Posts Tagged: Robert Kimsey

A Sad Photo

It's a sad photo.

The antenna of a honey bee pokes out of an abandoned hive. Victim of colony collapse disorder (CCD)? Perhaps.

Everytime I look at the bent antenna, I think of a plea for help. Help me! Help me! Please help me! This bee should have been nectaring flowers or gathering pollen.

This hive once belonged to entomologists Robert and Lynn Kimsey of UC Davis. She's the director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and chairs the Department of Entomology. He's the sole forensic entomologist in the department.

CCD was one of the topics at the eighth annual international conference of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC), held Oct. 22-24 in Washington, D.C.

The participants--farmers, scientists, and environmental advocates--agreed that we need to find ways to increase public awareness of pollinators.  Pollinator Partnership chair Robert Lang described the loss of pollinators as "a potential health crisis for the planet."

Scores of beekeepers have witnessed a crisis in an individual bee hive.

Like the one below.  

(Like to help with the honey bee research at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis? Access this site.)

Abandoned Hive

The antenna of a honey bee pokes out of an abandoned hive. Colony collapse disorder? Perhaps. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Bee and the Fly

UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey is a genius, to be sure. Show him a fly and he'll tell you exactly what it is and what it's all about.

I shot this photo at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. The honey bee looked huge and the fly, tiny. There they were together. (Ah, if you let your imagination run wild, there's a children's book there! Once upon a time, a bee and a fly...)

The fly is a minute black scavenger fly (Scatopsidae). You see these flies around decomposing matter (in this case, dead bees). After all, worker bees live only four to six weeks in the summer. During that time, they encounter all sorts of killers, such as diseases, pesticides, parasites, stress, climate change, intruders, and the mysterious colony collapse disorder).

Kimsey, an adjunct professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is known for not only his expertise on flies and his courtroom testimony, but his award-winning teaching.  I'm not sure which is the most popular: the CSI television series or Kimsey's classes. (My bet: his classes!)

Wife Lynn Kimsey, a  fellow entomologist, chairs the UC Davis Department of Entomology and directs the Bohart Museum of Entomology.

When I visited a local farmers' market in late September, a UC Davis animal science major mentioned how much she enjoyed his class. "Kimsey, that's it!" she said. "Dr. Kimsey. He's really good."

He is, and he's a genius, too!

A bee meets a fly

A honey bee checks out a minute black scavenger fly at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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