Rangelands

"Virtual Reality Bugs": What an incredible experience! Be sure to head over to Briggs Hall on Saturday, April 13 during the 105th annual UC Davis Picnic Day to see or participate in medical entomologist/geneticist Geoffrey Attardo's virtual reality (VR) demonstration. It's free and family friendly.

It will literally be a bugfest Saturday, April 13 at Briggs Hall and the Bohart Museum of Entomology during the 105th annual campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day.

I realized this morning that it's been some time (nearly a year, in fact) since I posted an update on my progress with our youngest livestock guardian dog, Elko.

Salivating over salvia? You can see, salivate--and purchase--salvias and more at the spring premiere plant sale sponsored by the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden on Saturday, April 6. They'll offer everything from "Bee's Bliss" to "Black Lace" to "Blaze" to "Brilliance.

Butterflies, beer and a bar...

This spring, I am teaching the Santa Rosa Junior College Rangeland Management class. This is my opportunity to educate aspiring students on the importance of rangelands and how to manage them.

Yes, I'll have some mustard, please. Yes, both the pollen and the nectar, thank you. We watched a honey bee buzz into our little mustard patch, her proboscis (tongue) extended, and pollen weighting her down. If she were at the airport, someone would have volunteered to carry her bags.

Congrats to the University of California Linnaean Games Team! They know their insects! The UC team, which swept the national championship last year, just won the regional competition Monday night at the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA) meeting in San Diego.

Why silver digger bees are like gold... Remember those "long lost" silver digger bees found last week at the San Francisco Presidio? They hadn't been seen in large aggregations for nearly a century.

UC Davis entomologist Leslie Saul-Gershenz lent her expertise when a volunteer discovered what turned out to be "long-lost" silver digger bees in restored sand dunes at the San Francisco Presidio, a former military post now owned and operated by the National Park Service.