Bug Squad

 What a tiny moth!Jeff Smith, volunteer curator of the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, for three decades, has just spread the wings of a micro-moth with a wingspan (both wings open) measured at about 1 centimeter.And it is not only tiny,…

 How can you capture a close-up image of a male longhorned bee, such as Melissodes agilis or Svastra  obliqua expurgata?Before the sun rises, slip out into the patch of flowers where you've seen them before. They will be sleeping or slighty stirring. (The females return to their nests at night,…

 Several years ago, a friend gifted us with some garden art, an owl. Its head does not rotate. Its wings do not move.  It does not scare away birds or squirrels. It does not scare away butterflies, either.Last week a monarch fluttered in our pollinator garden and quickly spotted a milkweed…

   UC Davis alumnus and "entomology ambassaor"Jakob Lopez, who receivewd his bachelor's degree in animal biology in June, drew the rapt attention of fairgoers at the California State Fair's Insect Pavilion, sponsored by the State Fair, California Department of Agriculture, and the Bohart…

 Hold that tiger!When a Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, glides into your yard, it's the next best thing to a monarch. This one took a liking to the Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, guareded by male long-horned bees. Very territorial.UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus Art…