One of the most prominent and distant--as in far away--visitors to the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, the half-acre bee friendly garden on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis, was Mark Leech of Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.

Leech visited the garden several years ago to research his book, Bee Friendly: A Planting Guide for European Honeybees and Australia Native Pollinators for the Australian Rural Industries R&D Corp (RIRDC). 

"The book," he told us, "is to encourage planting for bee forage across the landscape from urban to the rural environment and all climate zones."

Leech recently provided us with a copy of the finished work, which is absolutely magnificent. It's informative, educational and colorful and is bound to make a difference.

On Page 1, he writes: "The world has become aware of the plight of the honeybee. The reported collapse of honeybee population in North America and Europe, and the fear of a food crisis, have led people around the world to become concerned. Shrinking resources, increased urbanization, ever expanding corporate agriculture with its push for monoculture, greater use of insecticides and herbicides, changes to grazing practices, a global warning trend and climatic chare are all placing pressure on honeybee and native pollinator population. It is in this context that this book was produced, to guide planting decisions in favour of plants theat benefit honeybees and native pollinatiors."

He devotes one page to the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, which was planted in the fall of 2009 and is operated by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. "In response to colony collapse and threats to the US apiary industry,  Häagen-Dazs, a well-known ice cream brand, launched the Häagen-Dazs Loves HoneyBees' campaign in February 2008, committing significant funding to both the University of California, Davis and Pennsylvania State University for honeybee research. Its contribution to UC Davis resulted in a bee garden as a demonstration, education and research tool."

"The purpose of the Honeybee Haven garden is to provide a year-round food source for honeybees," Leech continued. "One of the design criteria in the competition that was held was that the Honeybee Haven should inspire the development of honeybee garens in a variety of settings, including backyards, public gardens, agricultural easements, urban rooftoops and other urban species."

For the front and back covers of the book, Leech chose an mage of a bee foraging on a pink zinnia (a photo taken by yours truly in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven).

His species pages contain 193 species, native and exotic, "that were chosen to represent a selection of useful bee forage. Many of the plants are known as top producers of both pollen and nectar, a few are nectar only, and some are pollen only."

Among those contributing to the book from the United States: Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture; bee scientist Marla Spivak of the University of Minnesota; and Kathy Kellison, executive director of Partners for Sustainable Pollination.

It's a book well worth reading. You can download a free PDF of the book from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation website at http://www.rirdc.gov.au/. Go to publications and look under honeybees. You can also order a bound copy through Mark Leech at mleech@iinet.net.au.

Senior museum scientist Steve Heydon strikes a pose.

The society's annual Halloween party in the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis, showcased a combination of insects and costumes.

A skull shared the habitat of the giant cave cockroach (Blaberus gigante), native to tropical Central America and northern South America. This cockroach is considered one of the largest cockroaches in the world, according to Wikipedia, with the male reaching lengths of 7.5 cm and the female, 10 cm. Its diet consists of everything from decaying plant material, fruits and seeds to dead insects and bat guano.

The partygoers? Senior museum scientist Steve Heydon came dressed as a witch.

Kate Brown, a third-year student at the UC Davis School of Medicine, donned Monarch butterfly wings.

Meanwhile, the Bohart Society members checked out the assorted insects, ranging from praying mantids to Madagascar hissing cockraoches to walking sticks. Entomologist Leia Matern of Woodland, who is studying for her master's degree at UC Davis, answered questions about a bug display to her curious daughter, Tilly.

The Bohart Museum Society is a campus and community support organization dedicated to supporting the mission of the museum, according to director Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis.  The museum, which houses neearly eight million insect specimens,  and the Bohart Museum Society are dedicated to teaching, research and public service.  "Our current growth is financed by memberships and your contributions," Kimsey said. (See membership benefits)

Meanwhile, the Bohart Museum is gearing up for its next Nov. 23rd open house. The theme: "Beauty and Beetles." It will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge building on Crocker Lane. See schedule of weekend open houses.  The museum is open to the public Mondays through Thursdays.

Ivan Schwab

Ophthalmologist and professor Ivan Schwab of the UC Davis Health System says that spiders “get a bad rap. Few would harm you, and only rarely are spiders aggressive towards humans.  Most will defend themselves if threatened, of course, and a few are venomous. Most spiders, however, would prefer to ignore humans and be ignored by us.”

At his UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar on Oct. 23 in Briggs Hall, Dr. Schwab told the crowd that jumping spiders have the “best acuity of all spiders.” They are ambush spiders, lying in wait for prey.

If you visit your garden or a neighborhood park, you may see a jumping spider looking back at you. Last Sunday we spotted a jumping spider lurking beneath the petals of a yellow rose. Meanwhile, a honey bee foraged above it.

That reminded us of what Dr. Schwab said about spiders and how they see.

Background: Dr. Schwab directs the Cornea and External Disease Service and serves as the medical advisor of the eye bank, as well as professor of ophthalmology in the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science. He’s the author of five books, including the highly acclaimed Evolution’s Witness: How Eyes Evolved, published in November 2011. He describes the eye as "evolution's greatest gift and its greatest triumph."

The UC Davis ophthalmologist writes an informative blog, Evolution’s Witness, and recently penned one, with amazing detail, on jumping spiders. “Jumping spiders are positively charming creatures, and you will know that to be true if you have ever watched one closely.  These are common spiders and range from approximately 3 to 17 mm in length and will watch you closely as you approach them.  They have four pairs of eyes, with the large anterior median (AM) set the most obvious. These circular eyes provide an ‘attentive child’ appearance because they are fixed and are relatively large based on body size, but are tiny on an absolute scale.  These placid eyes belie the organized complexity and evolutionary genius that lies beneath the carapace.”

Dr. Schwab goes on to describe the AM eyes as "Galilean telescopes with a corneal lens fixed to the carapace, and a second 'lens' at the end of a small tube immediately in front of the retina."

"This compact telephoto lens system combined with the tiered retina," he says, "achieves excellent acuity, but only a very tiny field of vision. So, to increase this field of acute vision, this optical marvel moves the tube housing the retina with six muscles per eye by mostly scanning movements. This is akin to a raster scan similar to those seen on a TV or computer screen.  Jumping spiders scan their world much like painting a wall with a fine brush although the retina is not linear, but shaped more like a boomerang. The other pairs of eyes do not scan and are principally used as motion detectors to find other animals for the AM eyes to decipher."

"With the AM eyes, jumping spiders have the finest discrimination of all arthropods, and probably all invertebrates as they are visual hunters, whereas most other spiders use the tools of silk."

Dr. Schwab marvels at how a jumping spider is able to see so well and ambush its prey. "If the spider moves, it may frighten the prey, so the spider needs another mechanism." Read Dr. Schwab's column for the details on that mechanism. After you do, you'll come away with a greater appreciation of jumping spiders and that most amazing organ, the eye.

By the way, this visual hunter (below) didn't nab the honey bee Sunday afternoon....but it may have later.

Leslie Saul-Gershenz

However, there may be sad ending...more about that later.

Members and their guests will gather Nov. 7 at 9:15 a.m.  at their meeting site, the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District conference room, 155 Mason Circle, Concord.  for coffee and registration.

Then, at 9:30 a.m., Saul-Gershenz will discuss “Meloid Parasites of Solitary Bees."  A  graduate student in the Neal Williams lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and a co-founder of SaveNature.Org, Saul-Gershenz researches a solitary ground-nesting bee, Habropoda pallida and its nest parasite, a blister beetle, Meloe franciscanus, found in the Mojave National Preserve.

She is the lead author of “Blister Beetle Nest Parasites Cooperate to Mimic the Sex Pheromone of the Solitary Bee Habropoda pallida (Hymenoptera: Apidae)," co-authored by professor Jocelyn G. Millar and staff research associate J. Steven McElfresh, both of UC Riverside. The Mojave National Preserve Science News published the peer-reviewed research in its April 2012 edition.

"The solitary bee is the first native bee to emerge in the spring on the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave National Preserve," said Saul-Gershenz.  “The adult beetles emerge on the dunes in the winter months at Kelso Dunes and feed exclusively on the leaves of Astragalus lentiginosus, which leafs out in January." 

The bee's emergence is generally synchronized with the onset of blooms of the Borrego milkvetch, which is the sole host plant of adults of the blister beetle at Kelso Dunes.

The UC Davis ecologist said the larvae of the parasitic blister beetle produce a chemical cue or a pheromone similar to that of a female solitary bee to lure males to the larval aggregation. The larvae attach to the male bee and then transfer to the female during mating. The end result: the larvae wind up in the nest of a female bee, where they eat the nest provisions and likely the host egg.

The work of Saul-Gershenz, Millar and McElfresh appears in a newly published academic book, Sensory Ecology, Behaviour, and Evolution (Oxford University Press) by Martin Stevens.  Another book, pending publication in December, also will contain their work: the second edition of Pheromones and Animal Behaviour (Cambridge University) by Tristram Wyatt.

Previously, three other books summarized their research:

Keeping the Bees: Why All Bees Are at Risk and What We Can Do to Save Them by Laurence Packer and published in 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers, Ltd.

Cuticular Hydrocarbons: Biology, Biochemistry and Chemical Ecology by editors A. Bagnères-Urbany and G. Bloomquist and published in 2010 by Cambridge University Press.

The Other Insect Societies by James T. Costa, and published in 2006 by the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Now, back to what may be a sad ending.

Following Saul-Gershenz' one-hour talk,  the Nor Cal Entomology Society members will discuss the future of the organization, founded in 1930. Then it was known as the Northern California Entomology Club. Membership continues to be open to all interested persons, with dues at $10 a year. Currently the society meets three times a year: in Sacramento, at UC Davis, and in Concord.

Nor Cal Entomology president Robert Dowell of the California Department of Food and Agriculture will moderate the disussion.

“We have reached a critical juncture in the existence of the organization,” secretary-treasurer Eric Mussen, Extension apiculturist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, wrote to the members in an email. “At its beginning, the society served as the meeting place for entomologists mostly from UC Berkeley and UC Davis, as well as other members who appreciated their lively discussions of research and pest control. Representatives from industry and regulatory establishments also participated. A revolving system of society chairs was instituted and membership was good.”

“Over time, the climate has changed. UC Berkeley no longer has an entomology department or hardly any entomologists anymore,” said Mussen, who will retire from UC Davis in June 2014. 

Those planning to attend to hear the talk and discuss the future of the organization should contact Mussen at ecmussen@ucdavis.edu or telephone him at (530) 753-0472 by Nov. 1. And oh, yes, there's a luncheon to be served by Kinder's Meats. Mussen is taking reservations (and payment) for that, too.