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

PERFECT CAKE FOR AN ENTOMOLOGIST--What's a perfect birthday cake for an insect scientist? One with bugs. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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The Bug Stops Here

January 30, 2009

Its Friday, so it must be Friday lite When youre hosting a birthday party for an entomologist, you have to think bugs. Thats the rule. Its written right there in the Entomological Society of Americas official guidebook, Chapter 10, Page 387, Line 38. (OK, I made that up.

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A hover fly or flower fly, Syrphus opinator, rests on a stem in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis. You'll be seeing more of these hover flies as the weather warms. This photo was taken Saturday, Jan. 24. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Just Hovering

January 29, 2009

It's often mistaken for a honey bee. It's not a honey bee. It's a hover fly or flower fly. And this one, hovering around the plants last Saturday in the Storer Gardens at the University of California, Davis, looked like a Syrphus opinator to me.

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TENDING BEES--Michael "Kim" Fondrk of UC Davis tends his bees in a Dixon almond orchard. This photo appeared in The IPM Practitioner. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Well Said

January 28, 2009

UC Davis bee specialists were well represented in a recent edition of The IPM Practitioner, which landed on our desk last week. The edition, devoted to Pesticides and Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder, includes four photos from the UC Davis Department of Entomology.

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SIX-PETALED FLOWER--A honey bee forages on a winter jasmine in the Storer Gardens, University of California, Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Golden Moments

January 27, 2009

It blooms in winter and the bees love it. Winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum), a rambling vine with trumpetlike yellow flowers, is charming visitors in the Storer Gardens at the University of California, Davis. The plant originates from western China.

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GREEN EYES--The male Valley carpenter bee is a green-eyed, golden insect nicknamed the "teddy bear" carpenter bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Just Wanna Be Your 'Teddy Bear'

January 26, 2009

When you think of a teddy bear, you think of a huggable stuffed animal. Not so entomologists. When they think of a teddy bear, they think of the male Valley carpenter bee. It's a green-eyed, fluffy golden insect that's nicknamed "teddy bear." You can hug it, too.

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