Bug Squad

The crane fly is as long-legged and slender as a runway model, but as gangly as a teenager. The insect, from the family Tipulidae, is sometimes called daddy long-legs (not!) or a skeeter eater (not!). They don't eat mosquitoes and they don't bite. The adults sip nectar.

You never hear anyone say "He's as cute as an earwig." Or, he's as cute as a "lygus bug." No. It's "Cute as a June bug," which could be any number of bugs, including the fig beetle (Cotinus mutabilis).

When you encounter a "Golden Girl" in your backyard, there's one thing to do: grab the camera. The "Golden Girl," in this case, is an Italian honey bee (Apis mellifera liguistica), the most common honey bee in the United States. Make that the world.

Unlike airplane pilots, honey bees don't file a flight plan. They know where they're going because their sisters tell them with their waggle dances. Pollen. Nectar. Propolis. All good. Bees seem to really like the pollen on rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora).

It was not a good day for a flower fly. A flower fly, aka syrphid fly, dropped down in a patch of pink roses at the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis today to sip nectar. It was a pink-rose kind of day. Not for the flower fly, though. A crab spider, lying in wait, pounced.