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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEELINE--A pollen-packed honey bee makes a beeline for a red-hot poker, variety "Christmas Cheer," in the Storer Gardens at UC Davis. The date: Dec. 20, five days before Christmas. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Christmas Cheer

December 25, 2008
I always thought the red-hot poker was primarily red. Not. This one in the Storer Gardens at the University of California, Davis, was mostly yellow. It was Saturday, Dec.
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LADYBUG--You should treat the ladybug with kid gloves; it's a beneficial insect. Here a ladybug, aka lady beetle, crawls on a gardener's glove. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Christmas Bug

December 24, 2008
If there ever were a Christmas bug, it would be the ladybug, aka lady beetle. The insects (family Coccinellidae) are brightly colored and spread joy in the garden when they feast on aphids. Last summer we enjoyed watching them hanging out and hooking up.
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A HONEY OF A BEE--Newly published research in the journal Current Biology finds that the buzz of honey bee wings scares off plant predators, like caterpillars. This bee is gathering nectar from a guara. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Superman, Meet the Super Girls

December 23, 2008
You're sitting around discussing the importance of honey bees. The points include: they give us honey, they pollinate agricultural crops, and they serve as an example of a well-organized society. But wait, there's more. They scare off plant predators.
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DOUBLE VISION?--Keep your eyes open for a cabbage white butterfly in California's Central Valley (Sacramento, Solano or Yolo counties). UC Davis professor Arthur Shapiro will trade a pitcher of beer for the first cabbage white of 2009. This photo was taken Sept. 7, 2008. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Beer for a Butterfly

December 22, 2008
Seen any cabbage whites lately? If you capture one before UC Davis professor Arthur Shapiro does, he'll trade you a beer for your butterfly. Actually, a pitcher of beer or its cash equivalent. Yes, it's time for Shapiro's 38th annual Butterfly-for-Beer contest.
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HMMMM--Randy Veirs of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, admires the ladybug cupcakes his wife made for the entomology office. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Eat a Bug

December 19, 2008
You CAN have your cake and eat it, too. You can also "have your BUG and eat it, too." Even if you're not into entomophagy.
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