Bug Squad

Blue damselflies should be on "Dancing with Stars." Because, in many respects, they ARE the stars--the stars of the insect world. They're slender, delicate and beautiful dancers that look like blue-stick diamonds.

Two's company, three's a crowd? Yes, when a spotted cucumber beetle tries to share a sunflower with two honey bees. That was the scene Sunday in a sunflower field along Pedrick Road, Dixon, Solano County. The spotted cucumber beetle is a pest. Honey bees are beneficial.

It's often mistaken for the honey bee. But it's not a honey bee (Apis mellifera). It's a different species of bee. Specifically, it's a long-horn sunflower bee. We spotted this sunflower bee July 11 in the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

It's good to see that American Honey Bee Queen Teresa Bryson, 19, of Chambersburg, Pa., will be spreading the word about beekeeping and honey at the California State Fair, 1600 Exposition Blvd. Sacramento. The fair opened July 14 and continues through July 31.

A recent trip to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, Fort Bragg, yielded spectacular views of the ocean, but something else also proved spectacular--the honey bees and bumble bees foraging on borage.