Bug Squad

It was a time for celebration and a time for nostalgia.

Honey bees love safflowers, says Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. That they do. Safflower fields literally buzz with bees foraging on the blossoms. Sometimes the pollen load is so heavy it's a wonder they can fly back to their colonies.

"Did he really say that?" entomologist May Berenbaum asked. "He did," said cultural entomologist Emmet Brady, host of the Insect News Network. The occasion: a UC Davis dinner honoring Berenbaum, professor and head of the Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

It's good to see so many scientists and citizen scientists taking an avid interest in monarchs. The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), probably the most recognizable of all the butterflies, is known for its long migratory route from Canada to Mexico.

Peponapis pruinosa isn't your common household word. But among the people who study pollinators, it is. Also known as a squash bee, it is an important pollinator of cultivated crops of squash, pumpkins, and others members of the genus Cucurbita.