Bug Squad

"As the world is getting hotter, we are now urgently focused on understanding on how climate change affects insect populations and communities. Many insects in tropical rainforests are accustomed to operating at the margins of thermal capabilities.

Urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is coordinating the department's seminars for the 2022-23 academic year and she's just announced the speakers for the spring quarter. Want to learn about ants? Check. Bees? Check.

When the Bohart Museum of Entomology hosts an open house, a sure crowd-pleaser is the global Lepidoptera collection, which totals some 500,000 specimens--60 percent moths and 40 percent butterflies.

"EVERYTHING that colonies do when they are living on their own (not being managed by beekeepers) is done to favor their survival and their reproduction, and thus their success is contribution to the next generation of colonies. And I mean everything.

It's billed as a "Bee Bash," but it should be "Big Bee Bash." Urban entomologist Gordon Frankie, professor emeritus and research entomologist in the Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley, will be one of the speakers.