Bug Squad

Gotta love that Gray Hairstreak. If you don't like putting "gray" and "hair" in the same sentence, not to worry. This is the butterfly, Strymon melinus. When the it's hanging around a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, the orange spots on its tail accent the color of the flower.

So here we have two cabbage white butterflies, a male and a female, fluttering around the catmint (Nepata) and lavender (Lavendula) in our pollinator garden.

Ready or not, here I come! "Wait, can you slow down a bit?" I ask. "I can't focus when you move so fast!" No, sorry! I'm in a hurry! Anthophora urbana, a solitary, ground-nesting bee, frequents our garden to forage on the catmint (Nepeta) and lavender (Lavandula).

You know the drill, lay 'em on the tendrils. But Gulf Fritillary butterflies, Agraulis vanillae, don't always lay their eggs on the tendrils of their host plant, the passionflower vine (Passiflora) although textbooks may indicate that.

Okay, boys, listen up! You're the Lucky Seven! Count yourselves. There are seven of you--seven male Melissodes agilis bees--sleeping on a single spent Mexican sunflower blossom (Tithonia rotundifola).