Bug Squad

You could say that entomologist Megan Meuti of The Ohio State University (OSU) messes with mosquitoes' circadian clocks. She's hoping she can trick Culex pipiens, the Northern house mosquito, into not biting us.

"Around 250 million years ago, at the start of the Triassic period, a species of insect evolved to have a narrow waist, called a petiole. This adaptation allowed greater flexibility and maneuverability of the ovipositor, the tubular structure on the female's rear used to deposit eggs.

The newly published UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology calendar is DCI: delightful, creative and innovative! Bohart Museum director Lynn Kimsey, a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, said the calendar--featuring students' unusual comments on their Entomology 100 term papers and illustr...

Who doesn't love jumping spiders? They're adorable. No? Well, they are to arthropod enthusiasts, but not so much to their prey. This one (probably a Phidippus audax, a Bold Jumper) was moving slowly and unobtrusively up a shadowed Vacaville stucco wall on the morning of Jan. 2.

Have you seen any overwintering milkweed bugs lately? About a dozen milkweed bugs, Oncopeltus fasciatus, emerged from seclusion Jan. 2, 2022 in our Vacaville garden. The temperature hovered at 32 degrees that morning, but when the sun peeked out, there they were. Mating.