Bug Squad

 What are you doing on California Biodiversity Day? That's Saturday, Sept. 6, but the celebration of diverse life continues through Monday, Sept. 14.You can join the  Find 30 Species for California Biodiversity Day project on iNaturalist, and submit observations of 30 wild species between…

 The Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, is displaying specimens of California’s native insects, including the California dogface butterfly, in the Children’s Section of the Fairfield Civic Center Library through Wednesday, Sept. 10. Library associate Galila Kitzes…

 Was she protesting, preying or praying? A very large praying mantis showed up at a pro-democracy event in Rio Vista, Calif., on Labor Day.The mantis sailed over my head, "like a bird on the wing," and then dropped to the ground, landing on rough gravel. It looked too heavy and clumsy to fly. But…

 Congratulations to UC Davis staff research associate Joseph Tauzer, who manages the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility and who serves three labs within the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.Tauzer is a winner in the UC Davis Staff Assembly's coveted 2025 Citations of…

 As we celebrate Labor Day, let's also celebrate the honey bees: the queens, worker bees (females) and drones (males). They take no vacations, no holidays, and no breaks, and receive no overtime pay or retirement pensions.  The queen takes no maternity leave. In peak season, she will lay 1000…