Bug Squad

No matter how many we see or how often we see them, we can't get enough of the Gulf Frits. That would be the Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae), a brightly colored orangish-reddish butterfly with silver-spangled underwings.

Is your 2016 calendar up on the wall yet? Or are you calendaring everything on your smart phone? No matter how you keep track of your "things to do," how about setting aside Saturday, Feb. 13? The University of California, Davis has scheduled its fifth annual Biodiversity Museum Day from 9 a.m.

What are you doing New Year's...

It's a buggy kind of Christmas. Mussen/Garvey style. You've heard "The 12 Days of Christmas," beginning with a single "partridge in a pear tree" and ending with "12 drummers drumming.

So, hurry down the chimney, tonight! So goes a line from "Santa Baby." The songwriters (J. Javits, P. Springer and T. Springer) listed all the good presents they wanted Santa to bring: a sable, a '54 convertible (light blue, please!), a yacht, a duplex and a deed to a platinum mine.