Rangelands

Nematologist Adler Dillman of UC Riverside will present the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's first seminar of the year at 4:10 p.m., Monday, Jan. 8 on "Nematode Parasitism of Insects with Toxic Cardenolides." His seminar will be in Room 122 of Briggs Hall and also will be on Zoom.

Fairfield resident Nancy Hansen won the 4th annual Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest with a video of a black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus that she submitted to the sponsor, the Bohart Museum of Entomology, at 10:57 a.m., Monday, Jan. 1.

One down, one to go! We have a winner in the 4th annual Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest, sponsored by the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Details are being gathered, with the winner to be announced soon.

Seminar coordinator and associate professor Brian Johnson has announced the list of UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminars for the winter quarter, from Jan. 8 through March 11. All seminars will be on Mondays at 4:10 p.m. in Room 122 of Briggs Hall and also will be on Zoom.

It's New Year's Day and it's common for folks to turn over a new leaf. What about the old leaves? Sometimes if you turn over an old leaf this time of year in Solano and Yolo counties, you might find a monarch caterpillar.

There's no fame, fortune or glory in writing a daily (volunteer) Bug Squad blog. It's about the insects. It's always been about the insects, from honey bees to bumble bees, to butterflies, to dragonflies, to praying mantises and more.

If you've lately visited the Ruth Risdon Storer Garden, part of the 100-acre UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, you've seen them. Honey bees nectaring on the Kniphofia "Christmas Cheer" poker plant.

A beer for a butterfly? Suds for a bug? It's almost time for the Art Shapiro's annual "Beer-for-a-Butterfly" contest that he's sponsored since 1972.

If history repeats itself, the person who finds and photographs the first bumble bee of the year in the two-county area of Yolo and Solano will do so in the 100-acre UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden--or will find it foraging on a plant purchased from one of the Arboretum's popular plant sales.

It's bee-ginning to look a lot like Christmas... All hail our littlest agricultural worker. European colonists brought the honey bee (Apis mellifera) to what is now the United States in 1622. Specifically, the bees arrived at the Jamestown colony (Virginia).