Rangelands

Doctoral student Ching-Jung Lin of the laboratory of nematologist Shahid Siddique, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is the recipient of a two-year, $32,000 Ministry of Education Taiwan Government Scholarship to Study Abroad (GSSA).

Molecular geneticist-physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is the newly appointed chair of the department, serving a five-year term effective July 1, 2023. She succeeds Steve Nadler, the department chair since Jan. 1, 2016.

Congrats to the University of California recipients of awards from the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE), an international association of communicators, educators and information technologists who focus on communicating research-based information.

"Recent studies have continued to shed light on the ecology of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in western North America. These studies have documented a declining overwintering population over several decades, punctuated by unexpected variability in recent years.

UC Davis community ecologist Louie Yang, a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology professor who researches monarch butterflies, suggests three broad guidelines for western monarch conservation in his review article published June 26 in the journal, Current Opinion in Insect Science.

Ever seen a Phyciodes mylitta, aka Mylitta Crescent? It's a butterfly that breeds on thistles, such as Cirsium, Carduus and Silybum. The one that visited our yard June 17 wasn't visiting a thistle, however. It landed on a cactus. It's an orange and black butterfly (orange wings with black markings).

As National Pollinator Month winds down, let's visit a "morning" carpenter bee and an evening primrose. The evening primrose, Oenothera biennis, native to the Americas, is unique in that it blooms as night (as its name implies) and dies back at noon.

The Formosan subterranean termite (FST), Coptotermes formosanus, is a very destructive pest first reported in California in 1992 in La Mesa, San Diego County. FST has since been found in Canyon Lake, Riverside County, Rancho Santa Fe (San Diego County) and Highland Park (Los Angeles County).

Please, please, forget to eat our forget-me-nots! But it's not going to happen. So here we are in our Vacaville pollinator garden, looking at the Chinese forget-me-nots. We see honey bees, leafcutter bees, syrphid flies, lady beetles, cabbage white butterflies, and other critters foraging.

A honey bee heads for a patch of California golden poppies. She finds a blossom she likes. Bee: "Hey, Goldie Locks, I'm here to collect some nectar and pollen." Goldie Locks: "You're what?" Bee: "I want to collect some of your nectar and pollen.