Bug Squad

When the ants come marching in, Andrea Lucky will be right there. Ant specialist Andrea Lucky, who will receive her doctorate in entomology on June 10 from UC Davis, will speak on the evolutionary history of ants on Wednesday, May 12 in 122 Briggs, UC Davis.

Honey bees are wild about the wild radish. It's not an invasive weed to them. You'll see bees foraging among stands of wild radish along roadsides, pastures and other disturbed areas.

When the Antioch Charter Academy, a middle school in Contra Costa County, toured the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis on Tuesday, May 4, they learned all about honey bees and native bees.

It's not the prettiest of plants. It looks somewhat like a thistle. No matter. The honey bees love it. Lacy phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia), a leggy three-foot plant with clusters of light blue to purple flowers, attracts not only honey bees but syrphid flies, bumbles bees and other pollinators.

If youre a first-year graduate student in entomology, you spend much of your time buried in books or conferring with your major professor. Emily Bzdyk, who is pursuing her doctorate in entomology at UC Davis, does that, too--and more. She's heavily involved in art.