The Beetle With Racing Stripes

Didn't you just love that commercial for the Volkswagen Beetle during the Super Bowl?

While the Green Bay Packers were beetle-ing up the Pittsburg Steelers, 31-25, Volkswagen brought out its delightful Super Bug commercial.

It starred a black beetle with racing stripes.

The scene: As the rock band Ram Jam plays "Black Betty," Mr. Black Beetle races through the jungle, powering his way around assorted centipedes, caterpillars, dragonflies and praying mantids before morphing into a Volkswagen Beetle.

Beetles, centipedes, caterpillars, dragonflies and praying mantids? We see their counterparts on the freeway every day, don't we?

Which got us to thinking--why not name more vehicles after insects? We could have Death's Head Cockroach, the Flame Skimmer, Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter, the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach ("Hisser" for short), Devil's Coach Horse, Diabolical Ironclad Beetle, Cicada Killer and the Zodiac Moth.

And the Doodlebug, Damselfly, Dragonfly and...the Honey Bee...

But wait! A car manufacturer, Datsun, produced the Honey Bee from 1973-1978 during the gas shortage. Dodge also got into the act with a Rumble Bee and a Super Bee.

Sadly, Datsun's Honey Bee crested a hill and disappeared.

Let's hope that the nectar-sipping, pollen-packing honey bee doesn't do the same thing.