Ongoing research

Something was wrong. The Anise Swallowtail (Papillo zelicaon) that fluttered into our bee garden last weekend and began nectaring on zinnia wasn't quite herself. Her yellow and black coloring and the striking blue spot on the rear left wing looked fine.

A freeloader. A moocher. A sponger. That's the freeloader fly. A praying mantis is polishing off the remains of a honey bee. Suddenly a black dot with wings edges closer and closer and grabs a bit of the prey. So tiny. So persistent. So relentless. That's the freeloader fly.

It's not yet on Inciweb, but the Meadow fire is burning near Yosemite, at the east of Little Yosemite Valley. They say: "This is not a CAL FIRE incident." Yosemite NP says as of today: "Meadow (37 42.738 x 119 30.541 Mariposa Co.

Sean Hogan joined UCANR and IGIS on September 2, 2014 as an Academic Coordinator II, to provide IGIS analysis, coordination and support to the Informatics and Geographic Information Systems (IGIS) team to the meet the IGIS mission. Sean has a double major B.A.

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Here are the tag clouds from this year's GIS class: the why, how and what of our upcoming semester's projects. Word clouds from Wordle. The Why: what are the key problems class members want to focus on... The How: possible methods we will use... The What: some of the datasets that might be used...

Last weekend a little critter made its first-ever appearance in our family bee garden. It was neither a grand entrance nor a grand insect. "A fly!" I thought, as I looked at its knoblike bristle or arista on the end of each antenna.

This one from Tim Hanson. The caption from the photos (286747. 286748, 286749, 286750) reads: "Butte County. Panorama looking SW, S. SE and E from Neal Road. Note Juniperus californica in ravine.

The bees. What about the bees? How are they doing? Better, says retired Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who today published the last edition of his newsletter, from the UC Apiaries.

By way of the San Francisco Chronicle Hopes of an almighty El Nio bringing rain to a drought-stricken California - with its fallow fields, depleted streams and parched lawns - were further dashed Thursday.