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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) nectaring on California white sage. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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A Bee Celebration

June 3, 2011
Talk about a bee celebration! Folks with a passion for honey bees and native bees can head over to Mill Valley on Saturday, June 18 for "The Celebration of the Bees." To be held from 1 to 4 p.m.
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Crane fly resting on salvia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Long and Gangly

June 2, 2011
The crane fly is as long-legged and slender as a runway model, but as gangly as a teenager. The insect, from the family Tipulidae, is sometimes called daddy long-legs (not!) or a skeeter eater (not!). They don't eat mosquitoes and they don't bite. The adults sip nectar.
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June bug, aka fig beetle (Cotinus mutabilis) at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Andrew Richards)
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Cute as a June Bug

June 1, 2011
You never hear anyone say "He's as cute as an earwig." Or, he's as cute as a "lygus bug." No. It's "Cute as a June bug," which could be any number of bugs, including the fig beetle (Cotinus mutabilis).
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Honey bee on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Golden Girls

May 31, 2011
When you encounter a "Golden Girl" in your backyard, there's one thing to do: grab the camera. The "Golden Girl," in this case, is an Italian honey bee (Apis mellifera liguistica), the most common honey bee in the United States. Make that the world.
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Pollen-packing honey bee heading toward a rock purslane. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Red-Eye Flight?

May 30, 2011
Unlike airplane pilots, honey bees don't file a flight plan. They know where they're going because their sisters tell them with their waggle dances. Pollen. Nectar. Propolis. All good. Bees seem to really like the pollen on rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora).
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