Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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UC ANR is renovating its website. The Bug Squad blog, by Kathy Keatley Garvey of the University of California, Davis, is a daily (Monday-Friday) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008. It is about the wonderful world of insects and the entomologists who study them. Blog posts are archived at https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/archive.cfm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find the praying mantis! This is a female gravid Stagmomantis limbata. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Find the Praying Mantis! (Hint, She's Big!)

September 21, 2021
Find the praying mantis. That's not too difficult, considering this Stagmomantis limbata is gravid (pregnant) and about ready to deposit her ootheca (egg case or "ooth") on a nearby twig or branch.
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Digger bees, Anthophora bomboides stanfordiana, building their nests in the sand cliffs off Bodega Head. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Beckoning Bees at Bodega Bay

September 20, 2021
Head to the Bodega Bay in Sonoma County and you'll see little kids building sandcastles on the beaches. But head to Bodega Head in the spring and summer, and if you're lucky, you'll see female digger beesbumble bee mimicscreating their own versions of sandcastles.
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This three-inch-long tobacco hornworm appears to be ready to eat more tomato leaves (or the photographer). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Godzilla Lives!

September 17, 2021
Remember Godzilla? The 1954 iconic film, Godzilla, featured what Wikipedia calls "an enormous, destructive prehistoric sea monster awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation." I have a Godzilla.
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A female metallic green sweat bee, genus Agapostemon ,on a purple coneflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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A Sight to See Is This Bee

September 16, 2021
Ever seen a green metallic sweat bee? The colors are exquisite. This is a female Agapostemon on a purple coneflower at UC Davis. They are called "sweat bees" because they are attracted to human perspiration. The genders are easy to distinguish. The males have a striped abdomen.
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