Bug Squad

The California Gold Rush (1848-1855) has nothing on honey bees. Sometimes foraging honey bees are covered with their own kind of gold--pollen--or protein for their colonies.

It's the Fourth of July--a time to celebrate our nation's Independence Day. Hurrah for the red, white and blue! That also covers red, white and blue pollen collected by our honey bees. If you look closely, you'll see their "patriotic" colors.

When you visit the half-acre Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a bee friendly garden on Bee Biology Road at the University of California, Davis, you might just see a cuckoo bee.

There's nothing like seeing an admiral at a marina. That would be the Red Admiral butterfly, Vanessa atalanta, at the Berkeley marina. It's often very common in the urban Bay Area, says butterfly expert Art Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis.

It was a bad day for a butterfly. We stopped by the Ruth Risdon Storer Garden, part of the UC Davis Arboretum, at noon today as triple-digit temperatures climbed to a scorching 103.