Archive Nut, Prune and Olive Programs

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JAY ROSENHEIM, shown here talking to a colleague at a meeting of the Entomological Society of America, is a newly elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty in 1990. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Double Honor

December 17, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's quite an honor to be elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). And it's a double honor when two persons from the same department at the same university receive the honor the very same year. That's what happened today.
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NO SWEAT--This is a female sweat bee, Halictus ligatus, in the Storer Garden, UC Davis Arboretum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Great Pollinator Site

December 16, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
What a treasure! Have you seen the Xerces Society's new online Pollinator Conservation Resource Center? This is something that's long been needed. It's a wealth of information--that's why it's a treasure. As Matthew Shepherd of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation says: "...
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KELLY LIEBMAN is researching dengue in Peru.

Battling Dengue and Malaria

December 15, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Meet Kelly Liebman and Wei Xu. They're graduate students and mosquito researchers in the Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, who just received the 2009 William Hazeltine Memorial Research Fellowship Awards.
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THIS is a male leafcutting bee, Megachile sp., as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis. It is nectaring rock purslane, which has a poppylike blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Making the Cut

December 14, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
The cold, blustery storm that swept over Northern California over the last two weeks wiped out the rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora) and with it the "meeting place" of assorted insects: honey bees, leafcutter bees, ladybugs, bumble bees, potter wasps, et al.
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NEWEST ESA FELLOW from UC Davis is chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor and former chair of the Department of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Good Fellows

December 11, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Mafia has its Good Fellas. The Entomological Society of America (ESA) has its Fellows, too. And they're not just "good"--they're excellent.
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QUEEN BEE INSEMINATION is intricate work. Here college student Joy Pendell of Pendell Apiaries, Stonybrook, gets it right the first time. She was enrolled in Susan Cobey's August 2009 class. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Improving Stock

December 10, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Want to learn how to rear high-quality queen bees? Want to learn instrumental insemination of queen bees? Specialized classes, taught by bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, are scheduled next spring at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. Registration is now under way.
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BEE BREEDER-GENETICIST Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, holds a frame of bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Co-Bee

December 9, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
You won't find anyone more passionate about honey bees than Susan Cobey. Cobey, a bee breeder-geneticist and manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis, has just received the California State Beekeepers' Association's 2009 Distinguished Service Award.
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BEEKEEPER Elizabeth Frost shows a miniature beehive candle she made from beeswax and a little paraffin. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

At Wick's End

December 8, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Elizabeth Frost is at wick's end. When she's not tending the bees at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis or tending her own bees at home, she loves to make candles.
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A CREW recently planted the Campus Buzzway, a quarter-acre field of golden poppies, lupine and coreoposis, on Bee Biology Road, next the the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Burst of Buds, Blooms and Bees

December 7, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Next spring the Campus Buzzway at UC Davis will burst with buds, blooms and bees. The Campus Buzzway, a quarter-acre field of wildflowers, took root the third week of November when a crew planted golden poppies, lupine and coreopsis (tickseed).
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HONEY BEE nectaring a mutton bird sedge (Carex trifeda) at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Brush With a Bee and a Hummer

December 4, 2009
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
A brush with a honey bee... A brush with a hummingbird... When we visited the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden recently, honey bees were nectaring the mutton bird sedge (Carex trifeda), a New Zealand native known for its upright floral spikes that resemble golden bottle brushes.
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