Did you know that California is home to over 1600 different species of bees? While most of us are familiar with the introduced European Honey Bee, Apis mellifera, and can probably recognize a bumble bee or carpenter bee, there is a wide diversity of bee species living in our gardens and natural landscapes, just waiting to be discovered and observed.
Join entomologist Kandis Gilmore for a workshop about native bees. We will start in the classroom setting with an overview of how to identify the major bee families in California. In the afternoon we will observe bees in their natural settings as we explore the gardens and natural areas around the Laguna Foundation. The instructor will demonstrate how to safely handle bees for catch-and-release viewing. We will gather indoors again to view our live bees and compare them to pinned specimens and field guides.
Instructor Bio: Kandis Gilmore is broadly trained in organismal biology and ecology. She has worked as a field assistant in the rocky intertidal, oak woodlands, and vernal pool grassland ecosystems. She received her Master's of Science degree from Sonoma State Biology Department in 2017. Her master's thesis research focused on pollinators of three of Sonoma County's endemic and endangered vernal pool plant species Blennosperma bakeri (Sonoma sunshine), Limnanthes vinculans (Sebastopol meadowfoam, and Lasthenia burkei (Burke's Goldfields). Kandis serves on the Board of Directors of Conservation Works, and served as president of the Pacific Coast Entomological Society during 2020-2021.
She enjoys participating in biodiversity outreach events, spending time outdoors with her family, and is currently learning to play the ukulele.
