Bug Squad

Paradise isn't. It was, though. And it will be again when it's rebuilt. #ParadiseStrong. The raging inferno known as "Camp Fire" that started Nov. 8 on Camp Creek Road, near Pulga, Butte County, California, ranks as the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state's history.

"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough."--Rabindranath Tagore When we think of orange and autumn, we think of the marriage of the Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae), and the Mexican sunflower (Tithonia).

Mark your calendars! The next open house at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus, is set for 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 18. It's free and family friendly.

Henrietta, our Stagmomantis limbata praying mantis, perches on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). She is as patient as she is persistent. The drone fly, aka syrphid and also known as a hover fly or flower fly, makes the fatal mistake of touching down on the same blossom. Henrietta eyes it hungrily.

Talk about the unexpected. Look! says Jim. He pauses by the kitchen counter. "Over there! he says, pointing. I don't see anything except the half-filled coffee pot. Then I see it. "There," as in over there, is a praying mantis clinging to the wall and staring at us.