Bug Squad

Do you know how honey bees, the world's most beneficial insects, produce wax? Have you ever worked with beeswax? Have you ever made candles and wax resusable food wraps? Ever gifted them during the holidays to friends, family and co-workers?

Nematodes (microscopic, eel-like roundworms) aren't usually a household word but they're featured prominently in the current edition of The Plant Journal. And UC Davis plant nematologist Shahid Siddique, formerly with the University of Bonn, is at the heart of it.

So here are all these milkweed bugs clustered on a showy milkweed leaf, Asclepias speciosa. It's early morning and the red bugs are a real eye opener.

The circadian clocks of plants and pollinators... The exciting research of Professor Takato Imaizumi of the University of Washington.

What a catchy title: "Not So Heartless." Wait, there's more! "Not So Heartless: Functional Integration of the Immune and Circulatory Systems of Mosquitoes." This may not be the proverbial heart-stopping seminar, but it promises to be an eye opener by a medical entomologist and captivating speaker.