Bug Squad

What a perfect camouflage! Have you ever seen a green praying mantis hiding among the green growth in your garden? Concealed. Disguised. Camouflaged. The praying mantis is a patient insect.

Just one word--stems. Bees forage on the lavender in our bee yard, but sometimes you'll see them on the stems.

"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.