Bug Squad

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.

Do you know what apivectoring is? Bee scientist Elina Lastro Nio, associate professor of Cooperative Extension, Apiculture, and a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (ENT) faculty, defines it in a recent edition of Bee Culture.