Bug Squad

When the honey bee meets the flowering quince, the bee is "the belle of the ball." The winter ball. Suddenly the flowering quince (genus Chaenomele) transforms the bleak wintery landscape into a spring ballroom of sorts. The giddy bee is a joy to see.

About those non-social bees... A good place to learn about them is at the UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Wednesday, Feb. 6. James Jim Cane, a research entomologist with the U.S.

Not many people know that the state insect of California is the California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice) or the role that schoolchildren played to attain that honor.

Bed Bugs at the Bohart? Indeed. Those attending the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house on Saturday, Feb. 2, will see them--and see them feeding. The Bohart Museum of Entomology is one of six museums or educational centers on the UC Davis campus holding an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday.

The yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, is back. We spotted some overwintering queen bumble bees gathering nectar on a hebe bush last Sunday at the Berkeley marina.