Bug Squad

It's the Big 4-0 for the Almond Board of California's annual almond industry conference this week. Some 1000 convention-goers are gathering in the Sacramento Convention Center. The 40th annual conference opened Tuesday, Dec. 11 and runs through Thursday, Dec. 13.

When chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, was elected to the prestigious Brazilian Academy of Sciences, his lab members donned matching t-shirts--t-shirts with a touch of humor and a dose of humility. On the front: "I did the work.

If you or someone in a household near you can draw a bug, then you need to head over to the Bohart Museum of Entomology on the UC Davis campus on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 15. The Bohart Museum is hosting an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 Academic Surge on Crocker Lane.

Glow-in-the-dark organisms? Art made of fungus? Tales about insects? That will all take place at Organism, an art show fusing art, science and technology, including insect art by young entomologists on the University of California, Davis campus The date: Tuesday night, Dec. 11.

What a great line-up of speakers! The new year hasn't begun, but already assistant professors Joanna Chiu and Brian Johnson are gearing up for the UC Davis Department of Entomology's winter seminar series, set Jan. 9-March 13. All seminars will take place on Wednesdays from 12:10 to 1 p.m.