Bug Squad

What the world needs now is "love, sweet love" and...more ladybugs. Ladybeetles are our friends. They gobble up aphids and other pests in our garden, and then look around for more. They have insatiable appetites.

Females can become highly cannibalistic in the presence of other females. Yes, indeed.

Frances Sivakoff knows a lygus bug when she sees one. Sivakoff (right), a doctoral candidate in the UC Davis Department of Entomology, won a 2010 Robert and Peggy van den Bosch Memorial Scholarship for her work on the regional movement of the pest.

Skippers and sedum. Sedum and skippers. A perfect match. The flower, sedum (family Crassulaceae), and the fiery skipper butterfly (Hylephila phyleus, family Hesperlidae) make a stunning autumn photo. When late afternoon sun strikes its fighter-jet wings, it glows brilliantly.

You gotta love the Joe-Pye Weed. It's a shady character and a late bloomer. That is, it loves the shade and blooms in the late summer and early fall. Better yet, bees and butterflies love it. Once you hear the distinctive name, Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum) you'll never forget it.