Bug Squad

So there it was...a monarch lying on its side, one wing down and one wing up, in the middle of a residential neighborhood in west Vacaville, California, on a 42-degree morning on Tuesday, Jan. 3. It looked newly emerged but it wasn't moving. In fact, it looked quite dead.

It was a good day for a hike. So Joe Nazarius of Winters embarked on a Dec. 30th hike in the Knoxville Road area, west of Lake Berryessa, when the unexpected happened. "What is this bug buried in Joe's skin?" That's what his wife, Debra LoGuercio DeAngelo, messaged me. She attached a photo.

As the predominantly red-and-green holiday season draws to a close, and the year crawls to an end, it's time to "bee in the pink." Pink? Yes, "in the pink." Skip the red. Ignore the green. Think "in the pink.

What are you doing on New Year's Day? Well, weather permitting, you can begin searching for the first bumble bee of the year in the two-county area of Yolo and Solano. If you photograph it and you are judged the winner, a prize awaits you--in addition to bragging rights.

To catch a cabbage white butterfly... It was early October and a gravid praying mantis, almost ready to deposit her ootheca, was hungry. She crawled behind a cactus in our yard, waiting for prey. It did not take long.