Bug Squad

You'll see an owl butterfly at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. You'll see a great-horned owl at the Raptor Center. "Owl that" at more at the ninth annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day on Saturday, Feb. 15 when 13 museums and collections showcase their projects. The event, to take place from 9 a.

How many different bumble bee species have you seen or photographed this year? Have you seen the black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus? It's the earliest to emerge in this area. We photographed several B. melanopygus on Jan. 25 near downtown Benicia.

You never know where a praying mantis will deposit its egg case, the ootheca. In and around Vacaville, we've seen them on olive trees, honeysuckle vines, passionflower vines, and wooden stakes.

If you were thinking of trying to net a cabbage white butterfly to win Art Shapiro's "Beer-for-a-Butterfly Contest"--a butterfly for a pitcher of beer, or its equivalent--you're too late. The contest is over. No winner this year.

At first glance, they're often mistaken for bees, but bees they are not. They're flies. You've probably seen them hovering over flowers, which is why syprhids are commonly called "hover flies" or "flower flies." Enter Andrew Young.