Rangelands

The monarch migration is well underway. The iconic butterflies fluttering into California from the Pacific Northwest engage in "nectar stops" to fuel their flight to their overwintering sites along coastal California. They are not the only ones seeking nectar.

Newly selected department chair Joanna Chiu welcomed faculty, graduate students and staff at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's fall social, held recently in the Putah Creek Lodge. The fall social, billed as "a place to unwind and indulge," featured a light buffet and beverages.

The scenario: a male praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, is perched on a pink zinnia in a Vacaville pollinator garden filled with bees and butterflies. Praying Mantis: "Hey, photographer, take my picture! And, can you make me look like Arnold Schwarzenegger?" Photographer: "Sure, Mr. Mantis.

Did you know that tsetse flies give birth to live offspring?

Visitors at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house learned about such "household vampires" as mosquitoes, fleas, lice, ticks and bedbugs, and many also participated in the family arts-and-crafts activities.

Medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and chair of the Designated Emphasis in the Biology of Vector-Borne Diseases (DEBVBD), will speak on tsetse flies at the next department seminar, set for 4:10 p.m., Monday, Oct.

They saw mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, lice and bed bugs at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on "Household Vampires." They learned that "medical entomologist is the study of arthropods (such as insects and ticks) that spread pathogens that cause human disease.

"Understanding the Dynamics of Plant-Animal Interactions in a Changing World." That's the title of conservation ecologist Paul CaraDonna's seminar that he'll present to the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology from 4:10 to 5 p.m., Monday, Oct. 2 in 122 Briggs Hall, UC Davis campus.

Conservation ecologist Paul CaraDonna, a research scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden and a professor of instruction at Northwestern University, will launch the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's fall seminar schedule on Monday, Oct.

Conservation ecologist Paul CaraDonna, who serves as a research scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden, a professor of instruction at Northwestern University, Illinois, and as a principal investigator at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gothic, Colo.