Bug Squad

Congratulations to UC Davis doctoral alumnus Anurag Agrawal of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., a newly elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). It's one of the highest honors a scientist can receive.

Do you know that today is "World Robber Fly Day?" "World Robber Day?" you ask. No, "World Robber Fly Day.

Ever seen a beneficial insect and a pest sharing the same blossom? At a recent visit to the UC Davis Ecological Garden at the Student Farm, we watched a honey bee, Apis mellifera, and a lygus bug nymph, Lygus hesperus, foraging on a batchelor button, Centaurea cyanus. The bee: the beneficial insect.

Enthusiasm is building and buzzing for the California Master Beekeeper Program's online course, "An Introduction to Mead 2021," set from 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, May 1.

They were the "Look-at-Cats." The feral cats on our farm (the progeny of strays dropped off by "imperfect" strangers) became known as "The Look-at-Cats." You couldn't touch, pet or hold them. You could feed them, though, and spay or neuter them--if you could catch them. And you could name them, too.