Bug Squad

A hover fly, not a bee. Passersby admiring the gazania blooming outside the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis, might think that all the insects that frequent the golden flowers are bees. Not.

The crab spider didn't go away hungry. Camouflaged in the petals of a sedum, the cunning predator waits patiently for its prey. An unsuspecting blowfly lands inches from the crab spider, unaware of its presence, and crawls toward it.

Carpenter bees pack pollen, too. A carpenter bee (Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex) visiting our gaura last weekend was packing bright yellow pollen, a sharp contrast against her black body.

Dragonflies occasionally hang around our fish pond to catch flying insects, such as flies and mosquitoes. Last weekend a gorgeous flame skimmer swooped down in our garden--a few yards from our fish pond--and landed on a bamboo stake. She absolutely glowed in the late afternoon sun.

Florian Altermatt (right) describes himself as a "keen biologist and naturalist." "I'm interested in community ecology, metapopulation, biologoy and evolutionary biology. Besides that, my pleasures are--as Vladimir Nabokov said once-the most intense known to man: writing and butterfly hunting.