Bug Squad

Research entomologist Terry Griswold of the USDA-ARS (U.S.

Folks accustomed to seeing only honey bees (which are non-natives) buzzing around their yard probably aren't aware that in the United States alone there are some 4000 identified species of native bees. And they probably aren't aware of The Bee Course.

It's a peach of a tree, but it isn't a peach. It's a nectarine, a close variety of the peach--the result of a genetic mutation. In between the rain storms, honey bees are nectaring the nectarines and packing pollen, getting ready for the spring hive build-ups.

The old Town Hall off Main Street, Vacaville, Calif., is the perfect backdrop for Iceland poppies (Papaver nudicaule) thriving in planters. The Iceland poppies, sometimes called arctic poppies, are native to northern Europe and North America. "Papaver" is the Greek word for "poppy.

It didn't take long. Last year at this time the field next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road at the University of California, Davis stood bleak and barren. Nothing there but scattered patches of grass and a few pocket gophers and ground squirrels.