Rangelands

Agricultural Extension specialist Ian Grettenberger, coordinator of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's seminars, has announced the list of the virtual seminars for the winter quarter. All seminars will be held on Wednesdays at 4:10 PM (PST).

A UC Davis postdoctoral researcher who studied with global bumble bee authority Robbin Thorp is fittingly the winner of the Bohart Museum of Entomology's inaugural Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest.

The UC Davis Insect Ecology Group has named Arnold Menke's publication on "The Ammophila of North and Central America (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae)" as one of the best papers of 2020.

They're out there! Yes, after a l-o-n-g, cold, hard winter, bumble bees are emerging. At least in Solano County. At 11:20 a.m. today (Wednesday, Jan. 13), we spotted a yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, foraging on oxalis near downtown Benicia.

When you "make a mountain out of a molehill," you're exaggerating the severity of the situation. But if you're an ant, you can make little mounds that might appear--at least to other ants--like mountains.

Reposted from the UCANR News In 2020, 9,000 fires scorched more than 4 million acres of California, a record-breaking year, reported Alejandra Borunda in National Geographic.

By Rainer Hoenicke Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) biologist, Jennifer Kubel, presented a webinar on August 26, 2020, on agricultural and horticultural practices that could benefit Monarch butterflies.

It's good to see the University of California's Office of the President award a three-year $900,000 grant to four UC Davis campuses to establish a network of bee researchers and engineers to strengthen honey bee health and crop pollination.

A reader asks: Does the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology have a fact sheet on black widow spiders? Yes! It's among dozens of fact sheets (mostly insects but some arachnids and other non-insects) posted on the Bohart Museum website. All can be accessed and downloaded at no charge.

The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology is sharing a $900,000 grant from the University of California's Office of the President to establish a four-campus network of bee researchers and engineers to strengthen honey bee health and crop pollination.