Bug Squad

Just a day in the life of a native bee on a native flower in native California. Svastra obliqua expurgata, also called "the sunflower bee," absolutely loves Coreoposis californica, sometimes called tickseed. If you were a plant, would you want to be called "tickseed?" Probably not.

There's a new look to the Joseph and Emma Lin Biological Orchard and Garden, a 24,000-square-foot treasure behind the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, off Kleiber Hall Drive.

When the Bohart Museum of Entomology of UC Davis hosts a Night at the Museum (formerly known as Moth Night) it will be dedicated to the late Jerry Powell, longtime director of the Essig Museum Entomology, UC Berkeley, and an international authority on moths. He died July 8 in Berkeley at age 90.

It's so quiet at times that you can almost hear a bee buzz or a walking stick walk or a Madagascar hissing cockroach hiss. The audience, ranging from toddlers to teens to senior citizens, are inside the the Vacaville Public Library.

Perfect timing.