Bug Squad

What an amazing photo! Vacaville resident Cindy Carmouche, a nurse at Kaiser Permanente, captured a photo of early instar redhumped caterpillars eating her French prune leaves. One look at this photo and you will marvel at some v-e-r-y hungry caterpillars.

Two species of male sunflower bees, Svastra obliqua and Melissodes agilis, spend the day on our Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia) chasing the girls and protecting their turf. Sometimes I wonder why they don't tire out sooner than they do. The Energizer Bunny could take lessons from them.

Have you ever seen butterflies on jackrabbits? No? Well, if you attended the recent "We Know Jack" public art exhibit at the Vacaville Museum on Buck Avenue, you saw jackrabbits. Plenty of jack rabbits. And butterflies. Plenty of butterflies.

The most common dragonfly in our little family bee garden is the red flameskimmer, Libellula saturata.

It's National Pollinator Week and there's exciting news on the horizon. Staff research associate Billy Synk of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, University of California, Davis, has been named director of Pollination Programs for Project Apis m.