Bug Squad

Ever seen that humorous sign in the veterinarian office that warns "Unattended kids will be given a shot of espresso and a free kitten?" Well, the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis has done it one better.

If you've ever reared a butterfly--from an egg to a caterpillar to a chrysalis to an adult--you know what it feels like. Like a miracle, to see life unfolding.

The late Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, and a global authority on bees, worked tirelessly to try to include Franklin's bumble bee (Bombus franklini) as an endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).

A pollinator garden is a study in diversity--and of inclusion and exclusion. The residents, the immigrants, the fly-bys, the crawlers, the wigglers, the jumpers. The big, bad and bugly. The prey and the predators. The vegetarians and carnivores.

We never thought we'd see one this year. And then it arrived. The first monarch sighting of the year.