Bug Squad

Like a moth to a flame... That's what it will be like when folks flock to the Bohart Museum of Entomology on Saturday night, Aug. 3 for its annual Moth Night. It's free and family friendly--and it's all in keeping with National Moth Week: Exploring Nighttime Nature, July 20-28.

What was that! If you grow Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia) in your pollinator garden, you've probably noticed the fast-flying longhorned male bees being totally territorial. Their job is to target whatever's on the Tithonia.

It's always a good day when you encounter a dragonfly on Main Street USA. Such was the case on Wednesday, July 17 when seemingly out of nowhere, a shiny Tramea lacerata "black saddlebags" appeared in front of me on the sidewalk fronting the Vacaville Chamber of Commerce.

The global decline of pollinators ought to concern everybody, and everybody ought to get involved, said bee conservation researcher Lynn Dicks of the School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, in her keynote address at the fourth International Pollinator Conference, he...

"If you were a bug, what would you be?" That sign greets visitors to the California State Fair's Insect Pavilion. It's a good conservation starter. The Insect Pavilion showcases insect specimens and insects from the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis.