Cañada College Invites the Community to Participate in Citizen Science Project
Mon, 28 September, 2015 at 2:19 pmCañada College Invites the Community to Participate in Citizen Science Project
Public volunteers
needed to assist Scientists in their research on Olive Fruit Flies
Who: Cañada College Science & Technology
Division, led by Adjunct Biology Professor Diego Nieto is looking for Peninsula
residents to assist in its Citizen Science Project.
What: The Citizen Science Project will assist
Cañada College in gathering data for olive fruit fly biological control.
Olives have
traditionally been a valued community resource in the Woodside-Redwood City
area. The olive fruit fly is a global pest, whose larval
offspring (i.e. maggots) feed exclusively on olives. Unlike the small fruit
flies commonly found in our kitchen that are only capable of depositing eggs in
overly ripe or rotten fruit, the olive fruit fly targets ripening fruit to
deposit eggs, which makes this robust fly especially problematic for olive
growers. As a result, nearly all unmanaged olives in San Mateo County
eventually become infested, which can introduce other contaminants (e.g.
bacteria) that intensify fruit rot.
One of the
reasons that this pest has become so problematic in California is that insect
predators or parasites that specifically target this pest were absent. In an effort to fill this void, researchers in
the field of “biological control” have collected highly co-evolved parasitoids
(i.e. minute wasps) from Sub-Saharan Africa, which is thought to be this pest’s
evolutionary point of origin.
Why We Need
Your Help: Psyttalia
lounsburyi has begun to
disperse into the community surrounding Cañada College. As it becomes
more widely established in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, it will
hopefully reduce the olive fruit fly population levels in olive trees found in
hillsides and wild areas, urban landscapes, neighborhoods, gardens, and
eventually, olive orchards.
A collaborative
“Citizen Science” project exploring the spreading of this insect in San Mateo
and Santa Clara Counties would greatly help researchers and community members
to learn more about the scope and scale of this project.
How You Can
Help: Citizen Science is where public volunteers can
assist Scientists in their research. Scientists
benefit from having a lot more data to analyze and a pool of volunteers willing
to help. To participate in this project, simply follow the instructions
below:
- Collect
50 ripe or ripening olives per olive tree
- Place
olives in container immediately after collection
- Five
weeks after collection, open the rearing container, place contents onto a
clean flat surface, and count the insects
- Provide
follow up information/data
Website: A more detailed description of the project
can be found at www.canadacollege.edu/olivefruitfly
To get involved with the project,
please contact Diego Nieto at nietod@smccd.edu
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