- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's a predatory world out there.
Newly emerged Gulf Fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae) are fluttering around the yard--nectaring on lantana, finding mates, mating, and trying to avoid predators. The females are laying tiny yellow eggs on their host plant (Passiflora). Soon we'll see caterpillars and chrysalids and more Gulf Frits.
Every stage may be the end. A Western scrub jay may snatch a Gulf Frit adult in flight; wasps, lady beetles and spiders will devour the caterpillar eggs; and parasitoids and wasps will attack the caterpillars and chrysalids. Over the years we've watched scores of Western scrub jays dining on the caterpillars (ah, worms!) and feed them to their young, and European paper wasps and praying mantids targeting caterpillars and butterflies.
The predator-prey episodes usually involve six steps: encounter, detection, interaction, attack, capture and kill.
Nature's way.
If you look closely, the wings of the survivors tell the story. Pristine? Newly emerged and untouched. Ripped and torn? A predator encounter.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The next time you see a yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) packing pollen, check out the color.
Last Saturday on an outing in Vallejo overlooking the Carquinez Straits, we noticed a yellow-faced bumble bee on an Echium candicans (Pride of Madeira) packing red pollen, as brilliant as a sun-ripened strawberry.
It probably picked up the red pollen from the nearby California golden poppies--not from the Echium because Echium pollen is a bluish/lavender.
The yellow-faced bumblebee, so called because of its yellow face, is native to the west coast of North America. In the global line-up, it's one of some 250 species of bumble bees--all within the genera Bombus, which is Latin for buzzing or humming.
Bombus vosnesenkii is easily identifiable by its yellow face and the yellow stripe or band at the T4 segment of its thorax.
Want to learn more about bumble bees and how to identify them? Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, co-authored the landmark publication, Bumble Bees of North America: an Identification Guide (Princeton University Press) with Paul Williams, Leif Richardson and Sheila Colla. It won a 2015 Outstanding Reference Sources Award from the Reference and User Services Association, American Library Association.
There's increasing interest in bumble bees--and rightfully so--due to the critical role they play in our ecosystems. Bumble Bees of North America is described as "the first comprehensive guide to North American bumble bees to be published in more than a century."
We haven't seen many bumble bees this year, but as spring temperatures warm up and blossoms beckon, they'll be out there foraging.
Graced with many colors of pollen.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
But of course, if you're curious about the work she does on fruit flies, you can interact with her on that as well as plant architecture!
The LASER, free and open to the public, will take place from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in Room 3001 of the Plant and Environmental Sciences Building. Anna Davidson, coordinator and moderator, says the April 14th event may be the last one on the UC Davis campus. (So, if you haven't attended one, you should!)
The other speakers:
Ian Pollock, assistant professor of art who directs the Graduate Multimedia Program at California State University, East Bay, will open the program from 7 to 7:25. His creative work with communications technologies is featured in several anthologies of digital media art. In addition to fruitful collaborations in Guerrilla Grafting, he is involved in mapping prejudice and developing an after-school program in neuroscience and game making. He holds a master of fine arts degree from UC Berkeley.
Anna Davidson will discuss her art work, “The Beauty of Ambiguity,” from 8:10 to 8:35. She is currently a master of fine arts candidate in Art Studio at UC Davis. She earlier received her doctorate from UC Davis in the Department of Plant Sciences where she studied plant ecophysiology.
Sarah Strand will cover “The Evolution of Religion” in her talk from 8:35 to 9 p.m. Strand teaches psychology classes at California State University, Sacramento. She holds a doctorate in behavioral neuroscience and has lectured on neurobiology topics (including religion, morality and love) for six years.
In her abstract, Strand says: “Darwin's theory of natural selection provides a spring board for a discussion about the evolution of ideas, including religion. From this perspective, the biopsychological origins of religion and atheism are discussed. Concluding statements focus on evidence of how religion has ‘survived' by expanding and adjusting to changes in culture, a.k.a. it's ‘environment.'”
The series of LASER events on the UC Davis campus are affiliated with the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program, co-founded by entomologist/artist Diane Ullman, professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomoogy and Nematology, and self-described "rock artist" Donna Billick.
For more information, contact Anna Davidson at adavidson@ucdavis.edu or access the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/events/1715690135315290/
Related links:
http://www.leonardo.info/isast/laser.html
http://www.scaruffi.com/leonardo/
Map: http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/plantsciences/visitors/map.htm
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you want to learn more about native bees, mark your calendar for Saturday, April 23.
That's when the Davis Science Collective, a group of STEM graduate students at UC Davis who like to get together and do science outreach in their spare time, will host an event from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Mary L. Stephens Branch of the Yolo County Public Library, 315 E. 14th St., Davis.
It's appropriately called “Native Bee Day,” and it's free and open to the public.
UC Davis graduate student Shahla Farzan says a variety of activities and live demonstrations will be offered, including:
- Pollen display
- Live mason bees and carpenter bees
- Bees vs. flies vs. wasps: What's the difference?
- How does pollination work?
- Bees of the world, courtesy of the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis.
“It's more of an interactive event geared toward families, so we won't be having any formal talks,” Farzan said. “Instead, we're planning a variety of demonstrations and hands-on activities. For instance, we'll have an activity station where kids can learn how pollination works. First, the kids will cover their fingers in chalk dust (i.e. pollen) and collect plastic beads from inside tissue paper flowers (representing a nectar reward). As they collect 'nectar,' they'll transfer 'pollen' onto the flowers.”
Entomology graduate student Tricia Bohls of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will be there to explain the differences between honey bees and native bees. Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor at UC Davis, will showcase carpenter bees at the live native bee table. Also exhibited will be blue orchard bees, affectionately known as BOBs.
For more information, access the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/events/985443778172006/
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you've ever wanted to taste exotic honeys (of course, you have!) and if you've ever wondered why native bees don't make honey (you have, haven't you?), then you're in luck.
The Honey and Pollination Center at the University of California, Davis, is hosting an international honey tasting event on Tuesday, April 5 in the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science (RMI) Sensory Theater, and you're invited.
The event, billed as The World of Honey--International Honey Tasting, will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at RMI, located on Old Davis Road, UC Davis campus.
Participants will experience four exotic international honeys: stingless bee honey from Brazil, coffee blossom from Guatemala, Viper's Bugloss from New Zealand, and chestnut honey from France.
Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center, will lead the tasting. The event opens with a short talk and PowerPoint on stingless bees and native bees by Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"Stingless bees were raised by the Mayans for honey," Harris says. "Today stingless bee honey production is very low."
In his talk,Thorp will discuss the diversity of bees (20,000 species in the world) and why most bees do not produce honey. He also will cover "which ones produce honey that we do harvest, primarily bees of the genus Apis and some of the many stingless bees."
Student tickets are $12.50, while tickets for UC Davis affiliates are $25, and $30 for the general public. To registrar, access the Honey and Pollination Center website at https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/190 or contact Elizabeth Luu at luu@caes.ucdavis.edu or Amina Harris at aharris@ucdavis.edu. The last day to register online is Sunday, April 3.