Bug Squad

If you've been looking for that cabbage white butterfly in the three-area county of Sacramento, Yolo and Solano to win UC Davis Professor Art Shapiro's "Beer for a Butterfly" contest, there's still hope. Shapiro hasn't found it, either.

Butterfly heaven! Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the butterfly and moth collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis, is in butterfly heaven.

"Just call it a "Day of Insect Art!" Sunday afternoon, Jan. 21 promises to be a day of inspiration, creativity and delight when the Bohart Museum of Entomology hosts an open house, "Bug-Art@The Bohart" from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, Crocker Lane.

The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology is gearing up for a plethora of seminars for the winter quarter--ranging from understanding insect behavior to understanding biodiversity. The department launched the seminars Wednesday, Jan.

How appropriate are many of the common names of insects! Take the immature form (caterpillar) of the moth, Schizura concinna, family Notodontidae. We first spotted this caterpillar on our Western redbud tree (Cercis occidentalis) in September 2010. It has a red hump.