Author: Chen Yuedan
Jinhua news client September 8 news reporter Chen Yuedan
In the scorching summer vacation, when many people are enjoying the "air-conditioned WIFI watermelon", some people are facing the scorching sun in the grassland with a temperature of up to 40 ° C, or enduring the bites of mosquitoes and locusts in the primeval dense forest to catch insects.
He is a professor of horticultural technology in the College of Agriculture of Jinhua Vocational and Technical College, and yao Gang, the "insect doctor" who only has insects in his eyes.
"Insect fan" Teacher Yao: Trekking through mountains and wading through water, immersing yourself in research
When I met Yao Gang, he had just returned from Guangxi, and his dark skin carried the imprint of the summer sun.
Almost the entire summer vacation, he caught insects in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, Changbai Mountain, and the deep mountains and old forests of Guangxi, and this time harvested hundreds of species and thousands of insects.
Catching insects seems simple but is actually a chore. Deep mountains and old forests, protected areas, deserts, high-altitude areas... Where insects go, not only the environment is harsh, the conditions are also very harsh, in the temperature of up to 40 ° C must be long sleeves and trousers fully armed, in order to prevent poisonous insects and poisonous snakes. Often go into the mountains in the morning and return at night, eat dry food when hungry, drink mountain spring water when the water is finished, and sweat flows to the eyes that cannot be opened. At night, when returning to the base, it is also necessary to support the hot high-pressure mercury lamp, continue to trap insects, and carefully identify and classify, take photos to identify descriptions, and record the latitude, longitude, latitude, altitude and related plants of the time and place of collection.
Such a collection, a trip will last 15 to 20 days, hard work, not to mention, the risk is everywhere: in hainan Wuzhi mountain, mountain ants, stinging moth larvae make his entire back red, swollen and painful; in Tibet encountered road collapse, trapped in a small hut for 4 days; in the mountains of Guangxi, encountered a highly poisonous silver ring snake, thrilling to escape a disaster; in the Desert of Inner Mongolia, one day to the hands and ears peeled... But when he collected the samples he needed or new insects, he said he was as happy as winning the jackpot, "Where there are easy things on the road to scientific research, it's all worth it." ”
Diptera is the type of insect that Yao Gang mainly studied. This pollinator small insect has a variety of forms, can also parasitize, eat locust egg blocks, although the pollination efficiency is not as good as bees, but in the semi-desert, high-altitude environment, or when the bees can not pollinate, they have become the main force of some plant pollination. "There are more than 5,000 kinds of this insect in the world, but china has only found more than 260 kinds of insects, and it is very meaningful to find, study and use them."
However, the process is not easy, in addition to the arduous fieldwork, there are also boring indoor experiments.
"First of all, the collected specimens are made, and then a detailed classification is carried out, and in the process, a large number of domestic and foreign literature needs to be consulted to identify new species." Yao Gang said that foreign literature is not only English, but also Russian, German, French, etc., he specially purchased such foreign dictionaries, word by word, "This is a long and difficult process, but the accumulation of literature is very important for the follow-up research on such insects and biodiversity." ”
In order to better study, Yao Gang changed the study at home into a laboratory. The zigzag-shaped study room houses microscopes, dissection tools, refrigerators, computers, and cabinets dedicated to specimens. In order to maintain temperature and dryness, the laboratory has been on air conditioning and dehumidification 24 hours since June, so that the room is so dry that he needs to drink water all the time. Coupled with the complex smell of insect carcasses, alcohol, mothballs and so on, the rest of the family could not stay for a while.
Such an environment that is friendly to insect specimens but very unfriendly to people, he burrows in it and refuses to come out. When I don't go to class, I stay for a day, and usually after the child sleeps at night, he has been reading the literature and doing experiments and specimens until late at night.
"There are too many things I want to do, I have to go to class during the day, and I can only use the time at night." At the end of each study, he made specimens of the bugs and kept them, and each one was numbered and preserved. As of now, in addition to the soaked, dried insect specimens he has preserved four or five thousand, "I think when the time comes to put their own specimens in the Herbarium of China Agricultural University, I can let students use, but also to leave some information for future generations, of course, the identification may also be wrong, but also hope that future generations to correct and promote the research and development of such insects in China." ”
Genomics, molecular systematics, mitochondrial genomics... In order to study insects, Yao Gang continued to study and learn continuously. In 2019, he successfully presided over 1 project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and participated in 1 project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China. So far, he has published more than 30 research papers at home and abroad, and participated in the preparation of nearly ten scientific research monographs.
At present, he is embarking on the whole gene sequencing of insects in the bee flies family, and is preparing to carry out the investigation of insect resources in Jinhua, hoping to eventually form a scientific research monograph or popular science atlas, "Basic research is very boring and long, but it needs someone to do it. ”
Science and technology "commissioner": treat insects with insects and help farmers increase income
Yao Gang, a native of Lanxi, has been working in Zhejiang since graduating with a ph.D. in 2010 and has always wanted to use what he has learned to serve grassroots farmers and the development of local agriculture and forestry economies.
"Snails have eaten dendrobium officinale, the yield reduction is serious, and the use of snail killers and pesticide residues are serious." There are farmers who urgently ask for help. Yao Gang took up this problem.
After looking up a large amount of information, he found a pesticide that can automatically decompose the light, using the characteristics of snails nibbling on Dendrobium officinale at night, spraying medicine after dark, the agent began to decompose after dawn, and the basic decomposition was complete in about 2 days, without residue.
The project could have been compromised, but he found a new problem: the pesticide is expensive and the labor cost is so high that the company cannot afford it. Is there an ecological and cost-saving way? After further in-depth research, he gave a plan: treat insects with insects - buy fireflies larvae, put them into dendrobium bases, and go to see them a day or two later, and the empty snail shells give the best proof.
"Insects are very magical, small fireflies can eat snails, praying mantises can eat snakes, insects to treat insects, which is also the practical application of insect research in biological control." Yao Gang introduced that he was recently conducting biological control research on tea inchworm for a tea garden in Jinhua.
Tea inchworm, a caterpillar on tea leaves, lives by eating tea leaves, and when the harm is most serious, it can make the tea garden particles no harvest. "Yesterday I spent half a day hanging nets in the tea garden to catch insects, to see if there are any local dominant parasitic bee species that are the natural enemies of the tea inchworm, and then study what kind of plants this parasitic bee needs for survival, and increase their population by planting these plants around the tea garden or in the gap between tea plants, so as to achieve insect treatment."
He said that biological control should not only be harmless to people, but also harmless to other insects, so as to protect biodiversity and achieve ecological balance to the greatest extent possible.
Similar to this kind of agricultural assistance project, Yao Gang has done a lot in recent years: carry out the prevention and control of thin-shell pecan fruit disease, help Jiande farmers turn 100 acres of thin-shelled pecans into profits; in Jiangjia Town, Chun'an County, guide the local use of red-eyed bees to control pine caterpillars, and avoid the impact of other pine caterpillars on the local beekeeping and silkworm industry in the prevention and control process; help Zhejiang Kaibo Tree Cultivation Co., Ltd. to carry out research on the mosquito-avoiding fly of golden silk nan wood Help evaluate the effect of sound and light physical soft killing equipment on the small green leafhopper in the tea garden at Jinhuacai Yunjian Jiufeng Base; help Lanxi Chestnut Seed Resource Garden to solve the identification of diseases... In 2019, in the city's "Baibo into the enterprise" activity, Yao Gang helped Zhejiang Xiangyu Tea Industry Co., Ltd. to authorize 1 invention patent, 2 utility model patents declaration, declare and implement the 2020 Jinhua Science and Technology Bureau public welfare project, guide enterprises to carry out green prevention and control technology of tea gardens, reduce the use of pesticides, and improve the management technology of matcha tea gardens.
"Every scientific and technological achievement is a hard-won fruit, and it has always been my dream to make my scientific research fruit benefit agriculture, rural areas and farmers."
Kung Fu pays off, because Yao Gang has studied and paid hard in the field of scientific research, and while gaining word of mouth, he has also received many "trophies": the 15th Jinhua Youth Science and Technology Award, the 2nd Zhejiang Forestry Science and Technology Pacesetter, the First Prize of Science and Technology Xinglin, the First Prize of the 3rd China University Press Book Award for Outstanding Academic Works... Not long ago, he was also recommended to participate in the Zhejiang Provincial Youth Science and Technology Excellence Award.
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