Bug Squad

All winter long my bee condo housed 16 tenants...and one earwig. And quite comfortably, too, thank you. It all began last fall when the leafcutting bees laid their eggs, provisioned each nest with a nectar/pollen ball, and plugged it with leaves. Just about every morning, I did a bed check.

Entomologists at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, want you to know your sticks.

Ivana Li's fascinations with insects began in early childhood. She delighted in the insects on her parents' rose buses--the aphids, the ladybugs, grasshoppers and the caterpillars.

Scorpions--to fear or to revere? The Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house last Sunday drew visitors of all ages who marveled at the scorpions glowing under ultraviolet light. UC Davis entomology major Alexander Nguyen flashed a UV light on the critters as his audience watched in amazement.

In the blink of an eye, they visit the rockpurslane (Calandrinia grandiflora). Now you see them, now you don't. They're a sweat bee, a little larger than most sweat bees, but a little smaller than a honey bee.