Bug Squad

It's a bully. But what a bully! Ever seen the male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) protecting its turf? It's "no-holds barred" on our blue spike sage (Salvia uliginosa) and frankly, it's a delight to see and photograph.

The "best-kept secret" is no more. Well, it's not so much as a "best-kept secret" but a "UC Davis treasure." Thousands attended the seventh annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, which showcased 13 museums or collections.

So here's this male longhorned bee (Svastra) sipping a little nectar from a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). As the late Mr. Rogers (1928-2003), star of the TV show, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," so often proclaimed: "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Are you ready to celebrate Moth Night at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis? Mark your calendar for 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, July 21.

It was a long awaited process, but it's a girl! And she's beautiful! It all began with finding two anise swallowtail chrysalids clinging last July to the fennel stems in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif.