Bug Squad

Let the count begin! Researchers and volunteers in a three-week project headed by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation are now counting the Western monarch population at overwintering sites along the California coast. It all began Saturday.

If the folks at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis are smiling even more than usual, that's because their UC Davis CrowdFund project resulted in 120 percent funded! In a month-long campaign, they were seeking $5000 by Oct. 31 and donors generously provided them with a total of $6000.

It's a given: entomologists collect insects.

When the Entomological Society of America honored its President's Prize winners at its recent meeting in Denver, it did so "picture perfect." At the awards podium, each winning graduate student held up an empty frame lettered with "Student Competition Winner." And filled the frame.

One potato, two potato, three potato...four... Well, make that "one potato bug, two potato bugs, three potato bugs...four." The potato bug, also known as a Jerusalem cricket, seems to be everywhere in the Bay Area after the heavy rains.