Bug Squad

Have you checked to see what's foraging on your early spring blooms? Our cherry laurels (Prunus laurocerasus) are blooming and the Andrena (mining) bees are zooming.

A honey bee, dusted with blue pollen, forages on a bird's eye, Gilia tricolor. We tower above her for a bird's eye view. It is April 19, 2010 in a field near the central UC Davis campus.

Some folks worry about "getting the red out." How about "getting the red in?" Have you ever seen a honey bee packing white, pink, blue, lavender, yellow, orange or red pollen? Have you ever seen the colorful diversity of pollen grains gracing their hives? Stunning. Take red.

You're on a winning streak when you spot a gray hairstreak. No, not the streak in Grandpa's hair--the streak on Grandma's flowers. It's the gray hairstreak butterfly, Strymon mellinus, also known as the common hairstreak.

The lady beetle, aka ladybug, is a veritable eating machine.