Bug Squad

It was good to see Sonoma County's "Queen Bee," Ettamarie Peterson of Petaluma, bee honored on the cover of the December edition of Bee Culture magazine. She often submits articles for the magazine. I decided it was time her to be featured and wrote a two-page article, illustrated with six images.

Ever noticed that when yellow-faced bumble bees, Bombus vosnesenskii, forage in lupine that their pollen is red? Last July when we were camping at Bodega Bay, we delighted in watching the bumble bees foraging in the lupine.

That UC Davis beetle T-shirt is NOT more popular than The Beatles, but it sure is a big hit, both here and across the pond.

Good news on the monarch front. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced a proposal to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species "with species-specific protections and flexibilities to encourage conservation" under Section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Back in 2011, three UC Davis entomology faculty members launched the campuswide Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology (RSPIB) to provide "academically strong and highly motivated undergraduates with a closely mentored research experience in biology.