Bug Squad

If bees are your buddies, ants ought to be your friends, right? Right. They belong to the same order, Hymenoptera, but some folks insist that ants don't belong in your life. Oh, but they do! Find out why at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, May 21.

Mark your calendars! The Bohart Museum of Entomology has scheduled three open houses between now and Saturday, July 22. The first open house is themed "Ants!" It's set from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, May 21. The Phil Ward ant lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is planning the event.

In the spotlight: the newly discovered beech leaf disease caused by the nematode, Litylenchus crenatae mccannii.

So here's this crab spider stalking a katydid nymph foraging on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. Dinner awaits! Suddenly a native bee, Melissodes agilis, lands next to the katydid and begins to sip some nectar.

Battus philenor! Battus philenor! That's what UC Davis distinguished professor Art Shapiro called out when he spotted a pipevine swallowtail foraging on wild radish as we trudged up Gates Canyon Road several years ago. It's a beautiful butterfly, and one of the first we see in the spring.