University of Wisconsin–Madison

Entomology

Student science writer Mary Magnuson wrote this post. When spring turns to summer, there are three things to count on: longer days, warmer weather and the return of monarch butterflies. Every year, thousands of monarchs make their way down south to Mexico in the early fall, where they wait out […]

As monarchs arrive in their summer ranges, citizen scientists aid ...

July 14, 2020 by Chris Barncard

Ice crystals form on the orb of a soapy bubble that froze during subzero weather atop Bascom Hill at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Jan. 8, 2014. — The post office suspended mail delivery. Schools and campuses across the Midwest closed down. Temperatures in Chicago, Madison and other Great Lakes cities dipped lower than those in Antarctica. We’re ok. There’s nothing to see here. How’s everyone doing? pic.twitter.com/g0VuDIiU6q — UW–Madison Science (@UWMadScience) January 30, 2019 Surely that means […]

The polar vortex should kill bugs, right? Not so much.

January 30, 2019 by Kelly April Tyrrell

A rusty-patched bumblebee on Culver’s root in the UW–Madison Arboretum. The Arboretum’s insecticide-free prairies, woodlands and gardens are a paradise for the rusty-patched and at least a dozen other bumblebee species. PHOTO: SUSAN DAY/UW-MADISON ARBORETUM — This winter may now feel a shade lonelier for a handful of bumble bee princesses tucked away underground in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum, but they will probably wake up in the spring to a larger group of human admirers. This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared rusty-patched […]

Happy in the Arb, endangered in the world

January 12, 2017 by Chris Barncard