The governing board of the 7000-member Entomological Society of America (ESA) announced July 6 that it has changed the name of the student trivia contest from "Linnaean Games" to "Entomology Games." And rightfully so.
There will be no hot chocolate. There will be no cookies. But not to worry--there will be moths! And lots of them! It's traditional for the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis to serve hot chocolate and cookies at its annual Moth Open House.
The honey bees love it. So do the long-horned bees, bumble bees, carpenter bees, European paper wasps, syrphid flies, butterflies, blister beetles, spotted cucumber beetles, crab spiders, praying mantids, and assorted other insects.
We call it the Fourth of July or Independence Day. Our 13 American colonies rose up against the monarch of Great Britain, King George III, and declared themselves free and independent.
"Leave me alone, please--I'm eating." The monarch caterpillar feasting on the tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, in Vacaville, Calif., kept doing what monarch 'cats do best--eat. She insisted on devouring the leaves as if there were no tomorrow--and today would end soon.
