- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The event: The 13th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, a Super Science Day.
It's an opportunity to see scientists in action.
It's day when you can visit such biological museums or collections as the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, Bohart Museum of Entomology, Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Arboretum and Public Garden, California Raptor Center, Earth and Planetary Sciences Paleontology Collections, Botanical Conservatory, Center for Plant Diversity, Nematode Collections, Marine Invertebrate Teaching Collection, and the Department of Anthropology Museum.
And it's free and open to the public.
The date has not been set, but the first few Biodiversity Museum Days took place on Presidents' Day weekend. The committee will announce the date soon.
"Each year more than 200 volunteers--students, staff and faculty--from across campus help more 4,000 visitors--including other UC Davis students, staff and faculty--learn about biodiversity through our amazing biological collections," said UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day chair Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
Donations, from $5 on up, may be made at this website: UC Davis October Crowdfund campaign. It costs approximately $5000 to finance the Biodiversity Museum Day, the committee related. Donors may make contributions to honor a loved one or a favorite organism, such as a praying mantis, plant, nematode or fossil. The crowdfunding campaign ends at 11:59 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 31.
The committee asks that you:
- Share the news with three friends/co-workers/neighbors
- Post on your social media. The UC Davis Crowdfund has links for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (or X)
- Donate here
Coordinating the UC Davis October Crowdfund campaign are Yang; Brennen Dyer, collections manager for the Bohart Museum; and Melissa Cruz Hernandez, outreach and leadership program manager for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Often it's so camouflaged that it totally blends in with its habitat. It can rotate its head 180 degrees--and nothing, it seems, can escape its view.
Praying mantises are not considered biological pest control agents because basically they'll eat anything they can catch: from your favorite pollinators (bees and butterflies) to your favorite beneficial insects (lady beetles and assassin bugs), your favorite bird (hummingbird) to pests (stink bugs and lygus bugs) to syrphid flies, green bottle flies, and wandering caterpillars that happen to cross its path.
And they'll eat one another...catch me if you can!
Truly, they are not picky eaters like little humans who scowl at a food, push it around their plates, or "accidentally" drop it on the floor for the dog to grab.
"Over 2,000 mantid species occur in the world, mostly in tropical and subtropical regions," according to the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Program (UC IPM). "At least 9 mantid species occur in California. The Arizona or bordered mantid (Stagmomantis limbata), Bistanta mexicana, California mantid (Stagmomantis wheeleri =S. californica), Litaneutria ocularis =Litaneutria obscura, and small gray mantid (Litaneutria pacifica) are native species. Chinese mantid (Tenodera sinensis), European mantid (Mantis religiosa), Mediterranean mantid (Iris oratoria), and South African mantid (Miomantis caffra) are introduced."
"Mantids (mantises) are among the largest insects," UC IPM says. "Adults generally range from 2 to 5 inches (5–12 cm) long. Adults and nymphs (immatures) are elongate and usually brown, green, or yellowish; a single species can have all 3 color phases, such as the California mantid, Stagmomantis wheeleri =S. californica."
A mantis has two spiked forelegs that enable it to grasp and subdue its prey. It's a death grip...or a dinner grip...Ever seen a praying mantis "cradle" its prey?
This mantis, below, is a Stagmomantis limbata. Dinner was a bee. Earlier it preyed on a green bottle fly.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Gulf Frit, or "passion butterfly" (Agraulis vanillae), lays her tiny, yellow eggs, singly, on her host plant, the passionflower vine (Passiflora).
The egg? It's about the size of a pin head. Look closely and you'll see it's ridged like the raised lines of sand or a miniature ear of corn.
Often a Gulf Frit will deposit her egg on a tendril, which looks like a cork screw gone ballistic. Sometimes she'll lay her egg on a leaf, a bud, a stem or a nearby wall, gate or fence. Mama, how can we find our way?
We've grown Passiflora in our garden in Vacaville for decades. Some seasons the 'cats will skeletonize the plant, eating everything--from the leaves and blossoms right down to the stems.
Some gardeners refuse to plant the passionflower vine because a stripped plant makes them look like "a bad gardener." They have been known to pluck off the hungry 'cats to "save" the plant.
We let nature take its course. Butterflies mate, eggs hatch, caterpillars crawl, chrysalises form, and the cycle starts all over again. An egg is the promise of a new generation.
Last year the predators, including California scrub jays, praying mantises, spiders, yellowjackets and European paper wasps, grabbed their share of the 'cats.
This season, no. The scrub jays have, for the most part, vanished. Hey, look at that hawk circling our yard! The praying mantises are gone. And we haven't seen a yellowjacket, European paper wasp or spider for weeks.
It's a good year for the Gulf Frits! And a bad year for the passionflower vine... It is about to be skeletonized.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The monarch migration is well underway. The iconic butterflies fluttering into California from the Pacific Northwest engage in "nectar stops" to fuel their flight to their overwintering sites along coastal California.
They are not the only ones seeking nectar.
Monarch: "Sweet! Look what I found! Nectar! Did someone plant this patch of zinnias just for me?"
Honey Bee: (Buzzing in) "Share, Monarch! I need some of that nectar to take home to my colony. Winter's coming and my queen and my sisters need more nectar to tide us over until spring."
Monarch: "Sorry, Bee. I'm on a tight flight schedule and you can always get your nectar tomorrow."
Honey Bee: "Maybe if I buzz your wings, you'll leave!"
Monarch: (Wings up) "I can take the hint, but I'll be back!"
"The annual migration of North America's monarch butterfly is a unique and amazing phenomenon. The monarch is the only butterfly known to make a two-way migration as birds do. Unlike other butterflies that can overwinter as larvae, pupae, or even as adults in some species, monarchs cannot survive the cold winters of northern climates. Using environmental cues, the monarchs know when it is time to travel south for the winter. Monarchs use a combination of air currents and thermals to travel long distances. Some fly as far as 3,000 miles to reach their winter home!...Monarchs living west of the Rocky Mountain range in North America overwinter in California along the Pacific coast near Santa Cruz and San Diego...Monarchs roost in eucalyptus, Monterey pines, and Monterey cypresses in California."--U.S. Forest Service
"A three-week count in November and December 2022, conducted over 272 sites in coastal California by the Portland-based Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, tallied 335,479 of the orange-and-black iconic butterflies, an increase of 36% over the 247,237 counted the previous year. More importantly, the rebounding species (Danaus plexippus) hit an all-time low of 2,000 in 2020, leaving biologists concerned it would disappear from North America."--Los Angeles Daily News.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The scenario: a male praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, is perched on a pink zinnia in a Vacaville pollinator garden filled with bees and butterflies.
Praying Mantis: "Hey, photographer, take my picture! And, can you make me look like Arnold Schwarzenegger?"
Photographer: "Sure, Mr. Mantis. I can take your picture, but you'll never pass for Arnold. You don't look like a bodybuilder."
Praying Mantis: "Well, at least I can look like an action figure."
Photographer: "Okay. A full body shot...Head, thorax and abdomen. But don't go looking for the ladies! You might lose your head."
Praying Mantis: "No problem. I just want to strike some poses. I'm an action figure."
Photographer: "And no action moves. Don't go looking for a bee while I'm taking your photo! Got that?"
Praying Mantis: "Got it." (And gets a bee) "Sorry, I was hungry."