"Almonds are one of the first crops of the season that need bee pollination," tweeted the Almond Board of California yesterday.

Valentine's Day traditionally marks the beginning of almond pollination season, but it's an early spring. The almonds are blooming and the bees are buzzing.

So, first the tweets, then the buzzes.

CNN Money, New York, came out Feb. 7 with a news story headlined "Honeybee Die-Off Shouldn't Sting." The Almond Board linked to it in its tweet.

The piece, written by Steve Hargreaves, explored the "good news and bad news on the honeybee beat."

Hargreaves said that colony collapse disorder (CCD) continues to claim about 30 percent of the nation's bees every winter. That's the bad news. The good news, he said, is that "beekeepers have been able to rejuvenate their hives each year so that by summer, the population is back to previous levels."

And "another bit of good news," Hargreaves pointed out, is that although agricultural yields are rising and "rejuvenating beehives is costly," the higher costs aren't being transferred in the supermarket.

Hargreaves quoted UC Davis agricultural economist Daniel Sumner as saying "It shouldn't be a significant item on the radar screen of consumers. It's not that big of a deal."

So, there you have it. Bees are in trouble. Almond production is up (about 750,000 acres in California and each acre requires two hives for pollination). And, demand for almonds is up. California now produces 80 percent of the world's almonds.

Meanwhile, honey bee guru and Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is repeatedly asked "How are the bees doing?" He writes a bi-monthly from the UC Apiaries newsletter and the periodic Bee Briefs, both posted on the Department of Entomology website.

Mussen attributes CCD (a mysterious malady characterized by adult bees abandoning the hive) to a combination of factors, including parasites, pesticides, pests, diseases, malnutrition and stress.

It continues to amaze us, however, what some folks think is causing CCD. They're looking for a silver bullet. There is none. 

The arguments can get ugly. As debates continue to rage in the CNN Money commentary section,  one reader, obviously exasperated, posted "...the writers in this place don't know anything about the realms of science, economics or ecology. And 90 percent of the posters aren't very bright, either."

Meanwhile, the bees are busy pollinating almonds.

Biodiversity--that's what it's at on Sunday, Feb. 12 at the University of California, Davis.

That's when four museums or centers that engage in education and research involving insects, vertebrates or plants will host open houses.

And folks will be amazed, officials promise.

The Bohart Museum of Entomology, the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology and the Botanical Conservatory will be open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m., while the Center for Plant Diversity will be open from 2 to 4 p.m.

"This will be a fun day where people of all ages can visit UC Davis and check out a number of our research and teaching collections," says Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum and Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology. "Each collection is special and an important scientific resource. I think people will be amazed."

Yang calls it a "behind-the-scenes look at some top research collections."

"There will be staff and students on hand to answer questions and engage people. With Valentine's Day close by there will be some exhibits with a bent toward our love of the natural world, attracting a mate, and mating! But don't worry--it will be appropriate for all ages. For plants this means pollination and that ties back to insects and other animals like bats! "

The event is the first-ever on campus and may become an annual event. "The various collections have talked about doing a museum day," Yang said. "In early February, there is an annual Museum Day for the Sacramento area. This involves the zoo, the railroad museum and other attractions."

Theme of the Bohart Museum open house will be “Bug Lovin.’” The  Bohart Museum, located at 1124 Academic Surge on California Drive, is home to more than seven million insect specimens; a live petting zoo (including Madagascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks; and a gift shop. The director is Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis. The museum is affiliated with the Department of Entomology.

The Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology (MWFB) is a vertebrate museum dedicated to education, outreach, conservation, and research. It is located in 1394 Academic Surge, California Drive and is part of the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. MWFB is managed by curator Andrew Engilis, Jr. and collections manager Irene Engilis.

The UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, directed by Ernesto Sandoval, is a 3,600 square-foot greenhouse complex located north of Storer Hall on Kleiber Hall Drive. Its mission "to inspire, facilitate, promote and engage our visitors with an understanding and appreciation of plants, their diversity and the pivotal role they serve in the environments where they are found," Sandoval says. The Botanical Conservatory is part of the Plant Biology Section, Department of Plant Sciences. The conservatory includes more than 3,000 live specimens from 150 families. 

The Center for Plant Diversity, directed by Dan Potter of Plant Sciences, is located in 1026 Sciences Laboratory Building, near Briggs and Storer halls. Part of the Department of Plant Sciences, it houses the J.M. Tucker and Beecher Crampton Herbaria. "We are going to have plant pressing and mounting demonstrations as well as tours," says curator Ellen Dean.

Feb. 12 also marks the birthday anniversary of naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Yang pointed out that "Darwin was inspired by exploring and collecting plants and animals from all over the world. This connection to nature and curiosity is what fueled Darwin's research. Our collections can inspire that same sort of curiosity and questioning.”

Yes, it promises to be an amazing day! 

A sure sign that winter is nearly over: when the flowering quince bursts into bloom, attracting a flotilla of foraging honey bees. 

Actually, the bees began "inspecting" the flowering quince in the bud stage.  "Hurry, open up!" the bees seemed to urge. "We have to start feeding our colonies."

Flowering quince (genus Chaenomeles, family Rosaceae) is an ornamental plant that's delightful to see. Who doesn't admire the soft pink blossoms and the comforting hum of bees buzzing around with heavy loads of yellow pollen? 

The nation's bees, though, are still in trouble. Overwintering losses are still around 30 percent as in the years past, honey bee experts say. Bees are still suffering from colony collapse disorder (CCD), a mysterious malady characterized by adults bees abandoning the hive. CCD is thought to be the result of multiple factors, including pesticides,pests, diseases, malnutrition and stress. 

As Christi Heintz, executive director of Project Apis m. (as in Apis mellifera), told the Almond Board of California at its meeting in December: “Colony losses are not quite as acute as in previous years, mainly as a result of improved management, but overwintering losses still hover around 30 percent, an unsustainable rate of loss.”

Heintz,  who is the Almond Board Bee Task Force liaison, listed seven areas for best management practice (BMP) development: bee nutrition, pest control/varroa, disease control/nosema, hive mangement/equipment, colony management, business management, and BMPs for almond growers/bee rentals. 

You can read the entire BMP article in Bee Culture.

Project Apis m. or PAm, serves an important role.  Beekeepers and orchardists established PAm in December 2006, as a "New Vision" to fund honey bee research on managed colonies, according to its website. The organization's goal: "to fund and direct research to improve the health and vitality of honey bee colonies while improving crop production. Emphasis is placed on research studies that have realistic and practical usefulness for beekeeping businesses."

"PAm brings together representatives of the American Honey Producers Association (APHA), the American Beekeeping Federation (ABF), the National Honey Board (NHB), California State Beekeepers Association (CSBA), and California almond farmers. PAm includes representatives from both the pollination and crop production enterprises."

Together we can all do our part to help save the bees. The first step: awareness.

What do butterflies tell us about tropical diversity?

Take it from an expert.

Tropical ecologist Philip DeVries of the Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans, will discuss the topic at his lecture on Thursday, Feb. 9 at the University of California, Davis.

His presentation, sponsored by the College of Biological Sciences' Storer Life Sciences Endowment, is at 4:10 p.m. in  2 Wellman Hall. Professor Phil Ward of the UC Davis Department of Entomology is his host.

Free and open to all interested persons, the lecture is sparking a lot of interest, and rightfully so.

DeVries focuses his research on insect ecology and evolution, especially butterflies. A native of Detroit, Mich., he received his doctorate in zoology from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1987.

Highly honored, DeVries has received fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim and Dodge foundations, and the Smithsonian Institute. He is not only a noted researcher and ecologist, but a writer, scientific adviser and photographer.

If you listen to his piece on YouTube (uploaded in 2008), you can see, hear and feel the excitement in his voice as the long-tongued hawk moth, Morgan's Sphinx (Xanthopan morgani) pollinates Darwin's orchid (Angraecum sesquipedale) one night in a Madagascar rain forest. Truly amazing!

Background of the moth and orchid: Naturalist Charles Darwin examined the orchid in 1862 and famously predicted in his book Fertilisation of Orchids that there must be in existence a moth with a long-enough tongue (proboscis) to be able to pollinate it. The orchid's "nectar spur" measures about 12 to 14 inches long. The moth itself was discovered in Madagascar in 1903--correctly proving Darwin's prediction of its existence-- but no one saw it pollinate the orchid until DeVries headed out to the rain forest with his camera equipment. Since pollination occurs only at night, DeVries used infrared light (invisible to the moth) to capture the scene.

Jerry A. Coyne, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, blogged about the spectacular video in "Why Evolution Is True."

"The video," Coyne wrote, "was made in Madagascar by a friend of mine, Phil DeVries  from the University of New Orleans, a remarkable—and, as you’ll see, intrepid—naturalist, and author of the two-volume Butterflies of Costa Rica and their Natural History."

"It’s really lovely to see how excited Phil gets when he finally sees the pollination," wrote Coyne. "Those are the juicy moments that every naturalist lives for."

Yes, indeed! It's something you never expect to see--and hope to see again.