Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Honey bees at a water fountain at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Honey Bees and the Hot Spell

June 16, 2021
Earlier this week the National Weather Service warned us about an excessive heat spell--"dangerous and record-breaking heat conditions" here in California's Central Valley and the foothills that may reach 100 to 113 degrees today (Wednesday) through Sunday.
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Close-up of a digger bee, Anthophora bomboides stanfordiana, on a sand cliff at Bodega Head, Sonoma County. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Digging the Digger Bees at Bodega Head

June 15, 2021
If you vacation at Bodega Bay--sometimes called "Blow-dega" due to whipping winds--you've probably driven to Bodega Head to watch for whales, see the waves crash against the cliffs, spot seabirds nesting in the rocks, or to observe such fauna as deer and red-tailed hawks on the horizon.
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Packing red pollen from lupine, Lupinus arboreus, a yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, heads toward more blossoms at Doran Regional Park, Bodega Bay. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Flight of the Bumble Bee

June 14, 2021
Early scientists figured it was aerodynamically impossible for bumble bees to fly due to their size, weight and shape of their bodies in relation to their total wingspan. And then there were those air resistance issues.
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