Bug Squad

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.

It's good to see all the focus on National Pollinator Week, as typified by UC Davis graduate student/native bee ecologist Margaret "Rei" Scampavia (at right) focusing on a male Valley carpenter bee. This is Xylocopa varipuncta, also known as "the teddy bear bee.