Professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, with an Asian giant hornet, dubbed by the news media, "murder hornet."

The web page, Live Talks and Demonstrations, provides more information and the Zoom links. All presentations are free and family friendly.

Here's what's on tap from Feb. 13 through Feb. 24:

Saturday, Feb. 13, 10 a.m. to noon:
Live Demonstration: Museum Bird Preparation
Irene Engilis collections manager of the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, and a team of students and staff will show how to prepare a dead bird as a scientifically valuable museum specimen. They will answer questions about the process and how they study birds both in the museum and in the wild. 
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html  

Saturday, Feb. 13, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. 
Live Talk: All About Yeasts
This  will include a 20 minute pre-recorded presentation from 10 a.m. to 10:20, followed by a live question-and-answer session. Emeritus Professor Marc-André Lachance, recently retired from Western University in Ontario, Canada and a UC Davis alumnus, will talk about his global yeast-collecting expeditions.  
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html   

Saturday, Feb. 13, 11 a.m. to noon
Live Talk and Questions and Answers: All About Ants
Doctoral students Jill Oberski and Ziv Lieberman of the Phil Ward lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will discuss ants and host a question-and-answer session, followed by a 15-minute talk by doctoral student Zach Griebenow about his research on ant evolution. 
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html  

Saturday, Feb. 13, Noon to 2 p.m. 
Live Demonstration: Museum Bird Preparation by Irene Engilis collections manager of the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, and a team of students and staff will show how to prepare a dead bird as a scientifically valuable museum specimen. They will answer questions about the process and how they study birds both in the museum and in the wild. 
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html 

Saturday, Feb. 13, 1 to 2 p.m.
Live Talk: Raptor Diversity
Julie Cotton, education director of the California Raptor Center, will answer questions and discuss birds of prey, wildlife rehabilitation and the diversity of raptors. 
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html 

Saturday, Feb. 13, 2 to 4 p.m. 
Live Talks: Anthropology and Ask an Anthropologist 

• Faculty and staff from the Department of Anthropology will present a series of talks. Questions are encouraged throughout the event, and there will also be a special time at the end to "Ask An Anthropologist."
• 2 to 2:15: "Animal Ecology in Precontact California"--Jelmer Eerkens 
  
• 2:15 to 2:30: "Gorillas, Poop, and Nematodes--Neetha Iyer 
  
• 2:30 to 2:45: "Reconstructing Human Evolution: A 3-D Jigsaw Puzzle--Mayowa Adegboyega, 
  
• 2:45 to 3 p.m: "Paleolithic Stone Tool Technology at Nihewan Basin, P.R. China"--Corey Johnson 
  
• 3 to 3:15 p.m. "Zoonotic Disease and Andean Camelid Domestication"--Kathy Morucci  https://www.youtube.com/watch/Q4076iRb9tk
• 3:15 to 3:30: Netting Dovekies in NW Greenland--Erika Ebel 
  
• 3:30 to 3:45, "Spirits of the Animals: Precontact and Contemporary Inuit Art"-- Christyann Darwent
  
• 3:45-4:00 p.m. Ask an Anthropologist 
  Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html  

Monday, Feb. 15, noon to 1 p.m.
Live Talk: All About Heliconius Butterflies (Repeat by popular demand)
UC Davis postdoctoral fellow Kathy Darragh will deliver her second live talk on Heliconius butterflies, answering questions about these tropical butterflies. She earlier presented a talk on Feb. 7. Click here for the presentation in Spanish. She holds a bachelor's degree in zoology and a doctorate from the University of Cambridge (England). During her Ph.D. she studied in the lab of Chris Jiggins, investigating the pheromones of Heliconius butterflies, focusing on chemical ecology, behavior and genetics.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html  

Thursday, Feb. 18, 1 to 2 p.m.
Live Talk: 'Murder Hornets' with Lynn Kimsey 
Professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, will discuss Asian giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia), recently discovered in Canada and Washington State. The news media has nicknamed them "murder hornets."  Says Kimsey: "l will focus on the biology of common pest paper wasps, like western yellowjacket, European paper wasp and the bald-faced hornet and of course, true hornets and whether they're a threat to California."
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html  

Saturday, Feb. 20, 11 a.m. to noon
Live Talk, Questions and Answers: All About Ants, Part II 
Entomology professor Phil Ward will host a fun and lively question-and-answer session, "All About Ants," based on his many years collecting and studying ants from around the world. 
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html

Tuesday, Feb. 23, 12:15 to 12:45
Live Talk: All About Bees and Gardens  
This will be a live question-and-answer session with Christine Casey, manager of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. She will discuss what's blooming in the Davis garden and what bees are active.  
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html

Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1 to 2 p.m. (postponed)
Live Talk: Botanical Conservatory  in Spanish
Ernesto Sandoval, collections manager will spotlight the Botanical Conservatory. He earlier presented a program in English.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html

About UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Month
The 10th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Month program is all virtual this year via live talks and demonstrations, and pre-recorded presentations. It's being celebrated throughout the month of February. The science-based event traditionally occurs on only one day--the Saturday of Presidents' Weekend, when families and friends gather on campus to learn first-hand about the UC Davis museums and collections. The 2020 event drew more than 4000 to the campus.

This year's biodiversity event is featuring 12 museums or collections:

• Anthropology Museum
• Arboretum and Public Garden
• Bohart Museum of Entomology
• Botanical Conservatory
• California Raptor Center
• Center for Plant Diversity
• Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
• Nematode Collection
• Marine Invertebrate Collection 
• Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
• Paleontology Collection
• Phaff Yeast Culture Collection

For more information and the schedule, access these two formats on the UC Davis Biodiversity program website: (1) live talks and demonstrations and (2) pre-recorded talks and activities. Information on the biodiversity museum events also appear on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, @BioDivDay. 

To help support the Biodiversity Museum event, contributions are being accepted through a month-long crowdfunding campaign program at https://crowdfund.ucdavis.edu/project/24310. 

A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, heading for a California golden poppy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The 10th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum program is going virtual this year through a variety of live webinars and recorded presentations scheduled throughout the month of February. The science-based event traditionally takes place only on one day--the Saturday of Presidents' Weekend, when campus visitors can meet scientists and see and discuss their work.

This year, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, plans changed, noted spokesperson Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology. The biodiversity event will feature 12 museums or collections going virtual:

• Anthropology Museum
• Arboretum and Public Garden
• Bohart Museum of Entomology
• Botanical Conservatory
• California Raptor Center
• Center for Plant Diversity
• Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
• Nematode Collection
• Marine Invertebrate Collection 
• Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
• Paleontology Collection
• Phaff Yeast Culture Collection

For the schedule, access the live talks and demonstrations and pre-recorded talks and activities on the UC Davis Biodiversity program website. 

Here's a handy list of the live talks and demonstrations, by dates:

Tuesday, Feb 9, 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. 
Live Talk: All About Bees and Gardens

Christine Casey, manager of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's half-acre bee garden, the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, located on Bee Biology Road, will discuss what's blooming the garden, and what bees are active. Participants can then ask questions about their own bee gardens. This event will repeat on Tuesday, Feb. 9 and Tuesday, Feb. 23. A summary of the talk and the answers provided will be posted on Feb. 26. Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html

Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2 to 3 p.m. 
Live Talk: All About Social Behavior in Bees (especially orchid bees!)

UC Davis postdoctoral researcher Nick Saleh will discuss and answer questions about social behavior in bees especially orchid bees. He is interested in the behavior of all bees, but focuses his work on orchid bees, a group of tropical bees which form social groups of just two or three individuals. He also will discuss other social behaviors of bees. He holds a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Cornell University, and a doctorate from UC Davis, where he works with associate professor Santiago Ramirez.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html

Thursday, Feb 11,  1 to 2 p.m. 
Live Talk: All About Plants at the Botanical Conservatory 

Ernesto Sandoval, director of the Botanical Conservatory, will give a virtual tour through photos and talk about the living plants in their green houses, from the cacao tree to the stinky corpse flower that blooms for just 24-36 hours. 
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html

Saturday, Feb. 13, 10 a.m. to noon 
Live Demonstration, Museum Bird Preparation 

Irene Engilis, collections manager of the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, and a team of students and staff will demonstrate how to prepare a dead bird as a scientifically valuable museum specimen. They will answer questions about the process and how they study birds both in the museum and in the wild. This includes a prerecorded presentation from 10 to 10:20, followed by a 20-minute pre-recorded presentation, and then a live question and answer session.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html 

Saturday, Feb. 13, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.  
Live Talk: Phaff Yeast Collection Presentation

A 20-minute pre-recorded presentation on the Phaff Yeast Collection is set from 10 to 10:20, followed by a live question-and-answer session. Emeritus Professor Marc-André Lachance, recently retired from Western University in Ontario, Canada and a UC Davis alumnus, will discuss his global yeast collecting expeditions.
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html

Saturday, Feb. 13, 11 a.m. to noon
Live Talk: All About Ants

Rising entomologists Jill Oberski and Ziv Lieberman, doctoral students of major professor Phil Ward, will host a question-and-answer session "all about the world of ants," followed by a 15-minute talk by doctoral candidate Zach Griebenow about his ant evolution research. Griebenow will answer questions following his presentation. There also will be an ant talk on Feb. 20 from 11 a.m. to noon with their major professor Phil Ward. Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html

Saturday, Feb. 13, noon to 2 p.m.
Live Demonstration: Museum Mammal Preparation

Irene Engilis, collections manager of the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, and a team of students and staff will show how to prepare a dead mammal as a scientifically valuable museum specimen. They will answer questions about the process and how they study mammals, both in the museum and in the wild. 

Saturday, Feb. 13, 1 to 2 p.m
Live Talk: Raptor Diversity

Julie Cotton, education director of the California Raptor Center, located on Old Davis Road, will answer questions and discuss birds of prey, wildlife rehabilitation and the diversity of raptors. 
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html

Saturday, Feb. 13, 2 to 4 p.m. 
Live Talks: Anthropology and Ask an Anthropologist 

• Faculty and staff from the Department of Anthropology will present a series of talks. Questions are encouraged throughout the event, and there will also be a special time at the end to "Ask An Anthropologist."
• 2 to 2:15: "Animal Ecology in Precontact California"--Jelmer Eerkens 
  
• 2:15 to 2:30: "Gorillas, Poop, and Nematodes--Neetha Iyer 
  
• 2:30 to 2:45: "Reconstructing Human Evolution: A 3-D Jigsaw Puzzle--Mayowa Adegboyega, 
  
• 2:45 to 3 p.m: "Paleolithic Stone Tool Technology at Nihewan Basin, P.R. China"--Corey Johnson 
  
• 3 to 3:15 p.m. "Zoonotic Disease and Andean Camelid Domestication"--Kathy Morucci  https://www.youtube.com/watch/Q4076iRb9tk
• 3:15 to 3:30: Netting Dovekies in NW Greenland--Erika Ebel 
  
• 3:30 to 3:45, "Spirits of the Animals: Precontact and Contemporary Inuit Art"-- Christyann Darwent
  
• 3:45-4:00 p.m. Ask an Anthropologist 

Monday, Feb. 15, noon to 1 p.m.
Live Talk: All About Heliconius Butterflies

UC Davis postdoctoral fellow Kathy Darragh will deliver her second live talk, answering questions about the Heliconius tropical butterflies. She earlier presented a talk on Feb. 7. Click here for the presentation in Spanish. She holds a bachelor's degree in zoology and a doctorate from the University of Cambridge (England). During her Ph.D. she studied in the lab of Chris Jiggins, investigating the pheromones of Heliconius butterflies, focusing on chemical ecology, behavior and genetics.

Thursday, Feb. 18, 1 to 2 p.m.
Live Talk: 'Murder Hornets' with Lynn Kimsey

Professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, will discuss  Giant Asian hornets (Vespa mandarinia), recently discovered in Canada and Washington State. The news media has nicknamed them "murder hornets." 
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html

Saturday, Feb. 20, 11 a.m. to noon
Live Talk, Questions and Answers: All About Ants, Part II

Entomology professor Phil Ward will host a fun and lively question-and-answer session, "All About Ants," based on his many years collecting and studying ants from around the world. 

Tuesday, Feb. 23, 12:15 to 12:45
Live Talk: All About Bees and Gardens 

This will be a live question-and-answer session with Christine Casey, manager of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. She will discuss what's blooming in the Davis garden and what bees are active.  
Access this link to obtain the Zoom link, http://biodiversitymuseumday.ucdavis.edu/live-programs.html

For the pre-recorded presentations and activities, check this site. 

To help support the Biodiversity Museum Day, contributions are being accepted through a month-long crowdfunding campaign program at https://crowdfund.ucdavis.edu/project/24310 

Ivana Li, UC Davis biology teaching lab coordinator, crafted this art to spotlight the 13 museums or collections participating last year. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It will not be a day--it will be a month, the month of February.

It will not be a walk-around event--it will be virtual.

Traditionally billed as a “free, educational event for the community where visitors get to meet and talk with UC Davis scientists "and see amazing objects and organisms from the world around us,” it's a science-based event showcasing the diversity of life, according to Biodiversity Museum Day coordinator Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology. 

Over the last nine years, it took place the Saturday of Presidents' Day weekend. Last year more than 4000 attended. 

Information on the event is being posted on the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day website as plans unfold. The 12 museums or collections participating in the virtual program this year via Zoom webinars, Facebook programs and YouTube will be:

• Anthropology Museum
• Arboretum and Public Garden
• Bohart Museum of Entomology
• Botanical Conservatory
• California Raptor Center
• Center for Plant Diversity
• Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
• Nematode Collection
• Marine Invertebrate Collection 
• Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology
• Paleontology Collection
• Phaff Yeast Culture Collection

The live talks and demonstrations and pre-recorded talks and activities are being posted on the Biodiversity Museum Day/Month website.

Live talks will encompass such topics as heliconius butterflies, bees and gardens, orchid bees, plants in the Botanical Conservatory, Asian giant hornets (aka murder hornets), ants, yeasts, mammal specimen preparations and raptors. 

Pre-recorded programs will cover bee diversity, millipedes, herbariums and marine life, as well as how to make a bee condo and how to prepare insects (spread the wings of butterflies and moths) for display, among other subjects.

All participating museums and collections have active education and outreach programs, Yang said, but the collections are not always accessible to the public.  More information is pending on the website at http://biodiversitymuseumday.edu, and on social media, including Facebook and Twitter, @BioDivDay. 

The UC Biodiversity Museum Day/Month program is participating in Crowdfund UC Davis "where alumni, students, parents and friends can make donations to support innovative projects that propel student engagement, new research discoveries, and efforts to expand UC Davis impact on California and the world."  The funding program will continue through the end of February.

To donate, click here: 

https://crowdfund.ucdavis.edu/project/24310

Robbin Thorp, 1933-2019, was a global authority on bumble bees and other bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

In memory of native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor of entomology, the Bohart Museum of Entomology is sponsoring the inaugural Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest.

Professor Thorp, 85, who died June 7, 2019, was a global authority on bumble bees, and always looked forward to seeing the first bumble bee of the year.  He launched an impromptu contest several years ago with a small group of bumble bee enthusiasts/photographers from Yolo and Solano counties.  

Now the Bohart Museum, where Thorp spent much of his time identifying bees and helping others, is sponsoring the contest. Participants are to capture an image of a bumble bee in the wild in either Yolo or Solano counties and email the image to bmuseum@ucdavis.edu, with the details of time, date and place. The image must be recognizable as a bumble bee.  The winner receives bragging rights and a special gift from the Bohart Museum, said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart and UC Davis professor of entomology. Plans call for a Bohart coffee mug with a bumble bee image.

The first bumble bee to emerge in this area is the black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus. Native to western North America and found from California to British Columbia and as far east as Idaho, it forages on manzanitas, wild lilacs, wild buckwheats, lupines, penstemons, clovers, and sages, among others.

Thorp, a 30-year member of the UC Davis entomology faculty, from 1964-1994, co-authored two books, Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (Princeton University, 2014) and California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday, 2014). He achieved emeritus status in 1994 but continued to engage in research, teaching and public service until a few weeks before his death.

A tireless advocate of pollinator species protection and conservation, he was known for his expertise, dedication and passion in protecting native pollinators, especially bumble bees, and for his teaching, research and public service. He was an authority on pollination ecology, ecology and systematics of honey bees, bumble bees, vernal pool bees, conservation of bees, native bees and crop pollination, and bees of urban gardens and agricultural landscapes.

Thorp co-taught The Bee Course from 2002 to 2019, an intensive nine-day workshop affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History and held annually at the Southwestern Research Station, Portal, Ariz.

Kimsey, who first met Thorp when she was a graduate student at UC Davis, said that although he wasn't her major professor, “my project was on bees and he was incredibly helpful and supportive. His enthusiasm about pollinators and bees in particular actually grew after he retired, and he continued helping students and researchers and was the backbone of so much research. His support and kindness was matched by his undemanding assistance and expertise. What a terrible loss to his family and to the research and conservation communities." 

An authority on the critically imperiled Franklin's bumble bee, Bombus franklini,  Thorp began monitoring the bumble bee population in 1998 in its narrow distribution range of southern Oregon and northern California. He had not seen it since 2006 and was instrumental in placing Franklin's bumble bee on the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Long active in the North America IUCN Bumblebee Specialist Group, Thorp served as its regional co-chair, beginning in 2011. 

In August of 2016 a documentary crew from CNN, headed by John Sutter, followed Thorp to a meadow where he last saw Franklin's bumble bee. Sutter wrote about Dr. Thorp, then 82, in a piece he titled "The Old Man and the Bee," aspinoff of Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea." (See "Will Franklin's Bumble Bee Ever Be Seen Again?"on YouTube by EarthFixMedia.)

Highly honored by his peers, Thorp was named a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco in 1986; recipient of the Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship of UC Davis in 2010; and recipient of the UC Davis Distinguished Emeritus Award in 2015. Other honors included: member of the UC Davis Bee Team that won the Team Award from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA) in 2013. In addition, he was a past president (2010-2011) of the Davis Botanical Society, and former chair (1992-2011) of the Advisory Committee for the Jepson Prairie Reserve, UC Davis/Natural Reserve System. 

UC Davis professor and pollination ecologist Neal Williams, who organized a special symposium in Thorp's honor at the 2019 PBESA meeting in San Diego, praised his “tireless efforts in research, advocacy and education” and how he “inspired a new generation of bee researchers.”