Bug Squad

The Veterans' Memorial Hall in Sebastopol is the place to "bee" on Saturday, March 19. That's when and where the fifth annual Bee Symposium will take place. And and one of the speakers is none other than MacArthur Fellow Marla Spivak, professor of apiculture at the University of Minnesota.

Unlike the Saints, the ants won't "go marching in"; they'll be "marching on." The "Ants Go Marching On will set the theme for the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, March 13 at 1124 Academic Surge, California Drive, UC Davis campus.

Growing almonds isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's expensive. The next time you're enjoying a ice cream bar coated with almonds or a salad with toasted almonds, think not only about the honey bees, but the growers.

At first I thought it was a yellow-faced bumble bee. Sort of like applying the adage, "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." That's because most of the bumble bees I see are the yellow-faced bumble bees (Bombus vosnesenskii).

Move over, Justin Bieber. Butterfly guru Art Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, says he's now a "cover boy," too. Shapiro is featured in the current edition of Sacramento News & Review.