Bug Squad

Florian Altermatt (right) describes himself as a "keen biologist and naturalist." "I'm interested in community ecology, metapopulation, biologoy and evolutionary biology. Besides that, my pleasures are--as Vladimir Nabokov said once-the most intense known to man: writing and butterfly hunting.

The Campus Buzzway is buzzing with bees. The quarter-acre wildflower garden, located by the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

Every insect looks prettier when it lands on a tower of jewels (Echiium wildpretti). When in full bloom, the 9-to-10-foot-high plant, native to the Canary Islands, blazes with firecracker-red flowers. It's a showstopper.

When we think of pollinators, we usually think of honey bees, bumble bees, carpenter bees, syrphid or flower flies, and butterflies. But wait, blow flies can be pollinators, too.

The crab spider is a clever and skillful hunter. Last Sunday we spotted a camouflaged crab spider (family Thomisidae) lying flat on a sedum. The spider's pink and white abdomen blended so well into the pink and white blossoms that you couldn't tell where the abdomen ended and where the flower began.