Rangelands

In the lottery of troublesome termite infestations, Roger, a Rancho Santa Fe homeowner, hit the jackpot (a pseudonym is used to protect his privacy).

Save the dates! The seventh annual International Monarch Monitoring Blitz will take place Friday, July 28 through Sunday, Aug. 6.

Where are all the monarchs? Not in our pollinator garden here in Vacaville. Milkweed? Check. Floral resources? Check. Praying mantids? No. (Haven't seen any, but they're out there!) Birds? Yes. (Nesting California scrub jays eat their fill of caterpillars, mainly Gulf Fritillary 'cats.) Shade? Yes.

Scholar, teacher, mentor, researcher, author, collaborator, leader, optimist and administrator. Those are some of the roles of Professor Joanna Chiu, molecular geneticist and physiologist, who advanced from vice chair to chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology on July 1.

Doctoral student Ching-Jung Lin of the laboratory of nematologist Shahid Siddique, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is the recipient of a two-year, $32,000 Ministry of Education Taiwan Government Scholarship to Study Abroad (GSSA).

Molecular geneticist-physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is the newly appointed chair of the department, serving a five-year term effective July 1, 2023. She succeeds Steve Nadler, the department chair since Jan. 1, 2016.

Congrats to the University of California recipients of awards from the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE), an international association of communicators, educators and information technologists who focus on communicating research-based information.

"Recent studies have continued to shed light on the ecology of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in western North America. These studies have documented a declining overwintering population over several decades, punctuated by unexpected variability in recent years.

UC Davis community ecologist Louie Yang, a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology professor who researches monarch butterflies, suggests three broad guidelines for western monarch conservation in his review article published June 26 in the journal, Current Opinion in Insect Science.

Ever seen a Phyciodes mylitta, aka Mylitta Crescent? It's a butterfly that breeds on thistles, such as Cirsium, Carduus and Silybum. The one that visited our yard June 17 wasn't visiting a thistle, however. It landed on a cactus. It's an orange and black butterfly (orange wings with black markings).