Whether they’re identifying that strange bug in your garden, helping agricultural producers fight crop–destroying pests, or teaching young and old about the coolest attributes of our eight-legged friends, Colorado State University’s newest entomologists are showing how even the tiniest mite is a big deal to us and to our ecosystem.
Associate Professor Punya Nachappa
Insect vector/molecular biology
How did you become interested in entomology?
I’m originally from India, which is predominantly an agricultural country. I grew up on a coffee plantation in South India. That’s how I came to understand at a very young age about crop cultivation and pest management. But what’s interesting is that my father is actually a computer software engineer, and my mother teaches computer science. So, they didn’t actually rely on just farming because farming is extremely hard. They were very keen on us getting a good education and pursuing that route as well. In fact, I got some pushback because I wanted to pursue entomology, because at least in India the focus is on becoming a doctor or an engineer or something that’s a lot more financially attractive. But I love bugs, and the tropical countries have the biggest and most beautiful bugs in the world.
What is the focus of your research?
I’m an insect vector biologist. A vector is an insect that transmits a pathogen that causes a disease. A common example would be mosquitoes that carry the pathogen plasmodium, which causes malaria. Similarly, there are insects that transmit pathogens to plants. Aphids are one of the most prolific vectors of plant viruses that cause huge losses in many economically important crops. I study aphids, leaf hoppers, thrips — all of these teeny tiny insects that transmit pathogens to plants.
You lead the Wheat Entomology Program here at CSU. What are the biggest pest challenges facing wheat growers right now and how are you working to solve them?
The answer, sadly, has been the same pest over the last decade, and we still haven’t found the solution. It’s the wheat stem sawfly. The name suggests it’s a fly, but in fact, it’s a wasp. The female saw flies lay their eggs in the wheat stem and then the eggs hatch and then the larvae tunnel — actually I should say larva because there’s only one as they cannibalize each other, which is another cool story about them — but the larva will tunnel through and eat up the pith of the wheat. But interestingly, the wheat still looks pretty healthy, so the farmers have no clue what’s going on until fall when the wheat matures. The larva will travel down to the base of the stem, and essentially saw off the wheat making it really hard for growers to then harvest it. This leads to a loss in yield and the grain yield, as well. We don’t have insecticides that work really well on them and there are no natural enemies here. So, with no natural controls the problem has just ballooned out of proportion.
In the last three years that I’ve been overseeing the Wheat Entomology Program, we’ve been collaborating with the Wheat Breeding and Genetics Program. That’s been sort of the silver lining for the growers. The wheat breeders have developed wheat varieties that are able to prevent the lava from developing. Previously, all the stems were hollow, and that gave a lot of room for the lava to tunnel through. Now we have what we call semi-solid stems, where the stem is thick enough that it prevents the larva from growing but also allows the growers to have good yield. My team is also looking into insecticides and other approaches like crop rotation because those are also important parts of pest management strategy.
Last year, we found larvae in the stem that had a fungus growing in it. This is the first time we’ve seen a naturally infecting fungus — what we call an entomopathogenic fungus — that was infecting and killing the larva. This is a really exciting development and we’re working with plant pathologists to see what that could mean in the future.
It’s interesting, as you were talking about this problem that is so pervasive, you were still appreciating the amazingness of this pest that you’re working to rid from farmers’ fields.
The behaviors are so cool, and that’s what I love about this job. It’s just so fascinating. Recently, with all the rain we’ve been getting, the wheat is looking great right now, and one of my Ph.D. students came back from monitoring the sawflies and he showed me this caterpillar that turned out to be a new species of sawfly, a grass sawfly that we’ve never seen in this region before. Typically, it feeds on native grasses, but now it has moved on to wheat. I was so sad to give the growers this bad news that now we’ve got another sawfly to contend with, but it’s just so fantastic to see how they are adapting from native grasses to wheat. I have to admit I’m so excited to study this new species next year.
What is one of the biggest misconceptions about your research field that you would like to clear up?
When it comes to pest management, everybody wants a silver bullet, one solution that will take care of the problem. But that’s definitely not possible. Such as in the case of the wheat stem saw flies. Yes, we have resistant varieties, but that alone won’t solve the problem because saw flies will adapt. They will make smaller larvae that can do just fine, and we’re actually seeing this happening in some areas now. So, we really need a diversified toolkit that includes not only resistant varieties, but also insecticides and cultural controls. And all of this takes money and time and resources from the growers, so it can be a hard sell.
What is your favorite bug?
The Dragonfly. I have a tattoo of a dragonfly and they are the coolest insects. All of their behaviors from the territoriality to their mating behaviors is so fascinating. And if you’ve ever seen Dragonfly larvae — naiads that live in the water — they look like aliens. You can’t believe that out of that comes this beautiful dragonfly. But sadly, they don’t transmit any pathogens or cause any damage, so I don’t get to study them.
Assistant Professor and Director of the C.P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity Marek Borowiec
Insect systematics
How did you become interested in entomology?
I grew up in Poland, with both of my parents being biologists. My dad is also an entomologist, so I was exposed to this somewhat unusual occupation early on. For a long time, however, I resisted pursuing anything related to biology. It wasn’t until studying for “matura,” or the end of high school exam, that I got curious about evolution. Understanding a bit about how life evolved gave me profound satisfaction, and I just wanted to keep learning. As a freshman majoring in biology in college, I read “Naturalist,” the autobiography of E.O. Wilson. Wilson, who recently passed away, was one of the most famous modern entomologists. In his biography, he was describing how fieldwork in pursuit of ants was taking him around the globe. One day I collected some ants in a park and looked at them under a microscope. The weird appendages and intricacies of their anatomy up close were mind-blowing. I was hooked on insects, and on ants specifically.
Your research focus is “arthropod systematics.” What does that mean?
An arthropod systematist is someone who studies how the diversity of animals with jointed legs and hard outer skeleton is organized and how it evolved. Arthropod comes from Greek arthron “jointed” and podos, “leg.” With more than 1 million named species, arthropods are by far the largest group of animals. They include familiar things such as insects, crustaceans, centipedes and spiders, as well as a number of lesser-known critters. Systematists are biologists interested in the theory and practice of classifying organisms and discovering their evolutionary relationships. Many systematists are also taxonomists: researchers discovering and naming species.
Much of my work is figuring out the evolutionary relationships of insects. It’s much like genealogy, but on a larger scale: family trees for species and groups of species. We call these family trees phylogenies. I also have a strong interest in computing, software and AI, and how we can use them to better understand biodiversity. For example, building phylogenies often involves collecting huge amounts of genetic information and powerful statistics to make sense of it. I have written computer programs that make it easier for others to manipulate genetic data and get better results, faster. I’m also interested in how AI can make efficient and reliable identification of arthropods from photographs possible. Because there are so many insects, few people can identify very many of them, and no one person is an expert on all of them. This often makes identification slow and difficult, which is a problem for things like pest control.
What is the latest project for the C.P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity?
The museum is involved in several projects. iDigBees is a National Science Foundation-funded project to make specimens accessible to researchers worldwide through so-called digitization or posting transcribed label information and high-quality specimen images on–line. The museum is also heavily involved in Montana Moth Project, dedicated to better documenting moth diversity in this understudied state. This project contributes about 10,000 new specimens to our collection a year, each specimen expertly curated and identified by our resident moth expert and acting collection manager, Chuck Harp. We have more than 30 volunteers and interns working in the collection, involved in digitization, imaging, curation and cataloging of our library.
What is your favorite bug?
I get this question a lot, so you’d think I’d have a good answer by now. There are way too many cool bugs! I like Polyphemus moths because they are spectacular insects that you can find in a Colorado backyard. There are also many ant groups that I really like, mostly the ones that look the most otherworldly. One of my favorites are Strumigenys, which are found in soils and leaf litter in warm and tropical climates. There are hundreds of species, and they show huge variation and bizarre features such as trap jaws, scale-like hairs, spongiform tissues, etc.
Associate Professor Adrianna Szczepaniec
Horticultural entomology
How did you become interested in entomology?
My interests in entomology were very much acquired during my undergraduate degree — I did not grow up collecting insects. I was terrified of spiders as a kid, and they still are one of my least favorite arthropods. I was a transfer student at the University of Maryland when I took an introductory biology course taught by a very charismatic professor affiliated with the Department of Entomology. I decided to cold email every faculty in that department whose website information sounded interesting to me and inquire about a summer internship to figure out if I liked working in a lab. I was very fortunate that Professor Mike Raupp, who later became my Ph.D. adviser, was stepping down from the department chair position and was looking for someone to hire. Mike spent a lot of time with me that summer teaching me about horticultural entomology and experimental design, and really inspired my curiosity. It was a perfect blend of mentorship and independent study, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else after that summer. The rest, as they say, is history.
What is the focus of your research?
I am an applied entomologist, and my research is centered around addressing pest problems that affect plants that are important to us economically and aesthetically. In a way, I don’t look for research questions — they come to me. My lab applies principles of integrated pest management to discover diverse and sustainable ways to suppress the impact pests have on plants. I am also interested in mechanisms that drive the propensity of arthropods to erupt in managed landscapes in order to advance novel approaches to pest management.
You’re currently looking at the stem-boring fly species, Amauromyza karli. What do we know about this insect right now, and why is it so important that we learn more about it?
One of the most exciting things to me as an entomologist is the fact that we know so little about such a devastating pest — everything we learn is completely novel! This fly is not new to our continent but has become a key pest of quinoa as the acreage of this crop increased. Quinoa is an amazing crop — both because of its nutritional value but also because it is such a tough plant. Quinoa requires very little irrigation, can grow in poor soils, and is adapted to high elevation with its extreme temperature fluctuations. It is very well adapted to the conditions we are going to experience increasingly given changes in our weather patterns. Farmers in San Luis Valley in Colorado have steadily increased production of quinoa as a component of their potato rotation, until this fly began to devastate the crop two years ago. Unfortunately, we know very little about its biology or management. Stem-boring insects are notoriously difficult to suppress because they are well protected from their natural enemies and pesticides inside plant stems, so our approach has focused on exploring resistant varieties, planting date modifications in hope of escaping the highest fly pressure, and integration of some insecticidal control to buy the producers some time until we hone more sophisticated management tactics. We are also examining whether we can use beneficial fungi to establish within plants or in the soil and provide biological control of the flies. The importance of finding ways to manage this fly cannot be understated — if we do not solve this problem, we will not be able to grow quinoa as intensely as the producers need in order to make it a profitable crop.
What is one of the biggest misconceptions that the general public has about entomology or your research field that you would like to clear up?
I think the most important thing for folks to know is that most insects are not harmful and sometimes (this is especially true of home gardens) letting nature correct any imbalances (i.e., pest infestations) is the best approach. We should never strive for plants to be free of insects and mites — that is not a healthy ecosystem.
What is your favorite bug?
“Bug” is actually not the best word to use. There is a specific order, Hemiptera, and a suborder within it, Heteroptera, whose members are called “true bugs.” So, calling all insects “bugs” is inaccurate. Hemiptera, such as stink bugs or bed bugs, are bugs; Lepidoptera are moths and butterflies; Diptera are flies, etc. It’s like using the word “caterpillar” to describe all insects.
I actually have two favorite insects: parasitoid wasps that I admire from afar and enjoy looking at, and aphids that I really like to study. I absolutely love little, tiny wasps that parasitize other insects. They are very small, some the size of a period at the end of this sentence! Somehow these tiny creatures can ‘smell’ their prey — another insect capable of supporting the wasp’s larvae as they develop inside them. Some can even act as hyperparasitoids — detect another wasp larva already developing inside an insect and lay an egg inside that parasitoid to develop. That’s a pretty nifty trick! They are also very pretty. They have intricate wings with little hair at the edges, wild-looking antennae, and legs. A lot of these wasps parasitize aphids, my second favorite insect. Aphids have really incredible ways to evade plant defenses and attract the most diverse and abundant natural enemies, making any system where they are a key pest a fascinating one to study.
How did you become interested in entomology?
I didn’t realize I loved arthropods until college. My freshman year I took BSPM 102 Insects, Science and Society, and I completely fell in love with entomology.
As the director for CSU’s Bug Zoo, you travel to various schools and events teaching people about insects. What drew you to that role in particular?
I started participating in public outreach events at the end of high school through the Center for Snake Conservation. I absolutely love talking to people about the incredible animals we share the planet with, and being able to do that as a job is amazing!
Why are programs like the Bug Zoo so important, both for students who may be interested in pursuing entomology and those who aren’t?
I think that secretly, everyone loves bugs but just hasn’t been given the right space to realize it. Programs like the CSU Bug Zoo open the door for kids (and adults) to pursue something interesting that they may not have realized existed. There’s something for everyone in entomology, be it an interest in the future of sustainability or just looking at some neat creatures that live in your backyard.
What is one of the biggest misconceptions that the general public has about entomology or your research field that you would like to clear up?
There’s a ton of misinformation out there about insects and other arthropods in general. One of the biggest misconceptions that I think has a huge negative impact is the “gross” factor of insects. Many people believe insects are dirty, spread disease and don’t serve a purpose other than to be irritating. While some arthropods can spread diseases (like ticks and mosquitoes), a huge portion of arthropods serve absolutely zero threat to humans. Even the ones that do transmit diseases to humans and our favorite animals are still serving a purpose in their environment. There’s no need to squish a spider you find in your house, even if it’s a black widow!
What is your favorite bug?
I don’t actually have one single favorite. There are just way too many different types of arthropods on the planet, and we discover around 2,000 new ones each year. I’m very fond of spiders and cockroaches though!
Entomologist Crystal Cooke
Curator for the C.P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity and insect identifier for the CSU Plant Diagnostic Clinic
How did you become interested in entomology?
I actually wanted to study bats. Ever since I was a kid, I have loved bats. I put a lot of effort into learning about bats in my undergraduate classes, and that’s how I came across entomology and its importance in studying the feeding ecology of bats. Turns out that I really like identifying insects and so I became a convert to entomology as I went into graduate school. I became obsessed with insects that have interesting interactions with other species such as gall-inducing wasps that attack plants and parasitoids that attack and kill specific species of another insect.
One of your roles is identifying insects for people through CSU’s Plant Diagnostic Clinic. How does the clinic work, and what are the most common insects you are asked to identify?
I identify a large variety of insects but the most common are dermestid beetles, which are small beetles that feed on decaying organic matter, especially from animal sources. They are common in homes with pets since pet fur is notorious for collecting in corners, creating a food source for these tiny beetles and their larvae. Some people are sensitive to the hairs that the larvae possess and so they can be a nuisance. They can also infest collections of mounted animals, pelts and other sources of dead animal tissue like dead mice and rats.
How does the program work?
Samples and photos are currently supposed to be submitted through the Plant Diagnostic Clinic and then they get sent to me. There is a $15 fee for an arthropod identification (though we may update the fee soon). There is a sample submission form on the PDC website that needs to be filled out for each insect as well.
What is one of the biggest misconceptions that the general public has about entomology or your research field that you would like to clear up?
One of the biggest misconceptions about entomology that I see is that all insects are easy to identify based on pictures. Most species of insect can’t be identified from the average photo. The photos that we would need for most species would need to be research grade, showing very specific parts of the insect in detail. Insects are incredibly diverse and differences between closely related species can be minute or hard to determine from a photo. However, sometimes people don’t need species-level identifications and if the photo is clear enough, we can sometimes get family level (one major taxonomic level above genus and species) identifications for the more obvious families of insects. Having the specimen in hand is usually preferred for definitive identifications and in some cases, species cannot be identified at all morphologically.
What is your favorite bug?
This is a hard one! I’d have to say that my favorite is the third species that I described as new to science, Disholcaspis erugomamma Cooke-McEwen. While I love the other species that I have worked on, this one was my first new gall wasp whereas my other species are all parasitoids in another family of wasps. I managed to find it on the side of a highway in Texas and immediately recognized it as a new species in the field. It was also my first species to be “seen in the wild” by users on iNaturalist and that was particularly exciting to see.
