Bug Squad

Michael Branstetter, who will present a UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Wednesday, Jan. 16, is passionate about ants. "Ants are the most successful group of social insects on the Earth," says Branstetter, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

At first glance, we thought "Strawberry blossoms!" Not strawberries, though.

They're on to something. Definitely. An international research team has been researching honey bee pollination of almonds in the three-county area of Yolo, Colusa and Stanislaus since 2008, and what these scientists have discovered is astounding.

Talk about an early bloomer! At least one almond tree was blooming in California on the first day of the year. In the Benicia State Recreation Area, to be exact. We spotted the almond tree flowering on Jan. 1 near the entrance to the state park.

Sometimes we divide insects into "the biggest and the baddest." Such will be the case Sunday, Jan. 13 when the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, hosts an open house from 1 to 4 p.m., in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge building.