- (Focus Area) Natural Resources
- Author: Esther N Lofton
- Author: Amrita Mukherjee
- Author: Grant Johnson
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Remember Rebecca Jean "RJ" Millena?
She's the little Concord, Calif., kindergarten student who declared--on the very first day of class-- "When I grow up, I want to be an entomologist!"
And she did.
RJ received her bachelor's degree in entomology in 2021 from the University of California, Davis, and then accepted a four-year, full-ride fellowship offer to complete a doctoral program at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). She's a doctoral candidate of comparative biology in the Richard Gilder Graduate School at AMNH and studies in the lab of Professor Jessica Ware.
RJ studies the twisted-wing...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Folks are looking forward to the next open house at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis.
It's set Saturday, Sept. 28 from 1 to 4 p.m. and the theme is "Museum ABC's: Arthopods, Bohart and Collecting." It's free and family friendly. Parking is also free.
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis, hosts open houses throughout the academic year. It's an opportunity to talk one-on-one with the scientists and see the displays.
The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. Plus, it maintains a live petting zoo (including Madagascar hissing cockroaches,...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, stretches beneath a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville garden.
Ms. Mantis: (Startled to see she is not alone) "Well, hello, there! How are ya? I'm just dropping by to say Hello!"
Photographer: "So, this is a meet-and-greet? And not a meet-and-eat?"
Ms. Mantis: "Exactly. I'm not interested in eating bees or butterflies. Ooh, there goes a honey bee! Ooh, there's a long-horned bee! Omigosh, a butterfly!"
Photographer: "You're just looking?"
Ms. Mantis: "No, just stretching. See, I've closed my spiked...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Talk about flower power.
When you walk through the UC Davis Bee Haven, a half-acre garden on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus, you'll see bees and other pollinators foraging on a pink floribunda rose cultivar, “Nearly Wild." It's flamingo pink, quite fragrant and very buzzworthy, providing both pollen and nectar.
This cultivar is aptly named "Nearly Wild." It has five petals, just like wild roses.
The garden, installed in 2009 and a project of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nemalogy, is located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. Director of the haven is...