Bug Squad

Photographer: "Well, hello there, Jumping Spider! What 'cha doing?" Jumping Spider: "Sunning myself, that's all." Photographer: "And you're not looking for prey? Jumping Spider: "I tried to hide in that red zinnia over there, and ambush a syrphid fly but I missed.

"Target-site insensitivity (TSI) is an important mechanism of animal resistance to toxins," says nematologist Adler Dillman of the University of California, Riverside.

So, you're sitting in your backyard, enjoying some sunshine (sun break!) on the first day of the year, and you hear a bumble bee buzzing in your Madrone tree.

One down, one to go! We have a winner in the 4th annual Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest, sponsored by the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Details are being gathered, with the winner to be announced soon.

It's New Year's Day and it's common for folks to turn over a new leaf. What about the old leaves? Sometimes if you turn over an old leaf this time of year in Solano and Yolo counties, you might find a monarch caterpillar.