Bug Squad

A mid-life chrysalis? Well, maybe not mid-life, but definitely out of season. A female monarch butterfly eclosed today in our little indoor butterfly habitat. Two weeks ago, we rescued the caterpillar from a narrow-leafed milkweed plant in our Vacaville pollinator garden and brought it inside.

Have you ever thought about the honey bee colony, the transition of nurse bees to foragers? What all is involved? There's exciting news today out of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Califoirnia, Davis.

If you missed it, you should to listen to what longtime butterfly researcher Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, says about California's monarch butterfly population.

Cornell University evolutionary ecologist Anurag Agrawal, who received his doctorate in population biology at the University of California, Davis in 1999 under the tutelage of major professor Richard Rick Karban, is making the news with his groundbreaking research on milkweed toxicity.

That's a honey of a theme! When the 141st annual Dixon May Fair opens May 5-8, 2016 at 655 S 1st St.,Dixon, the grounds will be buzzing, in keeping with the theme, "Buzzing with Excitement." The fair is putting the "buzz" in bees and the bees in "buzz.