There's no fame, fortune or glory in writing a daily (volunteer) Bug Squad blog. It's about the insects. It's always been about the insects, from honey bees to bumble bees, to butterflies, to dragonflies, to praying mantises and more.
If you've lately visited the Ruth Risdon Storer Garden, part of the 100-acre UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, you've seen them. Honey bees nectaring on the Kniphofia "Christmas Cheer" poker plant.
If history repeats itself, the person who finds and photographs the first bumble bee of the year in the two-county area of Yolo and Solano will do so in the 100-acre UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden--or will find it foraging on a plant purchased from one of the Arboretum's popular plant sales.
It's bee-ginning to look a lot like Christmas... All hail our littlest agricultural worker. European colonists brought the honey bee (Apis mellifera) to what is now the United States in 1622. Specifically, the bees arrived at the Jamestown colony (Virginia).
