Bug Squad

Bee creative! That's what scientists at the University of California, Davis; area artists; and the general public will "bee" during the Davis Art Center's public exhibit, "Discovery Art: Cross Pollination, Sharing Art, Sharing Ideas," on Friday night, Aug. 10.

Native on native. That's when you get when you see a yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) on a penstemon, also known as "beard's tongue." Both the bee and the flower are native to North America.

Beekeepers describe their honey bees as "my girls" or "my beautiful girls." It's a term of endearment. Now take the green metallic sweat bee, Agapostemon texanus. If honey bees are beautiful (and they are) then these bees are spectacular.

How blue can it be? We spotted a metallic blue bug, one of nature's most amazing colors, last Sunday. It was in the Mostly Natives Nursery in Tomales, a Marin County site frequented by many University of California entomologists and staff as they work on their urban bee research and publications.

Sometimes you'll see him sitting cross-legged on the floor, circled by first graders. They're asking questions like "What is an insect?" and "How long do insects live?" and "What do they eat?" Sometimes you'll see him holding Madagascar hissing cockroaches and explaining why they hiss.