Rangelands

It was a honey of a ride. My inaugural Bug Squad blog on Aug. 6, 2008 dealt with a swarm of bees that "hitched" a ride on Aug. 1 from El Cerrito to UC Davis on a commuter van. "At 7 a.m., a group of UC Davis employees approached their commuter van in an El Cerrito parking lot.

by Jan Hughes I, like many of you, have worked to add native plants to my mostly suburban landscape in order to attract more pollinators and to give shelter to more critters. I have enjoyed the process and watching new species appear.

Humans love anything new and different, and that includes plants for their garden. In the past, when bringing plants into California from other places, people had no idea this could cause environmental problems.

A recent two-hour Bumble Bee Walk," sponsored by the California Bumble Bee Atlas in the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, proved fruitful.

Seen any European wool carder bees lately? European wool carder bees (so named because the female collects or cards plant hairs for their nests) are on the move. The bees, about the size of honey bees, are mostly black and yellow.

UC Davis professors Diane Ullman and Joanna Chiu of the Department of Entomology and Nematology and UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and a former chair of the Department of Entomology, were among those honored at an awards ceremony host...

The bee and the butterfly. Or, Apis mellifera and Colias eurytheme. One's a beneficial insect. That would "bee" the honey bee. The other is a yellow and white butterfly, striking in appearance, but in its larval stage, it's a major pest of alfalfa.

They marveled at the tadpole shrimp. They crafted tadpole shrimp-themed hats and puppets using paper plates and googly eyes. And they asked questions. Lots of questions.

There's a way for a bear to outsmart a fox. A teddy bear bee, that is. We just witnessed a male Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa sonorina, aka "the teddy bear bee," buzz up to a patch of foxgloves, Digitalis purpurea. Then he engaged in the foraging behavior known as nectar-robbing.

When you sit down to share a meal with family and friends, you might not be thinking the pests that want their share. But you should. And if you attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house from 1 to 4 p.m.