Monarch Watch Volunteers Win Robbin Thorp Bumble Bee Contest
Michael Kwong and Kaylen Teves Spotted the Bee at Glen Cove Waterfront Park, Vallejo, on Jan. 11
A monarch-counting expedition to Glen Cove Waterfront Park, Vallejo, led to the winning entry in the 5th annual Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year contest, sponsored by the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
Michael Kwong of Sacramento and Kaylen Teves of Vallejo, members of the Western Monarch Count, were counting monarch butterflies on Jan. 11 at the waterfront park when they spotted a yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, sunning on an oak leaf.
Kwong captured a cell phone image of the bumble bee at 9:35 a.m. to win the prize, a coffee cup adorned with Franklin’s bumble bee. This is the endangered bee that UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), monitored.
At the time, the two had not heard about the bumble bee contest.
Kwong, a senior environmental scientist with the state of California, and Teves, a computer science student at San Francisco State University, are both volunteers with the Western Monarch Count (WMC), a community-powered initiative of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. WMC tracks overwintering monarchs and their habitat.
21 Monarchs
WMC volunteers also found monarchs at the Glen Cove Waterfront Park on Jan. 11. “Our monarch count team observed and documented 21 monarchs sunning, flying, and/or nectaring at Glen Cove that day!” Kwong said.
Kwong, also a volunteer with California Bumble Bee Atlas, is keenly interested in pollinators, “particularly bumble bees and monarchs; geospatial science; invasive species and botany.”
Teves, in addition to her interests in computer graphics, web development, and art, explores habitat conservation, biology and gardening--“mainly succulents, but I'm also practicing with native plants.”
Kwong and Teves also participated recently in a WMC count near St. Peter’s Chapel, Mare Island, Vallejo.
Indelible Mark
"I did not know Thorp personally," Kwong said, "but I am very familiar with his name and his contributions to bee conservation! I have seen or heard his name at numerous workshops and presentations, on multiple books and scientific research papers, and in bumble bee-related conversations with colleagues and friends. He has certainly left an indelible mark on many, including me.”
Teves said she did not know Thorp, but “after being introduced to the contest, I became curious and read several articles about him. I'm very impressed with the contributions Dr. Thorp has made to bee conservation, and it's truly admirable that this contest is dedicated to his legacy.”
The two claimed the treasured prize during a visit Friday, Jan. 24 to the Bohart Museum, where Bohart bee scientist Sandy Shanks showed them drawers of bumble bee specimens. Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart, presented them with the cup.
“We are glad that the Bohart continues to offer this fun, commemorative contest in honor of Dr. Thorp,” Kwong wrote in an email to the Bohart Museum.
Contest Rules
The contest rules specify that the first person to document (via photo or video) a first-of-the-year bumble bee in the two-county area of Yolo or Solano and email it to the Bohart Museum at bmuseum@ucdavis.edu--and is judged the winner--will receive a coffee cup designed with the endangered Franklin's bumble bee, the bee that Thorp monitored on the California-Oregon border for decades.
The entries must include the time, date and place. Per the rules, previous winners are ineligible to win but can participate.
Fairfield resident Nancy Hansen won the 2024 contest with a video of B. melanopygus that she emailed to the Bohart Museum at 10:57 a.m., Monday, Jan. 1. She took the video of the bumble bee flying toward her Madrone tree, Arbutus menziesii, in her backyard. (See video on YouTube). This year she also participated, submitting a video of a bumble bee on Jan. 1.
The Bohart Museum launched the contest in 2021 to memorialize Professor Thorp, a global authority on bees who died June 7, 2019 at age 85. A 30-year member of the UC Davis faculty, he retired in 1994 but continued working until several weeks before his death. He always looked forward to seeing the first bumble bee of the year.
A tireless advocate of pollinator species protection and conservation, Thorp co-authored two books in 2014 during his retirement: Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (Princeton University,) and California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday).
Eighty Species of Bees
Among his many projects, he detected and identified more than 80 species of bees in the UC Davis Bee Haven, the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology’s bee garden installed in the fall of 2009. The half-acre bee garden is located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road.
The Bohart Museum, home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. It also includes a live petting zoo, and an insect-themed gift shop.
Director of the Bohart Museum is Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.