Ongoing research

It's a buggy new year! One of the fascinating things about beginning the new year is the Entomological Society of America's "World of Insects" calendar. Amazing images of insects (and one spider!) jump out at you.

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014 the last day of the year.

At first glance, they looked like dead leaves hanging on an Eucalyptus tree in the Natural Bridges State Park, Santa Cruz. From 75 to 80 feet below, they bore no resemblance to monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus), the most familiar butterfly in all of North America.

The almonds are blooming! The almonds are blooming! Well, at least one almond tree in the Benicia State Recreation Area is blooming. On a drive to Benicia on Christmas Day, we spotted several blooms on an almond tree.

DAVIS--A beer for a butterfly. If you collect the first live cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae) of 2015 in Yolo, Sacramento or Solano counties and have it verified as the winner, you'll get a pitcher of beer or its equivalent.

It's time to revisit "The 13 Bugs of Christmas." You've heard "The 12 Days of Christmas," beginning with a single "partridge in a pear tree" and ending with "12 drummers drumming.

Professor Clement Clarke Moore (July 15, 1779 July 10, 1863) wrote "A Visit from St. Nicholas" for his family in 1822. It later became known as "The Night Before Christmas." Fast forward, 92 years later.

Male praying mantids looking for "a little love" don't always fare well. Sometimes they lose their head. Female mantids can--and do--cannibalize them before, during or after copulation.

The California Weed Science Society recently published the 4th edition of the Principles of Weed Control as an e-book. This textbook/handbook that has been a valuable resource for many years and I'm excited that it has been updated.

The late comedian Rodney Dangerfield would have liked male ants. It was Dangerfield (1921-2004), you know, who coined the catchphrase, "I don't get no respect.