Bug Squad

It boasts striking colors, but you don't want this bug anywhere near your garden. It sucks. Literally. This is a harlequin bug, Murgantia histronica, as identified by Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis.

Today's the Fourth of July and folks are splashing in their pools. So, what happens when a bee falls in? Sometimes they get lucky--if there's a human around to rescue them. And sometimes their luck extends to a floating leaf. This tiny female sweat bee, genus Halictus (probably H.

It was a reddish-orange beetle, moving a little but not a lot. We spotted it on a sunflower bordering the Avant Garden in Benicia.

We saw her touch down in our nectarine tree last weekend. Big green compound eyes glowed at us. She moved up and down a branch, foraging for food, and then took off. A wasp. The carnivore cousin of the vegetarian honey bee. They belong to the same order, Hymenoptera.

When I last met up with a pipevine swallowtail, it wasn't faring well. In fact, I didn't recognize it as a pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor), no thanks to it being in the clutches of a hungry praying mantis.