Bug Squad

UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal characterizes the work in his lab as "like bolas spiders." What are bolas spiders? Well, they're also known as angling or fishing spiders. That's because they don't spin a web, they hunt with a sticky glob of silk on the end of a line known as "bolas.

Sometimes there's a method to our madness, or madness to our method. Take the silver-spangled, orange-reddish butterfly, the Gulf Fritilllary (Agraulis vanillae). We spotted a female dive-bombing her host plant, the passionflower vine (Passiflora) in our pollinator garden in Vacaville.

"Extreme Bees in Extreme Environments: Bee Biogeography in the Atacama Desert." That's the title of a seminar tomorrow (Wednesday, May 29) by Laurence Packer, distinguished research professor in the Department of Biology, York University.

Mosquitoes apparently don't like entomologist James R. Carey, distinguished professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis.

If you've ever walked into the courtyard on the 100 block of E Street in downtown Davis, Calif., you've probably noticed the massive black walnut tree near Sophia's Thai Bar and Kitchen. It's about 150 years old, 50 feet in height, and measures about five feet in diameter. And it's dying.