Bug Squad

Counting butterflies before they eclose from their chrysalids is sort of like counting chickens before they hatch. We've done both: raised chickens and reared butterflies. Fact is, you never know if a butterfly will eclose.

If you're looking for a holiday gift for your favorite beekeeper or a wanna-be beekeeper (hey, that person could be you!), here's something you may want to consider. Bee scientists at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

They're still there. They. Haven't. Moved. The monarch butterflies roosting in an ash tree at the 14th disc golf course hole at the Berkeley Aquatic Park, 80 Bolivar Drive, Berkeley, seem to like it there. They've been there since mid-November. We drove to the park on Monday, Nov.

"Keep Calm and Insect On." That's the theme of the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, University of California, Davis.

Quick question: What critter can chew and digest Styrofoam? Drum roll...Time's up... If you answered "mealworms"--or the larval form of the darkling beetle, family Tenebrionidae--that's correct.