Bug Squad

During the 11th annual National Moth Week, one thing's for sure: Beekeepers won't be celebrating the beauty, life cycle, or habitat of the Greater Wax Moth (Galleria mellonella), also known as "the honeycomb moth." It's a major pest of bee colonies that aren't maintained well.

You gotta love those wooly bear caterpillars. Richard "Rick" Karban, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, studies them. The rest of us admire them. We usually see them in the spring along the cliffs of Bodega Head on the Sonoma coast.

It was a good news/bad news/sad news kind of day on July 21 when the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced that the migratory monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is now on its "Red List of Threatened Species as Endangered--threatened by habitat destruction and climate chan...

It had to happen.

Oh, what a (moth) night this will be! The Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis is celebrating National Moth Night on Saturday, July 30 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. and you're invited. The insect museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane.