Bug Squad

It was a good day for a crab spider. It was NOT a good day for a honey bee. It's early evening and here's this bee foraging on a bluebeard plant, Caryopteris x clandonensis, totally unaware of the ambush predator lying in wait. The predator and the prey: Misumena vatia and Apis mellifera.

Yes, there are day-flying moths. And some of them are quite attractive. Take the Stiriini moth, Annaphila astrologa. We saw our first-ever last March in our pollinator garden.

Our story begins with a kid bred and born in Arkansas. You may have seen the news article about the distinguished professor at the University of California, Davis, who won a $6 million, eight-year "Outstanding Investigator" federal grant for his innovative and visionary health research.

If you own a silk shirt or blouse, a silk tablecloth, or a silk handkerchief, you may not have thought much about its insect origin. You will if you attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology Moth Night on Saturday, Aug. 3 at the University of California, Davis.

It's difficult to believe that it was four years ago--four years ago!--that Emily Bick, entomology student extraordinaire, joined the doctoral program in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. How fast time passes. Bick will present her exit seminar at 3 p.m., Monday, Aug.