Bug Squad

It's been dubbed "The Manhattan Project of Entomology." And it may have "the potential to revolutionize the way we think about insects," says Richard Levine, communications program manager of the Entomological Society of America (ESA). Call it "The Manhattan Project of Entomology.

The feather-legged fly looks as if it were formed by a committee. It's about the size of a house fly, but there the similarity ends. Black head and thorax, hind legs fringed with a "comb" of short black hairs, and an abdomen that's the color of honey--bright orange honey.

To attract honey bees to your garden, it's a good idea to let the artichokes flower. Sure, you could pick them for your dinner, but you'd be depriving honey bees of theirs. At the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis, the artichokes are beginning to flower.

Honey bees in the pink? Yes. If you plant rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora), a perennial succulent, be prepared for a posse of honey bees.

The Bohart Museum of Entomology has five. Nature has none. Zip. Zero. Zilch. The Xerces Blue Butterfly, which once thrived on the San Francisco Peninsula before urbanization chased it away, is extinct. There are no more.