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

NEWLY EMERGED: a drone (male bee) is the foreground. In the background is a worker bee (infertile female). They're one day old in this photo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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The Drone: Target of Attacks

October 19, 2009

Drones--remotely piloted aircraft used in reconnaissance and target attacks--are in the news, but so are the other drones--male bees. This time of year drones are as scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth.

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UC DAVIS ENTOMOLOGIST James R. Carey, director of a federally funded program on aging and lifespan, will speak on "Demography of the Finitude: Insights into Lifespan, Aging and Death from Insect Studies" from 12:10 to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21 in 122 Briggs Hall, UC Davis. It can be accessed live. (See above for link.) (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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What We Can Learn from Insects

October 16, 2009

What can we learn from insects? Lots. But first, let's talk about the UC Seminar Network. It's a pilot program that involves Webcasting scientific seminars on University of California campuses.

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JERUSALEM CRICKET is not really a true cricket or a true bug. It's an insect that burrows beneath the soil to feed on decaying organic matter. During a heavy rainfall, you'll see them emerge from the soaked ground. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Not Jiminy

October 15, 2009

It was an unexpected visit. UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey noticed the critter in one of the restrooms at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. She found it several days after the massive Oct. 12 storm raced through Northern California.

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QUEEN BEE, marked with the dot, is circled by her royal attendants in a retinue. This was taken through the glass of an observation hive. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Life and Death in the Hive

October 14, 2009

Life and death in the bee observation hive... If you ever have the opportunity to check out a bee observation hive--a glassed-in hive showing the colony at work--you can easily spot the three castes: the queen bee, worker bees and drones.

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HONEY BEE nectars a blue marguerite daisy, a member of the sunflower family. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Blue Day for the Bees

October 13, 2009

It's a blue day for the honey bees. The massive Northern California storm--one of our worst-ever storms and marked by heavy rains and equally strong winds--means that bees are clustering inside their hives. No foraging today.

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