Bug Squad

This is no ordinary calendar. No oceans. No mountains. No deserts. Each month features a "pin-up girl." But these models will never run for Miss America or promote world peace. Only a few have social skills and most are solitary. Take a look at Miss May. She's a sweat bee.

You gotta love that red buckwheat (Eriogonum grande rubescens). Attractive to honey bees, native bees and butterflies, red buckwheat is flourishing in the garden. Okay, it's called red buckwheat, but the clusters are rosy pink. They're about the same size as ping-pong balls.

It's called a complete metamorphosis--from an egg to a larva to a pupa to an adult. Metamorphosis--Greek for "transformation" or "change in shape" is spectacular. And it's particularly spectacular when the subject is the Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon).

Once upon a time, there was a redhumped caterpillar gorging on the leaves of a redbud tree. For three days, the hungry caterpillar gobbled the leaves, like an insect version of Pac-Man. It snipped, shredded and skeletonized the leaves and then went for more.

It was a major milestone, sequencing the genome of Culex quinquefasciatus, the so-called southern house mosquito. The research, spearheaded by UC Riverside geneticists and published in the Oct. 1, 2010 edition of Science, involved scientists from 37 other institutions.