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There's a good reason why jumping spiders are named "jumping spiders." They jump. A jumping spider, according to National Geographic, can jump 50 times its body length. We saw this jumping spider (family, Salticidae and probably genus Phidippus) in our flower bed last weekend.
This is part of a talk I gave last week in Marin County. These three annual thistles turn up everywhere in northern California, so it's nice to know them by name. They're mostly on disturbed sites, roadsides, and waste ground, but they can also establish on rangeland, pasture, and natural areas.
It's a good cause. The seventh annual Bee Symposium, a fundraiser for Partners for Sustainable Pollination, will take place on Saturday, March 9 in Sebastopol. That's when five speakers will talk about pollinator habitat--what's good to plant and why. The theme is "Pollinator Habitat and Forage.
"We don't need to irrigate, it's winter." This is a commonly held idea, and many years it is true. Adequately timed rains will often meet the needs of avocado trees during the winter period, and in times like last year, even satisfy much of the spring requirement.
If you love to watch pollinators at work in your garden--especially the honey bees and the bumble bees--first you have to provide the plants. Promise yourself to plant pollinator plants periodically. But which ones? The UC Davis Arboretum staff gets asked that question a lot.
There have been a lot of new avocado orchards planted during the last few years. These often have been in old Valencia orchards or lemons that had poor production. In order to save money, growers have just cut the trees at ground level and replanted the avocados near the stumps.
It's a fantastic project. The UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) has decided to provide travel funds to entomology undergraduates who want to present their research at entomological associations.
In this issue... 4-H Presentations, Super Field Day, All-Star Applications due May 1st, Fashion Revue and Food Faire, State Field Day activities and much, much more.
It will be like "old home week" when professor Kelli Hoover of Pennsylvania State University presents a seminar on Tuesday, March 5 on the UC Davis campus. Hoover, who received her doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1997, will discuss Co-Evolution in a Host Baculovirus System from noon to 1 p.
