Yuanwu Wang is Graduate student studying entomology at Iowa State University. His research studies pollinator presence in and around Iowa soybean fields. Growing up in China, Yuanwu was always fascinated by insects. This interest led him to study fireflies during his master’s degree and explore agricultural insect communities for his PhD at ISU!
What did you enjoy the most about the outdoors growing up? Although I grew up in a city with a large population in China, my family always have trips into the mountains and wilds to find the joy of nature. Every time we travel, I always love to catch bugs, go fishing, stick my feet into the streams, or just simply listen to the sound of nature. After I came to the US for college, I realized that nature is just a few steps away.
Why did you choose Entomology for your major? I fell in love with insects when I was a little kid, I was and still am fascinated by these little creatures and their interactions with nature. Through my undergraduate years, I have developed my understanding of the necessity of native insects for the ecosystem and eventually for human society. Therefore, I decided to pursue the career of being an entomologist.
Fig. 2: A firefly image on a computer screen being used to identify the firefly to species. From Yuanwu's master's research.
Why did you choose Iowa State for college? I found the research project of pollinator communities in soybean fields very interesting. I had some great conversations with Dr. Kral-O’Brien and Dr. O’Neal, the principal investigator and co-investigator of this project, I’m very glad that we share similar opinions on many aspects. Finally, the strong research background and the resources ISU provide helped me make my decision.
What research are you conducting this summer? I’m sampling the pollinators in soybean and corn fields within Iowa. We are attempting to eventually describe the pollinator presence and visitation in soybean-corn row crop system and to find any differences of pollinator presence and visitation in the middle of the farm fields than at the edge of the farm fields.
Fig. 3: A blue vane trap used to collect insects set up next to a crop field for Yuanwu's summer research.
Why are you interested in pollinators in soybean fields? It was surprising to me when I first saw previous records of pollinators found in soybean and corn fields since both soybean and corn don’t rely on insect pollination. I wanted to learn if these native pollinators are really using soybean and corn pollen as food sources and if they (or more pollinators) can be preserved in farm areas.
Describe your field experience this year. We are having a rainy year with plenty of thunderstorms which means we had to alter our sampling plans sometimes. But I think this would also be a lesson or valuable experience for future sampling seasons. Working hours in fields also led us to notice insects that we are not interested in for this research, such as monarchs, blister beetles and fireflies. I would keep some notes when we notice the presence of these insects, which might help with other people’s study interests.
What’s the most useful thing you've learned as a student, and the most useful thing you expected to learn as a PhD? Being in the US for about 7 years, I learned that communication is always the key to accomplishment. Even though I found my English is fluent for regular communications, different scholars with different knowledge backgrounds would have their own ‘language’, and I might find myself lost when communicating with them. I expect to learn better communication skills to scholars with different backgrounds through practicing during PhD and I think it is the most important thing I should refine.
How do you hope to apply what you have learned in the future? I believe, for the benefit of both, it is essential for us humans to live with native insects in harmony. And as a scientist of entomology, one of my goals is to make my own contributions to insect studies so that we can be a step further towards that harmony.
Fig. 4: A bee bowl used to collect bees, set up for Yuanwu's PhD research next to a crop field.
Fig. 5: The underside of a firefly abdomen used for species identification. From Yuanwu's master's research.