Bug Squad

If you grow milkweed in your yard, you probably have some very special tenants, monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). As just about every kindergarten student knows, milkweed (Asclepias spp,) is their larval host plant. Without milkweed, no monarchs.

Who doesn't love the red flameskimmer dragonfly, Libellula saturata? If the Fourth of July had its own insect, it would be the firecracker red flameskimmer. It's so showy and eye-popping red that it almost looks patriotic.

Sometimes when you walk through a bee garden, you feel Mother Nature tugging at your arm, pulling you from one breathtaking area to another. You resist the tug and want to linger, to admire the diversity of bees, to marvel at the colors and patterns of the flowers.

It's good to see UC Davis mosquito researchers featured in the KQED's science program, "Deep Look." KQED journalists recently traveled to the UC Davis campus to visit several mosquito labs.

They're calling it "Bohart Belize Bioblitz," or "B-cubed" or "B to the 3." It's an insect collecting trip to Belize for the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis.