Bug Squad

It's beginning to look a lot like...chrysalis. It didn't "look at all like chrysalis" this year in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif. We spotted only one monarch--repeat, only one monarch--and it fluttered around and finally oviposited on our milkweed. The eggs vanished.

"It's wasp time! This is a beewolf! Have you ever heard of beewolves? Well, neither had I until I discovered a bunch of them nectaring on Queen Anne's Lace flowers near my apartment complex! Have you noticed a pattern in the insects I post? A lot of them prey on bees.

The 2022 Entomological Society of America's World of Insects Calendar is filled with amazing images and one of them is by UC Davis alumnus Ian Wright of Riverside, a field biologist and research specialist with the UC Riverside Department of Entomology. His work shows a cuckoo bee (Nomada sp.

It's time to revisit the "Thirteen Bugs of Christmas!" Back in 2010, Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (now emeritus) and yours truly of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology decided that "The 12 Days of Christmas" ought to be replaced with insects.

Do you know the names of native bees commonly found in California's urban gardens? And how many have you seen in their habitat?