Bug Squad

If youre having pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin pie today (Thanksgiving), you can thank a squash bee. The photos posted below are genus Peponapis, common name "squash bee." They emerge in mid- to late summer, nest in the ground, and are approximately half an inch in length.

The UC Davis news circulating around the world about a horses remarkable recovery from laminitis--thanks to an experimental compound--has an insect connection. But first: the news story.

This research project looks very promising. A ripple effect, if you will... UC Davis entomology graduate student Kevin Rayne Cloonan not only won a coveted award for his research presentation at the 60th meeting of the Entomological Society of America in Knoxville, Tenn.

It's such a joy to see little kids fascinated with bugs. The UC Davis-based Bohart Museum of Entomology, home of nearly eight million insect specimens, is a good place to start.

The latest edition of Fremontia, a publication of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS), is devoted to the state's declining prairies and grasslands. "Humans are largely responsible" for this decline, writes editor Bob Hass.