Bug Squad

If you ask honey bee geneticist Robert E. Page Jr. what his favorite honey is, he'll point to his wife, Michelle. She--and any others near them--will smile every time! Fact is, Rob Page is our favorite honey bee geneticist, and he was just named the recipient of the 2023 C. W.

If you were a sand field cricket, you would not like horsehair worms. "The horsehair worm (Paragordius varius) is a long-lived parasite that infects arthropods, including the sand field cricket, Gryllus firmus," says biologist Amy Worthington, assistant professor, Creighton University, Omaha, Neb.

It wouldn't make the news, even if it were a "Slow News Day." "Lady in Red Climbs Neon-Pink Petals in Search of Aphids." Lady beetles, aka ladybugs, are coming out of their winter hibernation now and they're hungry. Aphid-hungry. We spotted this lady beetle Feb.

Plenty of interactions occurred among bugs, plants and people at the 12th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, a Super Science Day recently held on the UC Davis campus and both free and family friendly.

Madagascar hissing cockroaches, aka hissers, are big, bold and beautiful. Just ask the scientists at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis, who rear them in their petting zoo.