Bug Squad

The Sting. (c) Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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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/bugsquad/index.cfm. The story behind "The Sting" is here: https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7735.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Gulf Fritillary shares a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) with a hover fly (Syrphid). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Where Are You, Gulf Fritillaries?

June 28, 2019
Where are you, Gulf Fritillaries? The Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) population seems to be diminishing this year around Solano and Yolo counties. A few here, a few there, but not in the large numbers of last year.
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Gloria Gonzalez, superintendent of McCormack Hall at the Solano County Fair, holds a bee-themed quilt with assistant Jarod Fernander of Vallejo, 15, a student at the Pleasant Hill Adventist Academy. The quilt is the work of Tina Frothy of Vallejo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Hear That Buzz at the Solano County Fair?

June 26, 2019
Hear that buzz? Honey bees own the flower beds at the Solano County Fair, 900 Fairgrounds Drive, Vallejo. But bees and other insects claim the exhibit halls, as well. They're depicted on everything from quilts and photos to graphic arts displayed in McCormack Hall.
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A crab spider dines on a green bottle fly in a lavender patch in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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What's for Dinner? How About a Green Bottle Fly?

June 25, 2019
What's for dinner? A crab spider, camouflaged in our lavender patch, didn't catch a honey bee, a butterfly, an ant or a syrphid fly. No, it nailed a green bottle fly. We couldn't help but notice. The fly's metallic blue-green coloring stood in sharp contrast to the white spider.
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The six-acre lavender fields on the Araceli Farms, on the outskirts of Dixon, glow during the Lavender Festival. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Lovin' the Lavender

June 24, 2019
Lovin' the lavender... If you attended the Lavender Festival last weekend at the six-acre Araceli Farms at 7389 Pitt School Road, Dixon, you were in for a real treat.
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