Green bottle fly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It's appropriate during National Pollinator Week to remember that.

We spotted this newly emerged green bottle fly (below) nectaring on lavender last week in our yard.

It seemed out of place among the honey bees, leafcutter bees and carpenter bees working the blossoms.

We didn't recognize it as a newly emerged green bottle fly, Lucilla sericata. But fly experts Martin Hauser of the California Department of Food and Agriculture and Terry Whitworth of Washington State University, did.

Family Calliphoridae.  Genus Lucilla. Species sericata.

"This looks like a Calliphoridae which just emerged, so the wings are still folded," said senior insect biosystematist Hauser.

Said Whitworth, an adjunct professor of entomology at WSU who maintains the websites birdblowfly.com and blowflies.net: "This is a teneral fly, not fully sclerotized. You can see it just emerged and the wings have still not extended so identification can be tough. However, the shot clearly shows three postacrostichals which almost certainly makes it the common, cosmopolitan Lucilia sericata."

Forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey of UC Davis marveled at the newly emerged fly. "Something dead in your yard?" he quipped.

"No," we said. "But the cat caught a rat the other day. We disposed of it quite quickly." Not the cat, the rat.

'Course, flies aren't known for being pollinators. They're better known--and rightfully so--for disposing of carrion and as the key tool in forensic entomology. They're also used in medical science as maggot therapy. And for art: one of Kimsey's former graduate students, forensic entomologist Rebecca O'Flaharty, coined the term "Maggot Art" (trademarked) and that's one of the activities at the annual UC Davis Picnic Day. Graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Entomology and Nematology show youths how to dip a maggot in water-based, non-toxic paint, place it on white paper, and let it crawl. Voila! Maggot Art! Suitable for framing...

Everything in life--and death--has a purpose. 

We have long-horned cattle and long-horned grasshoppers. How about long-horned bees?

It's National Pollinator Week and what better time to run some photos of long-horned bees from the genus Melissodes?

These males (below) are probably Melissodes communis, according to native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis. 

They were nectaring on salvia (sage) in a front yard in Davis, Calf., and keeping an eye out for the girls. The girls? They were dutifully carrying nectar and pollen back to their underground nests.

Melissodes belong to the family Anthrophoridae, described as a "very large family...found in all parts of the world," according to the book, Bees of the World, written by Christopher O'Toole and Anthony Raw. Melissa is Greek for "honey bee."

These long-horned bees are part of the tribe Eucerini, found all over the world except in Australia, according to O'Toole/Raw. Melissodes is a New World genera.

One thing's for sure: these ground nesting bees are fast-flying. In the blink of an eye, they're gone.

What's that hopping on our patio?

At first we thought it was a grasshopper. Not!

It was a katydid, sometimes called a "long-horned grasshopper," from the family Tettigoniidae (as identified by Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and UC Davis professor of entomology, and native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis).  

"Katydids have long, threadlike antennae," said Kimsey. "Grasshopper antennae are rarely much longer than the head."

Said Thorp: "Note the long slender antennae (as long as or longer than the body); the very long slender jumping hind legs; and the scimitar-like ovipositor at the end of the abdomen."

Scientists tell us that the number of described species in the family Tettigoniidae exceeds 6400. Most katydids are green. They're often perfectly camouflaged in bushes and trees.

A katydid. The name is derived from the "song" it sings by rubbing its wings together. "Katy did." "Katy didn't."

This katydid, a female, responded to our footsteps. (Their "ears" or hearing organs are on their front feet.)

It hopped away, but not before we captured its image.

Flowering artichokes indicate one of two things (1) someone never bothered to harvest them or (2) someone loves bees. 

We let our artichokes flower. So does the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden on Bee Biology Road next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. Owned and operated by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, the haven provides a year-around food source for bees and other pollinators;  raises public awareness about the plight of honey bees, and encourages visitors to plant bee-friendly gardens of their own.   

It's delightful to watch the honey bees helicopter in, touch down in the purple forest, and thread their way to the food source. 

It's especially delightful to know that National Pollinator Week is next week, June 17-23.  Launched six years ago by the U.S. Senate, designated by the U.S. Department of Interior,  and initiated and managed by the San Francisco-based Pollinator Partnership, it's an opportunity to address "the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations," according to the Pollinator Partnership website.

It's not only about the bees, but other pollinators, such as birds, butterflies, bats, beetles, ants, wasps and yes, even flies.

Why are pollinators important and why should we care? Go to the Pollinator Week's 
"Fast Facts" page.

One such fact: "About 75 percent of all flowering plants rely on animal pollinators and over 200,000 species of animals act as pollinators. Of those, about 1,000 are hummingbirds, bats, and small mammals.  The rest are insects such as beetles, bees, ants, wasps, butterflies, and moths."

Meanwhile, the flowering artichokes are getting a real workout.  Often, you can't see the forest for the bees.