The UC San Diego Library is currently showcasing a bee exhibit in the Biomedical Library breezeway—just in time for spring!
The exhibit takes a closer look at the intricate world of these ecologically important insects through a plethora of information about the history of California bees. Part of the exhibit includes an interactive display of bee photographs taken under the microscope. In addition, the exhibit features a few selections from the rare collection of books documenting the history of beekeeping from Joe Bray who works as a cataloger for the Library’s Special Collections & Archives. Bray’s father studied beekeeping at UC Davis in the 1930’s and was a beekeeper in San Diego for many years.
But the highlight of the exhibit is a collection of bee specimens from San Diego’s coast, desert, and mountain areas collected by James Hung over a three-year period. Hung donated some of the specimens he amassed to the Library in 2014 while pursuing his Ph.D. at UC San Diego.
Since donating his collection to the Library, Hung and his colleagues have updated the San Diego County bee inventory to 700 species including about 70 taxonomically challenging ones, making San Diego a truly biodiversity hotspot for bees. The exhibit will be on display through the month of April.
For more information about the exhibit, please contact Scott Paulson at spaulson@ucsd.edu or (858) 822-5758.