you answer these questions? (Answers at the end)

1. The order name Hymenoptera can be interpreted as meaning “membranous wing” or “married wing,” which refers to the way the front and hind wings of bees and wasps are linked by little hooks.  What is the name of these hooks?

2. How many eyes does a honey bee have?

3. Problems with honey bee hives in what state led to the recognition of colony collapse disorder?

4. What Greek city state used the honey bee as a symbol on its coins?

5. In apiculture, what is the term used to describe the dark discoloration on the surface of comb honey left on the hive for some time, caused by bees tracking propolis over the surface?

Answers:

1. Hamuli, which are the leading edge of the hind wing.

2. Five: two compound and three ocelli

3. Pennsylvania

4. Ephesus

5. Travel stain

If you got all five right, you're probably an apiculturist. Three to four right, you probably keep bees. One to two right? You've (1) been around bees, (2) listen to the news, or (3) you're related to a beekeeper. Miss all five? You may want to take a course, read a book, or visit an apiary to learn more about these tiny agricultural workers.

Emcee Tom Turpin of Purdue University stood at the podium and acknowledged he might mispronounce an entomology student's name.  "If it sounds anything like your name and I’m looking at you, that’s you."

So began the Linnaean Games, a college-bowl type competition that's as lively as it is entertaining and educational.

And it's all about insects, entomologists and entomological facts.

The Linnaean Games, held at the annual Entomological Society of America (ESA) meeting, is an event that pits student-teams against one another until a winner is declared. The 2010 event, hosted in San Diego, ended with Ohio State University winning the championship.  

Students buzz in with the answers to questions such as:

What’s the loudest insect in the world? What is the egg case of a cockroach called? Kissing bugs, in the family Reduviidae, are vectors of what disease? About how long have insects been on earth?  Give three official common names for Helicoverpa zea.

Ohio State defeated UC Davis, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Georgia and finally, in the championship game, toppled the University of Nebraska. 

But first, the Ohio team of Joshua Bryant, Glene Mynhardt, Kaitlin Uppstrom and Nicola Gallagher had to get by the UC Davis team of Meredith Cenzer, Matan Shelomi, Andrew Merwin, and Ralph Washington.

As the crowd cheered them on, the two teams tied the score several times. Finally, with the score knotted at 90-90, Ohio correctly answered the final question to advance to the next round.

Tom Turpin of Purdue emceed the program while a trio of judges--J. E. McPherson of Southern Illinois University, Carol Annelli of Washington State University and Susan Weller of the University of Minnesota--scored the answers.

Each ESA branch sponsors a Linnaean Games competition and sends up to two teams to the nationals. 

Pacific Branch sent UC Davis and Washington State University.

Southeastern Branch: University of Georgia and University of Florida

Eastern Branch: Pennsylvania State University (University of Maryland also won at the branch level but did not participate in the nationals)

North Central Branch: Ohio State University and the University of Nebraska

Southwestern Branch: New Mexico State and Texas A&M

Answers to the above questions (see sixth paragraph):

Question:
What’s the loudest insect in the world?
Answer:
African cicada (Brevisana brevis); it has been measured at 106 decibels,  (equivalent to a gas mower at 3 feet away).

Question: 
What is the egg case of a cockroach called?
Answer:
Ootheca.

Question:
Kissing bugs, in the family Reduviidae, are vectors of what disease? Answer:
Chagas disease

Question:
About how long have insects been on earth?
Answer:
Some 400-380 million years ago.

Question:
Give three official common names for Helicoverpa zea?
Answer:
Corn earworm, tomato fruitworm, and cotton bollworm

Other questions and answers included:

Question:
Which sexes of cicadas have tymbals and which have tympana?
Answer:
Males have both. Females have only tympana.

Question:
What term is used to describe the antennae found on male mosquitoes? Answer:
Plumrose

Question:
Crickets are well-known music makers. What are the names of the two specialized structures that allow them to make that wonderful noise and where specifically on the body are they located?
Answer:
File and scraper, located on the forewings.

Question:
At what American school was the first entomology class taught and who was the teacher?
Answer: 
Harvard (1805-1822) W.D. Peck.

Question:
In the Amazon rain forest, what are the common names of two groups of insects that make up about 1/3 of the biomass of all animals in the habitat?
Answer:
Ants and termites.

Question:
Problems with honey bee hives in what state led to the recognition of colony collapse disorder?
Answer:
Pennsylvania

Question:
Name two orders of insects that are entirely predatory.
Answer:
Odonata and Mantodea

Question:
The monarch is actually the second-most popular state insect.  What insect is the most frequently adopted state insect?
Answer:
Honey bee.

Question:
Robert Frost wrote a poem that begins with the lines:  “An ant on a table cloth ran into a dormant moth of many times his size.”  As you might guess the poem is about ants.  What is the title of the poem?
Answer:
Departmental