Bug Squad

Ready? Set? Go? The search party is almost ready to start. If you're lucky, you'll net the prize before Art Shapiro does.

You've seen them. You've seen them hop. They're aptly named. Leafhoppers are tiny insects (family Cicadellidae) that suck nutrients from plants.

Merry Christmas has always been merry, but it's better with butterflies! Isn't everything better with butterflies? Last year, in our small-scale monarch rearing project here in Vacaville, Calif., we saw one monarch eclose on Saturday, Dec. 24, one on Sunday, Dec. 25, and one on Tuesday, Dec. 27.

Back in 2010, two innovators with the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology) decided that "The 12 Days of Christmas" ought to be replaced with insects.

A butterfly for a beer? Suds for a bug? The annual Butterfly for a Beer contest, sponsored by Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, gets underway on Monday, Jan. 1.