Bug Squad

Move over, teddy bears! There's a new bear in town. Stuiffed toy animals resembling tardigrades, aka "water bears," are all the rage at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's year-around gift shop at the University of California, Davis.

Talk about extremes! Have you ever thought about how some insects have adapted to fire, ice, acid, hot water, salt and the desert? Have you ever seen an ambrosia beetle, a red turpentine beetle, an ice cricket, a brine fly or a sand wasp?

This was a case of bugs sharing the spotlight with pigs, polar bears and pigeons.

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. Out came the sun and dried up all the rain and the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again. --Nursery Rhyme It was an itsy bitsy spider. But it wasn't climbing up a water spout.

Just call it "my old flame." Well, it's not mine, but it is a flame of sorts, a flame skimmer dragonfly (Libellula saturata) and it's firecracker red. We see this species frequenting our pollinator garden in Vacaville, which includes a fish pond, flower beds, and bamboo stakes for their perches.