For several years running, the Oak Titmice nested in a nest box on the front of our little house in a canyon near UCLA, fledging clutches of young each year. They had started building a new nest this year, which I knew because we clean out the box each year to reduce the potential build-up … Continue reading A Buzz for the Season
One of my side projects in grad school was to analyze data on the endangered El Segundo Blue that had been collected by Dr. Rudi Mattoni at the Los Angeles International Airport dunes. It eventually ended up as a bit larger collaboration with Dr. Cor Zonneveld from the Netherlands (Mattoni et al. 2001) and ended … Continue reading El Segundo Blue is a full species
Dr. Jaret Daniels has edited a new volume from Springer titled Butterfly Conservation in North America: efforts to help save our charismatic microfauna. Ken Osborne and I have a chapter on conservation efforts in California. Pre-orders are being taken now. Continue reading Forthcoming chapter in Butterfly Conservation in North America
Cities are often perceived as biodiversity wastelands. Adding to that perception is the common result of research surveys of urban biodiversity, which often report limited and declining numbers of species (1). Concealed by that preconception, however, is the extraordinary undiscovered biodiversity that still exists, even in the most urban of environments. Much of this biodiversity … Continue reading Cryptic Biodiversity Abounds in Los Angeles
Our Department of Defense Legacy Program Grant (Project 12-608) to develop a technique to sample DNA from live butterflies has wrapped up. The project was a collaboration with Dr. Jana Johnson at Moorpark College, Dr. Bob Wayne’s lab at UCLA, and a couple of groups working with endangered butterflies around the country. The objective of … Continue reading Project to Obtain Butterfly DNA through Wing Swabs Wraps Up
