Monarch butterflies, says Sonia Altizer, are "globally distributed and best known for undertaking a spectacular annual migration in parts of North America."

However, in wild populations, monarchs are commonly infected "with a specialist protozoan Ophryocystis elektroscirrha; this parasite can be transmitted both vertically and horizontally and causes debilitating infections."

Altizer, an associate professor in the Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, will discuss "Migratory Immunity: Parasite Infection, Host Defense and Fitness Costs in Monarch Butterflies" at the UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Wednesday, May 9 in 122 Briggs Hall.

It promises to be well-attended, given the avid interest in monarchs and Altizer's expertise.

What's so special about monarchs?

"Monarch butterflies are known for the incredible mass migration that brings millions of them to California and Mexico each winter," according to an article in National Geographic. "North American monarchs are the only butterflies that make such a massive journey—up to 3,000 miles (4,828 kilometers). The insects must begin this journey each fall ahead of cold weather, which will kill them if they tarry too long."

The National Geographic article points out that "Only monarchs born in late summer or early fall make the migration, and they make only one round trip. By the time next year's winter migration begins, several summer generations will have lived and died and it will be last year's migrators' great grandchildren that make the trip. Yet somehow these new generations know the way, and follow the same routes their ancestors took—sometimes even returning to the same tree."

Altizer's research focuses on the interplay between animal behavior and the spread and evolution of infectious diseases.   For the past 15 years, she has studied monarch butterfly migration, ecology, and interactions with a protozoan parasite, asking how seasonal migration of these butterflies affects parasite transmission.

She also researches a number of other projects, including mammalian infectious diseases and songbird-pathogen dynamics, including studies of house finch conjunctivitis, West Nile virus, and salmonellosis.

But we butterfly enthusiasts are happy she's studying the monarchs!

If you're growing a tower of jewels (Echium wildpretii) in your yard, you won't need a stop sign or a traffic light to encourage vehicles to slow down--they will automatically when they see this spectacular plant.

it's a traffic stopper.

The plant, reminiscent of a Christmas tree, attracts not only vehicular and foot traffic, but honey bees, bumble bees and hummingbirds. It's basically a tower of bees when it blooms. 

The one in our yard is about eight feet tall. Honey bees, eager for the nectar and pollen, keep creating traffic jams. If you sit and watch them, you'll see them constantly bumping into one another as they forage for food.

No wonder it's a favorite of beekeepers.

The species, a biennial, is native to the Canary Islands. It's endemic to the island of Tenerife. 

Last year several towers of jewels bloomed near Storer Hall on the University of California, Davis campus, and a couple of others graced the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a bee friendly garden on Bee Biology Road, about a mile west of the central campus.

The UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery sells these at their plant sales, but they go fast, says Ellen Zagory, the arboretum's director of horticulture. "We don't have any left," she said. 

No wonder. 

Sometimes it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

The common blue damselfly or Northern Bluet (Enallagma cyathigerum) is long and slender like a needle, but a jeweled blue needle.

We spotted this one last weekend at the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis. 

Damselflies are difficult to photograph. You have to sneak up on them. If you move too fast toward them, they're gone. 

Damselflies and dragonflies share the same order, Odonata. However, damselflies are in the suborder Zygoptera.

Naturalist John Acorn of the University of Alberta, calls the blue damselflies "flying neon toothpicks." In fact, his book, Damselflies of Alberta is subtitled Flying Neon Toothpicks in the Grass. 

Whether you call them needles or toothpicks, damselflies are stunning.

Nature's Gallery is absolutely spectacular.

You may remember hearing about the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program project when it was displayed in the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2007.

Nature's Gallery drew raves then and it's drawing raves now.

It's a mosaic mural of 140 interlocking ceramic tiles depicting plants and insects. Now it's in its "forever" home--the UC Davis Arboretum's Ruth Storer Garden, located on Garrod Drive. It anchors what is to be Nature's Gallery Court.

A grand opening is scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 9.

The mosaic mural attracted more than 300,000 visitors when U.S. Botanic Garden showcased it. The mural inspired many a visitor to become a gardener, many a gardener to become an artist, many an artist to become a scientist, and many a scientist to become an artist.

Handcrafted by UC Davis staff, faculty and community members, it is art you can study and science you can decipher. The colors, the shapes, the plants, the insects--they're all there.

Its installation in the Storer Garden is nearing completion, according to Diane Ullman and Donna Billick, co-founders and directors of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program. The last remaining part: the donor tiles on the donor wall.

Donors may contribute either $500 for an insect tile (6x8 inches) or $1500 for a plant tile (16x21 inches). Each tile will be inscribed with the scientific name of the insect or botanical name of the plant, along with the donor name(s). At the onset, 76 plant tiles and 54 insect tiles were available, but as of Friday, April 27, only a few remain. (See website for information on availability or contact Suzanne Ullensvang, resource development manager at (530) 752-8324 or sullensvang@ucdavis.edu.

The tiles can be a fitting tribute to the memory of an avid gardener or just a public way to support art and science as one entity. 

As its name implies, the Art-Science Fusion Program merges scientists with artists. It includes design faculty, science faculty, museum educators, professional artists, and UC Davis students.

You won't find a more passionate duo of science/art leaders than Ullman and Billick. Ullman, a professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, serves as associate dean for undergraduate academic programs at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. And, Ullman is an artist in her own right. Billick, who holds two UC Davis degrees--a bachelor's degree in genetics and a master's degree in fine arts--is a self-described "rock artist." Among her work: the morphologically correct ceramic bee sculpture in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis.

The garden is named for Ruth Risdon Storer, Yolo County’s first pediatrician who loved both medicine and plants. Designed for year-round color with low water use and low maintenance, it includes many Arboretum All-Stars.

Come June 9, the public will celebrate another "All-Star"--Nature's Gallery.