December 21, 2007
Plight of the Bumblebee: Vanishing Bumblebees Alarming, Says UC Davis Entomologist Robbin Thorp
photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey

When University of California, Davis entomologist Robbin Thorp begins his annual scientific survey for the critically imperiled Franklin’s bumblebee this spring in its narrow distribution range of southern Oregon and northern California, he fears he may not find it.

He’s seen the distinctive black-faced bumblebee, splashed with yellow markings on its thorax and atop its head, only once in the last five years. The bumblebee that Thorp so readily recognizes by its solid black abdomen and a black inverted U-shaped design on its yellow thorax, may be extinct.  Full Story>>>>>

July 12, 2007

Bohart Museum sparking interest in California state insect rarely seen in nature 

To spark interest in the rarely seen California state insect and efforts to protect it and its habitat, the R. M. Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis has published a first-of-its-kind poster immortalizing the dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice).
 
“The dogface butterfly is found only in California, but it’s losing its natural habitat due to rapid California development,” said Fran Keller, a UC Davis doctoral student of entomology who designed the poster.

“I’ve been all over California collecting beetles,” Keller said, “and..."

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June 15, 2007

Bugs Tell Tale of Murderer's Cross-country Trip

When two FBI agents and a Bakersfield detective hauled a radiator and air filter -- both splattered with insects -- into UC Davis' Bohart Museum of Entomology, they were not there to contribute to the museum's 7-million insect collection.

They wanted museum director Lynn Kimsey, a professor of entomology, to identify the insects and their geographical home for an upcoming mass murder trial.

"I saw it as a puzzle to be solved," Kimsey said of the car parts embedded with several hundred insects. "I've never heard of anyone doing this."

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