Bug Squad

 UC Davis Distinguished Emeritus Professor Robbin Thorp, an avid bumble bee conservationist, monitored Franklin's bumble bee, F Bombus franklini, for 21 years, until his death in 2019.The bee occupies only a narrow range of southern Oregon and northern California. Its range, a 13,300-square-mile area…

 What a day when Betty White visited the Vacaville Museum!Not the beloved Betty White, the American actress, comedian, producer, activist, and animal welfare advocate who passed Dec. 31, 2021 at age 99. It was her namesake.It all began when the Vacaville Museum hosted a public function on Oct. 11…

 Since Saturday, Sept. 27, we've recorded almost daily sightings of migrating monarchs passing through our pollinator garden in Vacaville on their way to their overwintering sites along coastal California.The monarchs are stopping by for some flight fluel--nectar from our stand of Mexican sunflowers,…

 UC Berkeley professor Rosemary Gillespie, an evolutionary biologist known for her spider research, will present a seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology on Wednesday, Oct. 22.Gillespie, professor of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, Division of Insect Biology…

 Jane Goodall would have loved this: a dog depicted among the flowers and insects in the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program’s ceramic-mosaic mural, “Nature’s Gallery,” in the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden.Goodall (April 3, 1934-Oct. 1, 2025), the trailblazing primatologist and conservationist…