The reclassification of a 226-million-year-old beetle species could change our understanding of insect evolution

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/fossil-mix-could-rewrite-history-largest-family-animals-earth-180973068/

I'll be at Border Field State Park on Saturday morning at 8:30am! Anyone near is welcome to join up for iNatting! If you can't meet here, hopefully you can find a state park near you!

https://yubanet.com/california/california-celebrates-biodiversity-day-with-bioblitz-events-across-the-state/

Forest and fire officials ask for the public’s help to stop the spread of gold spotted oak borer.

https://www.vvng.com/officials-warn-of-invasive-tree-killing-pest-detected-in-big-bear-area/

This June, we’re celebrating the third-year anniversary of the launch of the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge, a national initiative to bring back the bees. June 19-26 is Pollinator Week, but we are celebrating pollinators all month long.

https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/National-Initiatives/Pollinator-Month

Like so many every-day creatures, the lady bug is a pretty amazing creature with remarkable attributes. Michael Ellis explains.

https://www.kqed.org/perspectives/201601138755/lady-bugs

For example, a tiny beetle smaller than a grain of rice is gradually killing the largest northern California black walnut tree in Davis.

https://patch.com/california/davis/those-dying-black-walnut-trees

More challenging than birdwatching and not nearly as popular, insect-watching — noting and sharing exactly what one sees and where — is nevertheless on the rise.

Concern about dwindling native insect populations is one reason why. And new technology has made it easier to log insect sightings and become part of wide-reaching "citizen-scientist" projects.

https://www.cdapress.com/article/20190115/AP/301159968

When an insect spends most of its life in total darkness, it doesn’t much matter what color it is. So, it comes as no surprise that so many species of bark and ambrosia beetles maintain the same brown hue as they slowly tunnel through wood and feed on a fungus that they carry with them into their trees. This similarity of appearance has been taken to an extreme in what has turned out to be a cryptic species complex. What was once referred to as the “tea shot hole borer” is actually four distinct species who all look almost exactly the same.

https://entomologytoday.org/2019/01/07/so-many-shot-hole-borers-new-research-charts-four-nearly-identical-species/

When an insect spends most of its life in total darkness, it doesn’t much matter what color it is. So, it comes as no surprise that so many species of bark and ambrosia beetles maintain the same brown hue as they slowly tunnel through wood and feed on a fungus that they carry with them into their trees. This similarity of appearance has been taken to an extreme in what has turned out to be a cryptic species complex. What was once referred to as the “tea shot hole borer” is actually four distinct species who all look almost exactly the same.

https://entomologytoday.org/2019/01/07/so-many-shot-hole-borers-new-research-charts-four-nearly-identical-species/

The day after Christmas, Oak Glen was packed with people driving up to the 4,700 foot level - not only for the apples, but to take in the incredible scenery, punctuated by majestic oak trees. Many of them are more than 100 years old.

Arborist Doug Chudy with the Wildlands Conservancy says more than half the trees in Oak Glen are oaks.

But look closely and you'll a find a little pest that threatens their very existence: the goldspotted oak borer.

https://abc7.com/society/pest-killing-oaks-in-oak-glen/4972822/