Bug Squad

Hello there, little leafcutter bee! Yes, you, foraging on the sky-blue Chinese Forget-Me-Nots! You're just in time for National Pollinator Week! Leafcutter bees, family Megachilidae, are so named because the females cut leaves and petals (perfectly round holes!) to line their nests.

How many of us can trace our childhood interest in insects back to lady beetles, aka ladybugs? They're among the most recognizable of insects.

Mortarboards are really "wizard hats." Just ask Griffin Alberts, 3, whose mother, Charlotte Herbert Alberts, received her doctorate in entomology June 15 at the UC Davis Graduate Studies Program commencement ceremony in the University Credit Union Center.

It's 3:47 p.m., on Sunday, June 4. I am watching a honey bee nectaring on a zinnia in our pollinator garden. She collects, lingers and then leaves. It was like (A) Apis mellifera to (Z) zinnia.

You might not expect to see Anthocharis sara sara in McCormack Hall during the 74th annual Solano County Fair, Vallejo, June 15-18. But you will. It's a photograph titled "Painted Wings" by Regan Van Tuyl, 13 of Dixon.