Elina Lastro Niño

The six-member team, including Elina Lastro Niño, associate professor of UC Cooperative Extension, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is sharing an online pre-print version of their research on the yield characteristics of a self-compatible almond variety.

The paper, titled “Comparison of Yield Characteristics of Independence, a Self-Compatible Almond Variety, as Affected by the Presence of Honey Bee Pollinators,” is online at https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3870916/v1 during the review process for Scientific Reports.

Co-authors with Niño are Angelita De la Luz, Beeflow Inc. Smart Pollination Services; Bernardo Niño, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (he is formerly from UC Davis);  William Stacy, UC Davis Extension; and Arathi Seshadri, U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS).

The abstract:

“Until recently, all the almond varieties grown globally, have been self-incompatible, a fact that drives the interdependent relationship between almond growers and the beekeepers that provide honey bee colonies for pollination. Recently, almond growers have begun a transition to self-fertile varieties, such as Independence, which do not require genetically distinct pollen to produce kernels. However, this transition often occurs under the impression that due to self-compatibility, one can eliminate the honey bee rentals for pollination and thereby reduce costs for these orchards, but the impact that eliminating rented colonies would have on almond quality and yield are not fully understood.”

“Here, we explore the extent to which yields for Independence variety vary with and without honey bee pollination and across a range of hive stocking densities in the San Joaquin Valley of California. We found that access to honey bee pollination significantly improves nut set and whole tree yields, ultimately resulting in economically meaningful gains to growers. Our economic model shows how specific honey bee hive stocking density recommendations depend on the surrounding landscape and will change as acreage of self-fertile varieties continues to increase over time."

In their research, the authors point out that

• The United States is the world's largest almond producer, with California accounting for nearly 80 percent of the world's almond supply
• Almond orchards rank as the highest in their need for pollinators, specifically honey bees
• California's almond orchards need more than a million honey bee colonies every season for pollination, brought in all over the country and globally
• There are insufficient colony numbers stemming from poor nutrition, improper use of agrochemicals, loss of natural habitat and increased incidences of pests and diseases,
• Until recently, all the almond varieties grown in California have been self-incompatible and almond growers depend exclusively on beekeepers to provide honey bee colonies for pollination

"For growers and beekeepers alike, the question at the forefront is to determine the extent to which self-fertile varieties such as Independence, reduce the dependency on pollination services  rendered by managed honey bees," the authors wrote. "Growers specifically, are also interested in knowing any  differences in yield quality and quantity resulting from absence of bee-pollination-mediated pollen transfer and ovule fertilization, given that previous studies have reported higher oleic to linoleic ratio in almonds from cross-pollinated trees and this high ratio is most favorable for consumers seeking health benefits."

See more at https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3870916/v1

(Note: Research Square lets researchers share their work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to their manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. Contact Elina Lastro Niño at elnino@ucdavis.edu)

A bee tree on the UC Davis campus. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Picture this: George Washington (Feb. 22, 1732-Dec. 14, 1799) is eating hoecakes with honey, and adding honey to his tea, something that historians say he did every day.

Historians also relate that Washington not only loved honey, but he kept bees at his Mount Vernon estate to pollinate the fruits and vegetables.  He was among the first to keep his bees in wooden boxes "as opposed to the traditional black gum hives," according to the Presidential History of Honey Bees.

Washington described his bee hives as "bee houses." On July 28,  1782, Washington gave "300 nails at the Circle Storehouse to an indentured English joiner named Matthew Baldridge, to make a bee house," according to George Washington: Bee Keeper.

As Apis mellifera enthusiasts know, European colonists brought the first honey bees to America in 1622 to the Jamestown colony, Virginia. They kept the bees in skeps. When the bees  swarmed to tree hollows, the settlers--including my Revolutionary War/East Coast ancestors--became quite adept at locating "bee trees."

So did other generations.

My first cousin, the late Gordon Rowe, a Cooperative Extension economist at UC Berkeley, remembers the feral bee colony hunts with my grandfather, Robert Keatley (1853-1938) in Cowlitz County, Wash.

"We would stop every so often along the creek where there was sort of a quiet place in the water and look at the bees that had stopped for water," Rowe said. "He would look for bees that were carrying a lot of pollen on their legs.  Then he would look to see what direction those bees had flown to." 

Voila! He'd find the bee tree. 

A honey bee heading home to her colony in a sycamore tree in Vacaville. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

"July was blackberry picking time and we often found these bee trees.  Personally I found two in one season—one showed the marks of a bear trying to claw into it.  What attracted my attention was the hum that was present, like a high-tension wire—so out of place.  The hum came from the bees fanning the nectar with their wings until it reached honey consistency." 

"These burned over areas were prime sources of nectar from the fireweed—hundreds of acres," Martin continued. "Another way of tracking bees was to visit their watering holes.  Dad and I went into the hills which were drainage for Cannonball Creek (named for the many cannonball shaped rocks, often with a fossilized clam shell at the center).  Following the creek to its source near the Black Timber, seepage formed many small puddles that the bees loaded up on.  We found two possibles and went in for one in the fall." 

"Come fall we were set up for our honey.  We didn't have to smoke out the bees, for they were being robbed by a more vigorous hive nearby, high in an old snag.  The bee hive we robbed had a long hole, difficult to protect, and the bees had had all the fight taken out of them.  We had a generous amount of honey, and the darkness of some of the comb wax told us that it had existed for many years.  The following year, the second tree was harvested, but the snag had to be felled." 

"One blackberry-picking season in the Black Timber, my dad came upon a bee tree and carved his initials in it," she wrote. "In those days, such a mark would be honored by others.  In the fall, Uncle Pete (Laughlin), my dad and I returned for a very rewarding cache.  I personally carried out a 5-gallon can on my back, and the other two probably had double that amount.   To extract the honey, it was crushed and permitted to drain in a strainer.  It keeps indefinitely."

"Wax is a product that bees exude from their bodies—peeled off for the comb.  The wax was saleable to be used for candles, cleaning sadirons, waxing thread forms, etc.  After the honey was drained from the crushed comb, the comb was mixed with water and heated slightly to melt it.  To get the pure wax, Mother would then dip her hand into cold water, then into the melting mixture, then back to cold water, and then peel the wax off her hand."

Imagine what it was like to live in those times...

They came. They saw. They held out their hands.

Hands? Yes, to hold Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects (walking sticks).

The Bohart Museum of Entomology greeted some 1400 visitors during the 13th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, an event held Feb. 10 and showcasing 10 museums or collections across campus.

The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live petting zoo ("the hissers" and "the sticks") and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, books, posters, stuffed animals, jewelry and insect-collecting equipment.

The entrance to the Bohart features a 5x6-foot photograph of a cuckoo or emerald wasp, commonly known as "the ruby-tailed wasp." It's the work of noted British photographer Levon Bliss. The microscupture encompasses more than 8,000 separate images. 

Inside, Jeff Smith, who curates the Lepidoptera collection, and Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas, answered questions about the butterfly and moth specimens.

New director of the Bohart Museum is professor and arachnologist Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Bond succeeds UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, who served as director from 1999 until Jan. 31, retiring on Feb. 1. Kimsey continues her research and in serving as executive director of the Bohart Museum Society.

The next open house at the Bohart Museum will be from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, March 3. The theme: "Grasshoppers,Crickets and Katydids." A talk is planned from 1 to 2 p.m., with the museum open from 2 to 4 p.m. 

The Bohart Museum also is planning its annual open house for the annual UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 20. 

Founded in 1946 by UC Davis professor Richard Bohart, the insect museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. More information is on its website or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.

Who doesn't like "Pink Sugar?"

No, not the sweetener. The brilliantly colored Arctotis "Pink Sugar," also known as a pink African daisy.

"The genus name Arctotis is derived from Greek words 'arktos', which means "a bear" and 'otos' meaning "an ear" with the implication that the scales of the flower and fruit pappus look like the ears of a bear," according to the San Marcos Growers. "The reason for the specific epithet is not clear with the possibility that it come from the Greek word 'stoechas' that refers to a type of mint coupled with 'folia' meaning leaf."

"Pink Sugar" blooms from November through April, and if you're lucky, you'll see a butterfly, bee or a syrphid fly foraging on it.

This blossom below (image taken in Vacaville) drew a syrphid fly.

Syprhid flies, also known as "hover flies" or "flower flies" are good pollinators and predators: many of them prey on aphids and mealybugs. Scientists estimate that there are more than 6200 species of syrphid flies in the world, and more than 3000 in California alone.

They're often mistaken for honey bees.

Syrphid flies are easily distinguished from honey bees. Among the differences: (1) honey bees don't hover,  (2) syrphids have only one pair of wings, while honey bees have two  (3) syrphids have short, stubby antennae, while honey bees have long, bent antennae called genticulate antennae and (4) syrphids belong to the order Diptera, while honey bees are in the order Hymenoptera.

Maybe we should call a syrphid fly "an honorary bee."