Bug Squad

Female Valley carpenter bees are solid black--except when they're foraging around passion flowers. Then they're black and yellow--the yellow being the color of the pollen transferred to their thorax. Beautiful? Absolutely.

Mark your calendars if you want to hear about bees, honey laundering, sex and the single parsnip! All in a two-day period...

Whenever you look at the Matilija poppy, you think of a fried egg. White, crepelike flowers (the egg whites) circle a cluster of gold stamens (the yolk).

What a perfect match when a Gulf Fritillary butterfly touches down on a blanket flower. They're both reddish-orange and showy. Last weekend we spotted a Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae) land momentarily on a blanket flower (Gaillardia), in our bee garden.

Did you count pollinators on Thursday, May 8? That was "Be a Scientist Day," sponsored by the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources' Day of Science and Service to commemorate 100 years of Cooperative Extension.