Bug Squad

Is there anything more beautiful than a monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, nectaring on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia) in the late afternoon sun?

It's not often you see "passion on passion." That would be the "passion butterfly"--Gulf Fritillary, Agaulis vanillae--on the blossom of its host plant, the passionflower vine, Passiflora. You often see the males patrolling the vine and the females laying eggs on the leaves.

You never know about those photo-bombers. You can't trust 'em. So here I was, trying to photograph a tiny egg that a monarch butterfly had just deposited on our milkweed. I held it up for a better look.

We're glad to see the importance of museum collections mentioned in the newly published UC Davis research analyzing modern-day and museum collections of monarch butterflies over a 200-year period.

A UC Davis doctoral student's newly published research analyzing the population genetics of Africanized honey bees in North and South America details how rapidly they spread to California and also chronicles their successes and limitations.