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

THIS is a male leafcutting bee, Megachile sp., as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis. It is nectaring rock purslane, which has a poppylike blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Making the Cut

December 14, 2009

The cold, blustery storm that swept over Northern California over the last two weeks wiped out the rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora) and with it the "meeting place" of assorted insects: honey bees, leafcutter bees, ladybugs, bumble bees, potter wasps, et al.

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NEWEST ESA FELLOW from UC Davis is chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor and former chair of the Department of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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The Good Fellows

December 11, 2009

The Mafia has its Good Fellas. The Entomological Society of America (ESA) has its Fellows, too. And they're not just "good"--they're excellent.

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QUEEN BEE INSEMINATION is intricate work. Here college student Joy Pendell of Pendell Apiaries, Stonybrook, gets it right the first time. She was enrolled in Susan Cobey's August 2009 class. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Improving Stock

December 10, 2009

Want to learn how to rear high-quality queen bees? Want to learn instrumental insemination of queen bees? Specialized classes, taught by bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, are scheduled next spring at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. Registration is now under way.

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BEE BREEDER-GENETICIST Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, holds a frame of bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Co-Bee

December 9, 2009

You won't find anyone more passionate about honey bees than Susan Cobey. Cobey, a bee breeder-geneticist and manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis, has just received the California State Beekeepers' Association's 2009 Distinguished Service Award.

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BEEKEEPER Elizabeth Frost shows a miniature beehive candle she made from beeswax and a little paraffin. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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At Wick's End

December 8, 2009

Elizabeth Frost is at wick's end. When she's not tending the bees at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis or tending her own bees at home, she loves to make candles.

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