Bug Squad

It was a Gulf Fritillary kind of day last Saturday, Sept. 21 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis. That would be Agraulis vanillae. Visitors to the open house saw Gulf Frit eggs, caterpillars, chrysalids and adults.

Check out that moustache! Once you see the powerfully built robber fly of the Asilidae family, with its huge eyes, short proboscis and bristly "moustache," you won't forget it. It's an aggressive predator known for its speed, its strength, and its power.

University of Minnesota honey bee researcher Marla Spivak, in her TED talk on honey bee health, referred to bees as "flower feeders." That they are. Flower feeders. As are other pollinators from butterflies to beetles to bats.

If you've never been up close and personal with a praying mantis, here's your chance. At the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house on Saturday, Sept. 21 from 1 to 4 p.m., at the University of California, Davis, you'll see not one, but two, praying mantids. And very much alive.

Photos of honey bees can sometimes exude a dreamy, even ethereal quality, but in real life, bees are in trouble. That's why Marla Spivak's TED talk should be required viewing.