Bug Squad

So you're sitting there watching the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars chowing down on the passionflower vines. It's sort of like watching the grass grow, or the paint dry, but there's much more drama.

Kathy Kellison is on a mission: to encourage winegrape growers to plant Bee-Helpful Cover Crops. This would include mustards, clover and buckwheat, plants that honey bees love. Kellison, the executive director of the Santa Rosa-based Partners for Sustainable Pollination, will speak Thursday, Aug.

The purple trailing lantana (Lantana montevidensis) is a butterfly magnet. In our yard, it draws gulf fritillaries, Western tiger swallowtails, cabbage whites, and fiery skippers. Lately, fiery skippers (Hylephila phyleus) are the main draw.

Robbin Thorp saw it first. Talk about an eagle eye. Thorp, a native pollinator specialist and emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, was monitoring the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis, on July 23 when something caught his eye.

It's a glorious summer day and butterflies are fluttering in the breeze. They are Nature's flying flowers, Nature's stained glass windows, and Nature's sunny smiles.