Bug Squad

The vibrant colors of Cosmos, an annual flower with the same common name as its genus, are spectacular. But we especially like the showstopping pink Cosmos with its bright yellow center. Well, sometimes, they have a green center--that's when an ultra green sweat bee is foraging.

It's like winning the triple crown. The Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America (PBESA) has announced that two distinguished professors and a graduate student from the Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, have won major awards.

If you grow tomatoes, you ought to be concerned about thrips. They're pests of fruits, vegetable and horticultural crops, including tomatoes, grapes, strawberries and soybeans. They're barely visible to the naked eye, but oh, how disastrous they can be.

If you've ever wanted free access to incredible macro images of insects and spiders, this is it. Images of arthropods in the public domain that you can download. Free. For. All.

It was all the buzz. Visitors at the annual California Agriculture Day, held Wednesday, March 18 on the west lawn of the State Capitol, made a beeline to the California State Beekeepers' Asssociation (CSBA) booth to see the bees, pocket some honey sticks and talk bees.