Insect-Lovers Beat the Bushes for Nature’s Small Surprises

Keith Dobry was leading a tour through the Santa Monica Mountains when something in the bushes caught his eye.

“OK, people, I want everyone to look at this,” he yelled. “We’ve got a pupating ladybird beetle here . . . it’s something you all should see.”

Pupating beetles were but one of the attractions featured Saturday at the old Stunt Ranch near Calabasas, where Dobry led a nature walk in search of “The Insects of Cold Creek.”

Sponsored by the Mountains Restoration Trust, a nonprofit conservancy group, the offbeat tour drew 15 insect-lovers who gathered for a slide show and a search for evidence.

Firsthand Glimpses

In turn, these people stooped at the side of a trail for firsthand glimpses of everything from butterflies to ants, not to mention the aphid larvae or the so-called “ironclad beetles.”

Armed with binoculars, butterfly nets and small plastic specimen bottles, the participants spent the afternoon waving and pointing in groups while Dobry rattled off scientific names and distinguishing characteristics.

The visitors, for the most part, were participating in a docent training program funded by the conservancy. One man, however, said he had come to find out the name of a bug that had bit him. It turned out to be an aquatic insect called a black fly.

Dobry, 27, an amateur entomologist from Canoga Park, opened the day with a lecture on the difference between insects and bugs, insects and spiders and insects and centipedes. After that, he described dozens of insects and spiders commonly found in the area.

How to Wave a Net

Later, there were demonstrations on the proper way to wave a butterfly net and the best techniques available for coaxing a bug into a bottle.

In the course of the tour, Dobry was pleased to find a large number of stone flies, insects that apparently are indicators of good water quality because they die if there is any bacteria present. He was also pleased at the absence of often-common trail gnats.

There were also several leaf-hopper sightings, two mating stinkbugs, at least one cicada and hordes of harvester ants.

For the record, however, no bites were reported. And at Dobry’s suggestion, most of the insects captured were released at the end of the tour.