Bug Squad

Seen any Western monarch butterflies yet this year? No? Butterfly guru Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, has. He spotted one on Jan.

I call him the Mountain Boy. A male carpenter bee, Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex, appeared in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif.,on Feb. 27, the earliest we've seen this species. It's the smallest of California's carpenter bees and is often called the foothill or mountain carpenter bee.

He will walk folks through the evolution of the insects out of the ocean and into the air, and from the air back to the ground (in the case of ants).

Do you know what a nematode is?

The Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven drew scores of families at the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, a science-based day always held the Saturday of Presidents' Day weekend.