Test PB Collection: FTE

It was not a good day to "stop and smell the roses." A vespid wasp apparently lingered too long on a rose--perhaps dropping by for a sip of nectar or seeking unsuspecting prey. What it found was another predator, a praying mantis looking for breakfast.

Some folks have the best of both worlds. Noted bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey not only has the best of both worlds, but the best of both springs. Cobey, affiliated with the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

If you're looking for vanishing pollinators this weekend, head over to the Marin Civic Center, 3501 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael, and see the ecoart exhibit produced by WEAD, the Women Environmental Artists Directory. The occasion is the 2010 Bioneers Conference, focusing on food and farrming.

Scores of people want to hear what Murray Isman has to say. And on Wednesday night, Oct. 27, they can. Murray Isman, a noted expert on botanical insecticides, will deliver the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Seminar in Entomology at 5 p.m., Wednesday, Oct.

This is no ordinary calendar. No oceans. No mountains. No deserts. Each month features a "pin-up girl." But these models will never run for Miss America or promote world peace. Only a few have social skills and most are solitary. Take a look at Miss May. She's a sweat bee.

You gotta love that red buckwheat (Eriogonum grande rubescens). Attractive to honey bees, native bees and butterflies, red buckwheat is flourishing in the garden. Okay, it's called red buckwheat, but the clusters are rosy pink. They're about the same size as ping-pong balls.

It's called a complete metamorphosis--from an egg to a larva to a pupa to an adult. Metamorphosis--Greek for "transformation" or "change in shape" is spectacular. And it's particularly spectacular when the subject is the Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon).

The movement toward conservation tillage seems to fit right in with two other farming industry trends - pinching pennies and protecting the environment, according to an article in the September-October 2010 Grower magazine.

Once upon a time, there was a redhumped caterpillar gorging on the leaves of a redbud tree. For three days, the hungry caterpillar gobbled the leaves, like an insect version of Pac-Man. It snipped, shredded and skeletonized the leaves and then went for more.

It was a major milestone, sequencing the genome of Culex quinquefasciatus, the so-called southern house mosquito. The research, spearheaded by UC Riverside geneticists and published in the Oct. 1, 2010 edition of Science, involved scientists from 37 other institutions.