Bug Squad

It's quite an honor to be singled out to deliver the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Seminar, hosted annually by the UC Davis Department of Entomology. This year's recipient is Marc Tatar, an authority on the aging of insects.

So, you're looking for that perfect, one-of-a-kind holiday gift. One that will not only be memorable but a conversation piece.

It's a strange little insect. A reader likens it to "a cricket on steroids." A Van Nuys resident says she always wondered what they were. "I've lived in this house for 17 years, and a few times a year I see this strange insect in my backyard. It is always either dead or dying.

It's exciting to see a son follow in the footsteps of his father: soon there will be more than one Hammock with a Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis.

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.