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

Close-up of the larvae of the greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella), pests of honey bee colonies. Also shown is another bee colony pest, a hive beetle. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Why These Moths Are Unwanted

July 18, 2024

As we gather to celebrate moths during National Moth Week (traditionally held the last full week in July and to be observed areawide on Saturday night, July 20 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis), folks single out their favorites and non-favorites. For the beekeepers that's easy.

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This colorful moth is Arctia virginalis, Ranchman's tiger moth, a diurnal or day-flying moth commonly known as the Ranchman's tiger moth. In its larval stage, it's a wooly bear caterpillar, commonly found at the Bodega Marine Reserve and on the trails of Bodega Head, Sonoma County. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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'Let's Go Mothing' on July 20 at Bohart Museum of Entomology

July 17, 2024

Let's go mothing! What's mothing? The National Moth Week website describes mothing as "a hobby for nature enthusiasts who use light or bait to attract moths to a location for observation and data collection.

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Lepidopterist Jeff Smith spreading the wings of a butterfly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Jeff Smith: Busy as a Bee? No, As Industrious as a Lepidopterist

July 16, 2024

Busy as a bee? No, as industrious as a Lepidopterist.

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The resident crab spider nails a honey bee, as another bee continues to forage in the lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Saga of the Spider and the Bee

July 15, 2024

(Continued from the July 13th Bug Squad) Our resident crab spider, family Thomisidae, appears to be an extremely poor hunter. She waits, camouflaged in the lavender patch, as bees buzz around her. They dart away when she lunges at them.

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A crab spider lies in wait, as a honey bee nectars on a lavender blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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The Spider and the Bee

July 12, 2024

A crab spider, family Thomisidae, lies motionless in a patch of lavender, waiting to ambush a honey bee. So here I am, a crab spider, as hungry as can be Does anyone out there feel sorry for me? "Yes," say the arachnologists. The apiculturists say "no.

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