Bug Squad

"Wow! Oh, wow!" That's what people usually say when they encounter dozens of reddish-orange butterflies at a home on the 1500 block of Claremont Drive in Davis, Calif.

If you have Mexican sunflowers (genus Tithonia) in your garden, you can expect a diversity of insects--and not just honey bees. Lately we've been photographing all the insects that visit the Tithonia in our bee garden.

Who doesn't love a praying mantis? Certainly not a butterfly or a bee. We humans, though, are fascinated by them. First, there's the problem of finding them. Often they're so camouflaged that we don't see them until they rustle the leaves and snatch a moving prey.

Just call it "The Battle Over the Tithonia.

There are no bugs in the film. None. Just because an entomologist is cast in a Hollywood movie, that doesn't mean there will be bugs.