Bug Squad

Visitors to Bodega Head, Sonoma County, will see lupine, California golden poppies, wild radish, mustard, seaside daises and scores of other flowers in bloom. And if they're lucky--a metallic blue digger wasp from the Sphecidae family of thread-waisted wasps.

Occasionally we see a honey bee on the violet trumpet vine (Clytostoma calystegiodies) but the hummingbirds seem to like it better. The delicate purple-veined blossoms burst out in late spring or summer. It's a UC Davis Arboretum All-Star.

So many flowers. So many pollinators. So many floral visitors. On every field trip, we see something new and different, such as the male long-horned bee, Melissodes communis (below) on salvia and the female sunflower bee, Svastra obliqua expurgata, on a Mexican hat flower.

If you're craving to find out more about insects--specifically how to FIND them--then you'll want to attend the Bohart Museum of Entomologys open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, June 9. It's free and open to the public.

If you've studied bees, you know that there are approximately 20,000 described species of bees in the world. Most people are familiar with honey bees and bumble bees, but they don't know about "those big black bees" (carpenter bees) or "those green metallic bees" (sweat bees).