Rangelands

Butterflies, beer and a bar...

This spring, I am teaching the Santa Rosa Junior College Rangeland Management class. This is my opportunity to educate aspiring students on the importance of rangelands and how to manage them.

Yes, I'll have some mustard, please. Yes, both the pollen and the nectar, thank you. We watched a honey bee buzz into our little mustard patch, her proboscis (tongue) extended, and pollen weighting her down. If she were at the airport, someone would have volunteered to carry her bags.

Congrats to the University of California Linnaean Games Team! They know their insects! The UC team, which swept the national championship last year, just won the regional competition Monday night at the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA) meeting in San Diego.

Why silver digger bees are like gold... Remember those "long lost" silver digger bees found last week at the San Francisco Presidio? They hadn't been seen in large aggregations for nearly a century.

UC Davis entomologist Leslie Saul-Gershenz lent her expertise when a volunteer discovered what turned out to be "long-lost" silver digger bees in restored sand dunes at the San Francisco Presidio, a former military post now owned and operated by the National Park Service.

IGIS worked with UCANR Advisors Mike Jones, Rick Satomi, and Yana Valachovic to conduct two 2-day training workshops in Northern California the week of March 18th-23rd. These workshops were held in Santa Rosa, CA and Arcata, CA.

Next week promises to be memorable week for entomologists at the University of California, Davis. Oh, how they wish they could clone themselves so they could be in two places at the same time: in San Diego and on the UC Davis campus.

It's good to see butterflies, especially monarchs, getting so much press. Now let's see if we can press the issue. The Washington Post just published an article in its style section: "Butterflies Were Symbols of Rebirth.

The phrase "can't cut the mustard" (not able to handle the job) doesn't apply to honey bees. It's spring and honey bees are emerging en force from their hives to collect nectar and pollen to feed their colonies. The fields are awash with mustard. By the way, O.