Bug Squad

The movie, "Sideways," has nothing on a spotted cucumber beetle climbing up, down and sideways on a rock purslane. The spotted cucumber beetle is a pest, while the rock purslane has to be among the world's most beautiful flowers. (And also very attractive to insects.

Quick! Name three states that have no official state insect. That was one of the questions at the Linnaean Games, a traditional part of the Entomological Society of America's annual meeting. This year's meeting, the 56th annual, is now under way in Reno. The Linnaean Games have begun.

Last Saturday the rock purslane in our bee friendly garden drew a honey bee, several hover flies and one spotted cucumber beetle. A hover fly landed on a blossom, only to find a spotted cucumber beetle there first.

Honey isn't always amber-colored. It can range from white to dark brown, depending on the flowers the bees visit. Back in 1971, a group of UC Davis bee specialists wrote a booklet, Fundamentals of California Beekeeping, published by the "University of California College of Agriculture.

When the Entomological Society of America's 56th annual meeting takes place Nov. 16-19 in Reno, UC Davis entomologists will be out in force. And they'll be highly honored.