Bug Squad

The Sting. (c) Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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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/bugsquad/index.cfm. The story behind "The Sting" is here: https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7735.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUTTON WILLOW--This photo of a honey bee nectaring a button willow appears in the New York Times' article on "Let's Hear It for the Bees" by guest writer Leon Kreitzman. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey on a Yolo County farm tour)
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Yes, Indeed, Let's Hear It for the Bees

April 29, 2009
Great article in the Tuesday, April 28 edition of The New York Times on "Let's Hear It for the Bees." And did I mention that the photo accompanying the article is one I shot last year on a Yolo County farm tour? The bee is nectaring a button willow (Cephalanthus occidentalis).
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SYRPHID LARVA, on a rose leaf, is feeding on aphids. Soon it will become a flower fly or hover fly, like the one below. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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To Sir (Syrphid), With Love

April 28, 2009
If you see a caterpillar near a cluster of aphids, don't squash it. It could very well be the larva of a syrphid or hover fly (family Syrphidae) and it's eating aphids.
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BEFORE the soldier beetles came to visit, aphids clustered on the rose bushes to suck out plant juices. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Look Ma, No Aphids!

April 27, 2009
Got aphids? The important work that soldier beetles (family Cantharidae) do is never more exemplified than in the "before" and "after" photos. When the aphids landed on our rose bushes, a few ladybugs came to dine, but the insects that really stopped the aphid onslaught were the soldier beetles.
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EARLY MORNING SUN warms an aphid. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Ready for the Day

April 24, 2009
Insects are cold-blooded so their temperature coincides with their environment. Before the sun rises, they lie ever so still. As the sun warms them, they stir ever so slowly. At 6 a.m.
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VETERAN VENTURA beekeeper Bill Weinerth films the bee swarm Thursday, April 23 at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. He was at the UC Davis facility for an advanced bee insemination course taught by bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Perfect Planning

April 23, 2009
Perfect planning. Except it wasnt planned. On the last day of a two-day advanced workshop on "The Technique of Instrumental Insemination, taught by bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. UC Davis, bees from one of the hives began to swarm.
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