Bug Squad

A mannequin in a firefighter turncoat pinned with fire beetles drew "oohs" and "aahs" at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house last Sunday afternoon at the University of California, Davis.

Just a hoax. A fear-mongering hoax. A so-called Facebook "public service announcement" on Aug. 21 that warned of a new deadly spider species spreading across the United States went viral, but it was all fake news.

It was bound to happen. A "real" honey bee flying alongside "fake" bees on a bee crossing sign. We photographed this honey bee (below) at 1/1000 of second (with a Nikon D500 and a 105mm lens with the f-stop set at 16 and ISO at 800), but honey bee flight is truly amazing.

Do you know where your praying mantids are? Water a bush or a plant frequently visited by bees and other pollinators, and if they're in there, they're likely to emerge. Such was the case when a male praying mantis, Mantis religiosa, emerged from our pomegranate bush. No spray zone, please.

Who knew they were declining? Well, ecologists Richard "Rick" Karban Mikaela Huntzinger of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology did. For years, they've been observing meadow spittlebugs along the California coastline.