Bug Squad

There are nearly 8 million insect specimens in the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis. As of Friday noon, Aug. 25, there's also one tree. It's a fir. And no, it has nothing to do with the pending holiday season.

Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the butterfly and moth collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, had a "Monarch Kind of Day" Wednesday, Aug. 23 at a surprise party heralding his 70th birthday and his 30 years of volunteer service.

Excitement is building for 40th annual Western Apicultural Society (WAS) conference, set Sept. 5-8 at the University of California, Davis, its birthplace.

If you attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 27, you'll learn all about bark beetles but you probably won't recognize the facility. It will be "Bark Beetle Forest Central," says Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.

The sky darkens. The temperature drops several degrees. A breeze rustles the leaves of the African blue basil. Dogs bark. And off in the distance, a hawk shrills. A partial solar eclipse is about to happen in Vacaville, Calif.