Bug Squad

Grub's up! Grub? Food? Yes, think specifically of insect larvae. Myfany Turpin of the University of Sydney will speak on "Grub's Up! The Category of Edible Insect Larvae in Central Australian Aboriginal Languages" at the UC Davis Entomology and Nematology's virtual seminar at 4:10 p.m.

A gravid praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, crawls out of a patch of African blue basil, and begins checking out the honey bees. Decisions. Decisions. Dozens of them are buzzing around, gathering nectar for their colony. They are not aware she is there.

For the first butterfly, it was the right place at the right time. An alfalfa or sulfur butterfly (Colias eurytheme) fluttered into our pollinator garden in Vacaville to sip some nectar from a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia). It lingered for several minutes.

Ladybugs--actually "lady beetles" as these insects are beetles--know exactly where to lay their cluster of eggs--where the aphids and other prey are. Thoughtful of the moms, isn't it? Moms are like that. Look on or under your rosebush leaves. Look under your milkweed leaves.

It's a fitting tribute to see the UC Davis Life Sciences Building recently renamed the Melvin M. and Kathleen C. Green Hall.