Bug Squad

Ever seen a green metallic sweat bee? The colors are exquisite. This is a female Agapostemon on a purple coneflower at UC Davis. They are called "sweat bees" because they are attracted to human perspiration. The genders are easy to distinguish. The males have a striped abdomen.

It would never happen in real life. A quail and a praying mantis together? Except when one is a decorative metal sculpture. A mantis, a carnivore, is known to eat hummingbirds (in addition to its regular diet of bees and butterflies, et al). And a quail, an omnivore, eats both plants and insects.

Is Franklin's bumble bee extinct or is it just elusive? Annual search parties conducted since 2006 have failed to locate the species. Now scientists may learn its status via DNA "fingerprints.

Sorry, we're closed! What's a honey bee to do when one of her favorite flowers, cape mallow (Anisodontea sp. "Strybing Beauty") is not open for bees-ness. Well, leave it to the bee to find a way. We recently witnessed a honey bee encountering a yet-to-open flower in the early morning.

Would you eat a chocolate-covered cicada? Yes? No? Maybe? Entomophagy is no problem for scientists at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis. They know where the office snacks are kept. The items includedrum rollchocolate-covered cicadas.