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Predators and Mutualists
August already, and I am moving into late summer collections at Jerry Smith Park. This season I don’t have students working with me in the field. Avila is a small college, and the timing of biology majors moving through our programs isn’t always conducive to having research assistants on my summer team. Even when you…
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On Confronting Our Mistakes
Last fall, I wrote in a bee update that about 40% of our 2018 summer bee collection belonged to one species of small, metallic green bee: Augochlora pura. Turns out I was wrong. With a little more experience and a fresh look at our collection, I’ve been able to determine that of the 70-some-odd bees I…
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Where Magic Resides
WordPress friends, my apologies leaving you alone for so long! Honestly, I do not know where this semester went. Every time I wanted to sit down and write an update, time was whisked away by some pressing commitment. I won’t mourn being off line. I never do. Life feels more real when I’m away from this…
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Saving the bees of Grand Staircase-Escalante
Taking a moment this week to give a shout out to my friend and colleague Matt Kelly, who together with biologists Olivia Carril and Joe Wilson, has launched a crowdfunding campaign centered on the incredible bee community of Grand Staircase-Escalante. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is an extraordinary site in terms of bee diversity, housing some…
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Turning Point Revisited
In 2007, I sold my first short story, ‘Turning Point,’ to the speculative fiction journal ZAHIR. Set in the highland forests of Costa Rica, ‘Turning Point’ chronicles the tensions between three field entomologists who must decide what to do when a faerie falls into one of their malaise traps. The meticulous Ruth, dedicated to documentation and…
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Farewell, Friend and Colleague
We got off to a sad start this semester with the passing of our dean at the College of Science and Health, Dr. Larry Garrison Sullivan. Larry’s death was unexpected and came just a few days before the start of classes. He had served Avila University for 47 years and was my dean and supervisor…
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City of Reconciliation
My Winter Solstice Reflection: On weaving together a world that’s been torn asunder.
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Battle of the Bees
The number of bees we’ve identified from our summer collection topped 160 this week. We won’t finish identifying all the specimens collected before the deadline for my student’s final written report, but we’ll get through most of it. She’ll certainly have enough data to say some interesting things. Between our garden and prairie sites, we’ve…
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100th Bee
Not too long ago, I hit a milestone in the native bee project I’ve been working on with my Avila honors student, Laura Presler: We identified the 100th wild bee in our summer research collection. A lot of people out there have identified many more bees than that, so by some standards 100 bees is…
K.R. Gastreich, Author
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K. R. Gastreich, Author 