Bug Squad

Forget about fun and games. Think fun and names.

I've been waiting for a decade to see a male Valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa varipuncta) foraging in our family bee garden. The girls? Oh, yes. We see them every day. Sometimes half a dozen at a time. They're usually on the salvia or passionflower vine. The boys? No.

You've seen bumble bees in flight. You've seen the heavy pollen loads. But have you ever seen the ground nest of a bumble bee? You will if you attend the Spring Festival hosted at the Loma Vista Farm, part of the Vallejo City Unified School District, on Saturday, May 16.

Did you see that amazing time-lapse video of honey bee development by Anand Varma on the National Geographic website? Varma's time-lapse video of 2500 images vividly shows the development of eggs to pupae to adults. He captured the video at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

Naming a child or a pet takes some major thought and requires some major decisions. Naming our son was easy. We opted for family names handed down 200 years ago. A puppy? When we acquired a half-St.