Bug Squad

"Bio" means "life" or "living things," and that's just what you'll see on Saturday, Feb. 18 at the sixth annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day. You'll see plenty of life and previous life, from bugs to bones--that is, from walking sticks to dinosaur bones.

On Valentine's Day, it's inaccurate to say that "everything is coming up roses." Not everything. Think jumping spiders on flowers. They come up, too. Take that jumping spider (family Salticidae) perched on a red trumpetlike vine at the Benicia Marina, Solano County. It was not alone.

There she was--a gorgeous orange-and-black butterfly sipping nectar from a rosemary bush near the Glen Cove Marina, Vallejo. She seemed so out of place and out of season. It was Sunday morning, Feb.

It's almond pollination season in California but the weather refuses to cooperate. Heavy rains, high winds, intense flooding. What are the bees to do? They're holed up in their hives, waiting for the sun breaks.

Thinking about bee-coming a beekeeper? Or thinking about a Valentine's Day gift for your honey? There's still room in several of the courses to be taught this spring by the E.L. Nio Bee Lab at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Research Facility, University of California, Davis.