Gift Ideas for the Holidays and Beyond

Here at Bug Eric blog, we like to promote excellence and encourage innovation, inclusion, equality, and diversity in the professions of entomology, science communication, citizen science, research, and biodiversity education. To that end, you may wish to bookmark this post for reference at any time of the year.

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Make a Difference

The voices of non-Caucasian scientists have too often been absent, or outright silenced in publications, at conferences, and elsewhere. This must change. It is without hesitation that I suggest making donations to Entomologists of Color. Consider taking the next step and inviting a featured “scientist of the month” to address your organization, classroom, or citizen scientist group. Black in Ento is another avenue to sponsor and support Black entomologists. Both initiatives enjoy the support of professional societies and organizations.

© SpiderdayNightLive.com

The leading global invertebrate conservation organization continues to be the Xerces Society, and they keep getting better. An annual membership gets you many benefits, not the least of which is the stellar journal Wings. What began with an emphasis on butterflies has now blossomed into advocating for every taxon.

Reward Good Work

There is no shortage of ambitious and important citizen scientist initiatives and platforms. Please donate to the ones that serve you best. As for individuals doing vital work in entomology, few compare to The Bug Chicks, Kristie Reddick and Jessica Honaker. They are leaders in science communication, curriculum development, professional development, entomology consulting, and media production. They will debut some “bug dork” merchandise soon to help fund their ever-growing business.

© TheBugChicks.com

Aussie friends, you have a fierce advocate for your native bees in Dr. Kit Prendergast, the Bee Babette. She has published a booklet about Creating a Haven for Native Bees that is applicable virtually everywhere, not just Australia. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook for more of her accomplishments.

Dr. Kit Prendergast, © Researchgate.net

My good friend Nancy Miorelli is based in Ecuador where she runs tours that benefit local and indigenous people. She also has a Youtube channel, is “queen” of the “SciHive” on Facebook, and has a sustainable jewelry-making business. All of this falls under her SciBugs banner. Did I mention she is a talented artist?

Dr. Stephanie Dole © BeetleLady.com

Those of you in California, USA, will want to book the new Bug Pop-up Museum created by the “Beetle Lady,” Dr. Stephanie Dole. Not in California? No problem, she also does virtual classes. I know Stephanie, Nancy, and The Bug Chicks personally and can attest to the quality of their enterprises.

”Merch”

You want something tangible? Check out some of the books I have reviewed this year. Patronize your local booksellers, toy stores that emphasize science and learning, and museums, zoos, and aquaria. There are locally-owned outdoor stores selling gently used gear for hiking and camping to get you out into the wilderness, even if that is simply your own back yard or the grandparents’ farm.

Speaking of gear….Idea Wild furnishes equipment to indigenous and local scientists in countries all over the globe, enabling underfunded scholars to do important conservation research work. Idea Wild is over thirty years old, with many success stories under their belt.

Thank you for taking the time to read the above. Please let me know of other worthy endeavors that I can promote here. Happy holidays!

Jeers for Cheerios? Not so Fast

I am not sure whether it is a good thing or a bad thing that politics and consumerism are infiltrating the world of entomology, but in the case of General Mills versus....science, controversy could be a good thing if it informs the cereal-buying public. The well-intentioned corporate advertising campaign aimed at benefiting pollinators has hit a few snags, and the ramifications for future like-minded endeavors are complex. Partnerships with conservation organizations are, however, an excellent outcome.

© Creativity-online.com

When the Honey Nut Cheerios® mascot "Buzz the Bee" disappeared from the cereal box to call attention to the plight of honey bees (and ostensibly the decline of all pollinators), it seemed like a genius marketing gimmick. Add the promise of receiving a packet of "wildflower" seeds to sow in your garden if you simply request them, and you have a win-win-win love affair at first blush. Who could object to stimulating environmentally-friendly action on behalf of imperiled insects like the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee, just added to the Endangered Species List? Well, it turns out that knowledgeable botanists and entomologists can object, and do so strenuously and effectively.

The major problem stems from the seed packets that General Mills is dispensing, in partnership with Veseys Seeds. They are a "one size fits all" solution to a complex problem, and therefore no solution at all according to many scientists weighing in. There have been charges that certain flowers in the seed mix are not only not native to North America, but invasive species in some areas. Homeowners are certainly better off purchasing native cultivars at their local nursery, if only because native plants are better suited to local soils and regional climate.

Another frequent complaint directed at virtually all pro-bee propaganda is that the sole intended beneficiary is the honey bee. Apiculture, it could be argued convincingly, is an industry, complete with large scale marketing, lobbyists, and other attendant business arms. The honey bee is not native, having been brought to the settlement of Jamestown in 1621 or 1622. Today, migrant beekeepers truck their hives across the country to pollinate various orchard crops, especially almonds. While Honey Nut Cheerios™ contains no nuts, it does contain "natural almond flavor." Interesting.

This is not to say that General Mills is without good deeds for pollinators in...general. Check this out, from personal correspondence with my friend Matthew Shepherd, Communications director for the Xerces Society, a non-profit organization devoted to invertebrate conservation:

"GM [General Mills] is partnering with the NRCS [Natural Resources Conservation Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture] to support a half-dozen new staff biologists, who will be employed by Xerces and based in NRCS offices. GM and the NRCS have each committed to providing $2 million—a total of $4 million—over a 5-year period. You’ll find more information about what the staff will do and where they’ll be based at here. For an overview of the partnership, and the press release, [click on the links].

"We’ve [Xerces] got other partnerships with various GM brands (Muir Glen, Cascadian Farm, Annie’s), but any dollars from those, often tied to sales of a product, will be part of the $2 million above.

"Xerces also has a contract with GM to work with their suppliers to create habitat on farms. We’ve already done some of this in California, planting hedgerows along tomato fields and hedgerows and meadows in almond orchards, and in Washington around blueberries, but this will be spreading across the country to farms supplying all manner of products. This is another multi-year agreement. I’m afraid that I don’t know what the total dollar amount will be over the years. Hundreds of thousands for sure...."

I happen to like General Mills and Cascadian Farms products, so I am happy to be benefiting the Xerces Society when I make those purchases. I am also glad that I learned what is going on behind the headlines, which were far from flattering initially. Meanwhile, my next post will revisit a workshop I attended back in March that speaks to the future of pollinator conservation at the homeowner-level. Stay tuned.

Holiday Gift Ideas

As I write this there are only 54 shopping days until Christmas. Time for my annual gift recommendations for your naturalist friends (or to add to your own wish list). I won’t even toot my own horn for the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America. Here are three ideas that I am sure will please any “amateur” entomologist out there.

My good friend Daniel Marlos, who started up the website What’sThatBug.com now has a new book to add to his list of successes. The Curious World of Insects: The Bugman’s Guide to the Mysterious and Remarkable Lives of Things That Crawl, a Perigree Book (Penguin Group), has a decidedly whimsical, Victorian-era flavor, in part due to the historical, clip art style illustrations throughout.

Marlos is a visual artist whose interest in insects comes more from a pop culture perspective than an entomological one. Still, Daniel has become a trusted authority in a very short time. He knows Australian insects better than I do, in part because he gets many submissions to his website from that island continent. He is a professor of photography at Los Angeles City College, but is independent of an academic institution when it comes to entomology. This has allowed him to set his own standards for responses to his website users.

Here in his book, he spotlights the insects and related arthropods most frequently encountered and asked about. Daniel’s research skills are first rate, and he excels at interpreting the lives of “bugs” in a way that is both educational and entertaining. It has been my pleasure and delight to see Daniel’s website succeed beyond all expectations; and to see an entomologist and writer metamorphose from such humble beginnings.

Yet another gifted gentleman, Dr. Edward Eric Grissell (Eric to his friends and colleagues), has come out with a much-needed popular book about stinging insects. Bees, Wasps, and Ants: The Indispensable Role of Hymenoptera in Gardens, published by Timber Press in Portland, Oregon, is an outstanding treatment of this fascinating order of insects.

Grissell’s prose is complemented by the jaw-dropping images that illustrate the book. No other popular book still in print communicates the sheer diversity of bees, wasps, sawflies, ants, and related insects in such an eloquent and captivating fashion. This is not a field guide, but is easily the best overview of Hymenoptera for amateur naturalists. Many specimens will be identifiable from the images in this book, but the reader gets a complete understanding of the biology and ecology of the insects as well.

I can’t help but be amused by the endorsement of the book provided by another author, Amy Stewart, who concludes that “Eric Grissell will make a hymenopteran out of all of us.” I, for one, certainly hope not. I enjoy being a human being. Maybe she meant he’ll make a hymenopterist out of all of us.

My final recommendation is a different product that all of us can use: a wall calendar. The Xerces Society presents its 2011 North American Bee Calendar featuring fabulous images of, and pertinent information about, the many solitary bees that pollinate wildflowers and crops across the continent.

The image here shows the cover of the 2010 calendar, but I can hardly wait to get my hands on the new one. Besides getting a superb product, your purchase aids the premiere invertebrate conservation organization in the world.