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

A HONEY BEE nectars red buckwheat. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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In the Pink

October 12, 2010

You gotta love that red buckwheat (Eriogonum grande rubescens). Attractive to honey bees, native bees and butterflies, red buckwheat is flourishing in the garden. Okay, it's called red buckwheat, but the clusters are rosy pink. They're about the same size as ping-pong balls.

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Anise swallowtail caterpillar on anise, also known as fennel.. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Transformed

October 11, 2010

It's called a complete metamorphosis--from an egg to a larva to a pupa to an adult. Metamorphosis--Greek for "transformation" or "change in shape" is spectacular. And it's particularly spectacular when the subject is the Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon).

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REDHUMPED CATERPILLAR gorges on the leaves of a redbud tree. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Once Upon a Time...

October 8, 2010

Once upon a time, there was a redhumped caterpillar gorging on the leaves of a redbud tree. For three days, the hungry caterpillar gobbled the leaves, like an insect version of Pac-Man. It snipped, shredded and skeletonized the leaves and then went for more.

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MOSQUITO RESEARCHER Anthony "Anton" Cornel of UC Davis collected and established the colony of Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes that was sequenced. Here he's shown working in a field tent identifying mosquitoes in Cameroon. (Photo by Kevin N'Gabo)

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The Mosquito Researchers

October 7, 2010

It was a major milestone, sequencing the genome of Culex quinquefasciatus, the so-called southern house mosquito. The research, spearheaded by UC Riverside geneticists and published in the Oct. 1, 2010 edition of Science, involved scientists from 37 other institutions.

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FORAGER--A honey bee forages on a zinnia, a colorful flower that's a member of the aster family. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Zinnias! Zinnias! Zinnias!

October 6, 2010

Honey bees foraging on zinnias? Yes. It's not considered a "bee plant" like the salvias, lavenders and mints, but bees do forage on it occasionally. The genus, from the aster family (Asteraceae), derives its name from the German botanist, Johann Gottfried Zinn.

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