Bug Squad

Lynn Kimsey knows her bugs.

We've seen bumble bees, honey bees, sweat bees, wool carder bees and syrphid flies topple into our swimming pool, but never an alfalfa butterfly until now.

Pity the poor worker bee. In the spring/summer months, she lives only four to six weeks and then she dies. Bee scientists say she basically works herself to death.

I know. Jumping spiders have to eat, but do they have to snag the bees? Last weekend as we were checking the lavender patch in our yard, we noticed something partially hidden--and moving--on a post. It was a jumping spider eating a honey bee.

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.