Bug Squad

It's no surprise that students as young as kindergarteners are eager to learn about the life cycle of a butterfly--from an egg, to a caterpillar to a chrysalis to an adult. Complete metamorphosis. Complete awe.

At last! From an egg to a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a butterfly. And it's a girl! For several days we've been protecting a Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) chryalis on our passionflower vine (Passiflora) from predators.

So patient, so passionate. The praying mantis looked hungry last Thursday when it perched on a coneflower in the half-acre Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis. Where's breakfast? Where's lunch? Where's dinner? Nowhere to be found.

Just before you open your carton of premier ice cream, you may want to enjoy the sound of violins and cellos. There's an app for that. More specifically, there's a concerto for that. And it all deals with the Hagen-Dazs premier ice cream brand supporting bee research at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

So there you are, a little sweat bee, foraging in the buckwheat. You sip some nectar, and suddenly, a flash of yellow. A wolf is at your door.