Rangelands

Congratulations to Melody Keena, UC Davis alumna and entomologist extraordinaire. Keena, a research entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Research Station in Hamden, Conn.

What incredible research! It involves fossilized male ants, estimated to be about 20 million years and encased in Ethiopian amber.

On Labor Day, a federal holiday, we celebrate the our country's labor movement, our gratitude, and our achievements. But there is no Labor Day holiday for the worker bee, one of three castes (queen, worker and drone) in a honey bee colony. No Labor Day holiday for the queen, either.

Cynthia Kerson With the weather getting warmer by the year, it's time we recognize the difference between heat and water stresses in our plants. The temperature is averaging 83, and according to www.GreenCastOnline.

The Placer County Resource Conservation District (Placer RCD) is rapidly expanding their prescribed burning program offerings to improve community wildfire resilience.

They're here and more are coming! Be on the lookout for migratory Monarch butterflies from the Pacific Northwest heading south to their overwintering sites along the California coast.

Butterfly guru Art Shapiro, UC Davis distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, has been looking for monarchs all year long on the UC Davis campus--as have scores of others. On Friday, Aug. 26, he met with success. He spotted four within half an hour.

Internationally recognized entomologist Melody Keena, a UC Davis alumna, a research entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Research Station in Hamden, Conn.

It's Sept. 4, 2019. We notice a monarch butterfly laying eggs on milkweed in an enclosed Vacaville retail nursery. We purchase the plant and add it to our pollinator garden. Did the eggs ever hatch? Did we ever get caterpillars, chrysalids and adults? No. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

If you're trying to find a praying mantis in the wild, go where the food source is. Sounds pretty easy, right? But oh, they're camouflaged. They lie in wait, as ambush predators, and strike. Now you see the predator, now you don't.