Bug Squad

If you're rearing monarchs or offering them a way station of nectar-producing flowers in your yard, there's one thing you don't want to see: A praying mantis nailing a monarch. That's when the "pollinator friendly garden" seems more like a "predator friendly garden." It's not by chance.

Sometimes the unexpected happens. Take the case of the female praying mantis delivered to the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, for an educational display.

Marek Borowiec's world revolves around myrmecology, the scientific study of ants.

Is there life after lawn? Yes. If you're looking for plants to attract pollinators, including bees and butterflies, then the UC Davis Arboretum's Plant Sale on Saturday, Oct. 22 is the place to "bee." A public fall clearance sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, probably isn't the only mosquito that transmits the Zika virus. That's what UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal, co-chair of the International Congress of Entomology (ICE 2016) recently held in Orlando, Fla.