- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ask her why people should be interested in insects, and she'll tell you. There's no "yecch" factor here: just the "ahh!" and "wow" factors.
Which is as it should be!
"First of all, bugs are just really cool!" says Sol, in her third year as an entomology major. "Second, they are extremely important in just about every aspect of life, even if most people don't like to think about that. Just as an example, almost all the food we eat was either directly or indirectly insect-pollinated. Fruits are obvious, but even all the meat we eat comes from animals that ate plants that were pollinated by insects. My field of study, wild bees, is especially important in this exact context because they cannot pollinate every crop. For example, alfalfa and tomatoes are two of our most common crops that cannot be pollinated by honey bees."
Sol, who grew up in the Bay Area community of Belmont, is the first entomologist in her family. "My parents and brother all love insects, but I am the only one hoping to make a career out of entomology. My dad is a forensic economist, my mom is a photographer, and my brother works as a distributor in the car wash industry."
What sparked her interest in entomology?
The UC Davis Entomology Club draws about 25 people to its weekly meetings, held on Thursdays at 6 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. (See Instagram account). "But this quarter a few of our meetings have had 40-plus," Sol said. "Every week, I lead a bug-themed activity, which ranges from professional pinning demos, guest speakers, and arboretum field trips, to movie nights, bug-themed trivia, and show-and-tell nights. At least once or twice a quarter, we do an overnight camping trip in Pope Valley to look for bugs. This fall, our camping trip had 25 insect-enthusiasts, which was a ton of fun but definitely a hassle for me to plan!"
Sol is passionate about her research. In the Williams lab, she is working on a project led by graduate student Elizabeth Reyes-Gallegos that is focused on comparing the functional traits of wild bees to floral functional traits. "Early this quarter, we finished our first field season sampling at plots at the Bee Biology Facility (Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road), so we are still in the early stages of the project," Sol said. "Since spring quarter, I have been working very closely with just about every bee we have collected because I have been dissecting their proboscises as well as pinning and labeling them. Because I have worked so closely with the bees' 'tongues,' I will be branching off slightly from Elizabeth's main focus to look for intraspecific variation in tongue lengths and body size. Currently, I am working closely with Elizabeth and Neal to fully flesh out this project."
At the Bohart Museum, Sol is involved in general curation: pinning, labeling and integrating specimens into the collections. She is currently organizing the Orthoptera collection, which includes grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets. And she's beginning species identification of katydids (Tettigoniidae).
Sol is a fixture at the Bohart Museum open houses. "I started volunteering with the Bohart in winter of 2022 at the Biodiversity Museum Day," she related. "In the months following that, I became a regular volunteer at their outreach events. This was also before I became president of the Entomology Club, but during that time I was helping out as much as I could with various club outreach opportunities, like birthday parties or campus festivals. In July of 2022, the Bohart hired me as an undergraduate intern and I have been working there ever since!"
Another project: Sol is spearheading the Bohart Museum's open house on "Grasshoppers, Crickets and Katydids," from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, March 3 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. (See Bohart Museum schedule)
How would she describe herself to a stranger? "I am an ambitious, hard-working, and outgoing future career entomologist with a special interest in wild bees and katydids. I love to explore the outside looking for bugs, and have dreams of traveling the world for that very purpose. When I don't have insects on my mind, I like to spend my time playing violin, drawing, and surrounding myself with my friends and family."
She's played the violin for about 11 years; in high school she volunteered to teach fourth and fifth graders how to play the instrument.
Sol is glad she chose UC Davis to study entomology. "Overall, I really like how UC Davis is inclusive and welcoming. I also love that we have the arboretum, which has some really great places to find bugs. And of course, I'm especially glad that entomology is a major here and I absolutely love the little entomologist community we've built."
From a childhood loving insects to a senior majoring in entomology at UC Davis, to a researcher studying wild bees to a curator working in the Orthoptera collection at the Bohart Museum, what's next?
"After I graduate from UC Davis, I would like to go to graduate school and study systematics," Sol related. "Although I am also extremely interested in ecology, I have developed an interest in systematics and museum work over the last year. Ultimately, I think I would like to become a professor of entomology and maybe someday run my own lab."
Professor Sol Wantz...That has a nice ring to it!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A resident of Medina, Ohio, Kim died Sunday, Dec. 10 at his home of lung cancer at age 76. He served as editor of Bee Culture for 33 years, retiring in 2019. He authored numerous books and podcasts, including "5000 Years of Beekeeping in 24 Minutes (100)" with Jim Tew on Honey Bee Obscura.
We remember his talk at the 2021 California Honey Festival.
"If you want to be a beekeeper, you must think like a bee, not like a beekeeper," he related.
As a descendant of generations of beekeepers, I asked Kim why folks should keep bees. They "provide essential pollination, improve the genetics of the wild bee population in the area, ensure native plant populations," he said, "and because there is absolutely nothing more calming, soothing, enjoyable than being a part of that civilization, right in your backyard."
We remember when Kim addressed the 2017 Western Apicultural Society's 40th annual conference, held at UC Davis, where it was founded. He predicted that the nation's 250,000 beekeepers (who manage around 4 million colonies) will turn into a million beekeepers in five years.
Kim applauded "the incredible rise of new beekeepers in the last 10 years."
"The urban, suburban and country beekeepers are younger than the norm and we have more women beekeepers than ever," Kim told the crowd. "This isn't like the 1970s Green Movement--I'm old enough to remember that. It's got legs! But watch out for an ugly urban disaster like a major bee spill or bad honey recall."
"If I'm in beekeeping, pollination services is a sure bet," he said. "Beekeepers now get 200 bucks a colony for almond pollination in California. Pollination is more profitable than honey. Bee breeding? Queens can sell for as much as $40 or $50."
"In the United States, we eat on the average 1.2 pounds a year, but in Canada, it's 2.5 or 2.4 pounds." He lamented that unsafe and/or questionable honey from China floods our nation's supermarkets and is being sold at undercut prices. (Some statistics indicate that a "third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals"--Food Safety News.)
It's important for American beekeepers to label their honey "Made in America" or localize it by city or state, Kim said.
He also touched on such issues as honey bee health, nutrition, loss of habitat, poor quality forage, and pesticides.
The varroa mite/virus is the No. 1 problem for beekeepers, he said. "Other stressers include nutrition, nosema, pesticides...All of these can be fixed with money, increased diversity of bee stock, and a move away from both ag and in-hive legal and illegal chemicals."
Extension apiculturist emeritus Eric Mussen (1944-2022), serving his sixth term as president of WAS in 2017, commented at the time: "Kim Flottum has been a stalwart in U.S. beekeeping for decades. He ferrets out information on national, regional, and local beekeeping happenings and disseminates the news in various places, depending upon his role at the time. He has been associated with the A.I. Root Company; Gleanings in Bee Culture, and now editor of Bee Culture magazine. He is very active in the Eastern Apicultural Society and is well known by nearly every University and USDA scientist in the country. Kim consolidates all that information into some really interesting presentations in which he is not known for concealing his opinions."
Kim Flottum received his bachelor's degree in horticulture production from the University of Wisconsin and then worked as a researcher at the USDA Honey Bee Research Lab in Madison, where he specialized in crop pollination, pesticide problems with honey bees, and "honey plants" for the home landscape.
His career took him to Connecticut. He was elected president of Connecticut Beekeepers' Association. He served as publications manager and editor of Gleanings In Bee Culture, A. I. Root's monthly beekeeping magazine. He created a new magazine, BEEKeeping, Your First Three Years. He also served as president of the Ohio State Beekeepers' Association. He continued to keep bees in his backyard in Medina up until his death.
The son of the late Arnold and Edna Flottum of Turtle Lake, Wisc., Kim is survived by his wife, Kathy, of Medina; a daughter, Jessica of Akron; two stepsons, Matt and Grant Summers, both of Medina; and two brothers and two sisters, all from Wisconsin: Julie (Flottum) Hugg of Ashland; Bob Flottum of Chippewa Falls; Susan Flottum Zurcher of Wales; and Tom Flottum of Turtle Lake. A celebration of life is planned next spring. (See obituary)
A post on his Facebook page said simply: "RIP, Kim Flottum, you will be missed by all beekeepers."
And the bees.
His passion for bees, his wisdom about all things bees, his generosity, and his kindness, will never be forgotten.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It lived--and quite hidden at that--through the freezing cold, the rain, and the wind. It surfaced today on a milkweed in our Vacaville pollinator garden.
Surprise, surprise! We neither saw it as an egg nor as a tiny caterpillar.
"Most larval mortality in monarchs occurs in the first 2 or 3 instars.. so they keep as hidden and low-key as possible," entomologist David James, an associate professor at Washington State University, told us. "Once they make it to the fourth instar, they are emboldened and are more likely to be seen exposed."
James, who studies migratory monarchs, earlier commented on the fall breeding: "The egg laying females you are seeing now are likely migrants that have eschewed reproductive dormancy for reproduction. This has probably always happened to some extent but is likely more significant now because of warmer falls. The lack of activity in summer in Vacaville was probably a function of most of the population having dispersed further east and north, maybe more than usual? They surely did pass through Vacaville in spring on their way north but clearly didnt stop to use your milkweeds. It does seem that some years they are more prone to frequent stopping/oviposition on their way north and east, yet in others they just keep flying. There's evidence that the latter was the case this year... with as many migrants making it to BC as to Washington...Normally they stop in Washington and only a handful make it to BC."
James is the author of a newly published book, The Lives of Butterflies: A Natural History of Our Planet's Butterfly Life (Princeton University) with colleague David Lohman of the City College of New York. The book, released in the UK on Oct. 3, 2023, will be available in the United States starting Jan. 9, 2024.
Irish scientist Éanna Ní Lamhna recently interviewed the WSU entomologist in a podcast on RTÉ, or Raidió Teilifís Éireann. The book, Lamhna said, "showcases extraordinary diversity of world's butterflies, while exploring their life histories, behavior, conservation and other aspects of these most fascinating and beguiling insects." (See Bug Squad blog). Listen to the butterfly podcast here:
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22294525/
Meanwhile, we checked another milkweed plant in the garden today and spotted another caterpillar, this one a little smaller and less active than the first.
As UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, commented: "So much for diapause!"
Now our milkweed garden includes scores of hungry aphids, several species of milkweed, two 'cats, and maybe three (one 'cat went missing and is probably j'ing somewhere) and four chrysalids.
Will we have a Merry Chrysalis?
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Can a praying mantis catch a monarch?
Yes, it can. And yes, it does.
It was Sept. 14, 2013. As I approached a Vacaville supermarket, I noticed pink lantana blooming furiously near the entrance, and then, a familiar-looking butterfly quietly sipping nectar.
"Ah, there's a monarch," I observed.
I wasn't the only one watching the monarch.
A female praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, was watching it, too.
In a nano-second, it was all over.
A meal for the mantis.
One less monarch to migrate.
Yes, it can. And yes, it does.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Yes, he does.
The jolly ol' gent wants to assure that no one has a "silent night," not with all the insect-themed gifts there: jewelry such as bee and monarch pins and beetle wing earrings; books for children and adults; note cards; T-shirts and hoodies; stuffed toy animals; posters showcasing dragonflies and California state insect, the dogface butterfly, coffee cups with the dogface butterfly motif; stickers; insect snacks; and hand-turned lathed pens by entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart.
One of the children's books is "The Story of the Dogface Butterfly," authored in 2013 by entomologist Fran Keller, a professor at Folsom Lake College, a Bohart Museum research scientist, and a UC Davis doctoral alumna.
Found only in California, the rarely seen butterfly is also known as (1) "the flying pansy," referring to the male's spectacular black and yellow coloring, and (2) as a "dog head" butterfly (the markings on the male resemble a silhouette of a dog's head). The female is mostly solid yellow. The butterfly's major breeding ground is in Auburn in the Shutamul Bear River Preserve maintained by the Placer Land Trust (PLT).
The insect museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus, is open to the public from 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday (except on holidays). It will be closed for the winter break from Dec. 23 to Jan. 1.
The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It is also the home of a live petting zoo, which includes Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects (aka walking sticks) and tarantulas.
UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, a UC Davis doctoral alumna, has directed the Bohart Museum since 1990. Her major professor, Richard Bohart (1913-2007) founded the insect museum in 1946.
For more information contact, the Bohart Museum at bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or access its website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu.
