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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The adult Gulf Fritillary butterfly is a brilliant orange, with silver-spangled underwings. This one is nectaring on a Mexican petunia in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Butterfly Egg: The Promise of a New Generation

October 6, 2023
Ever seen a Gulf Fritillary laying an egg? The Gulf Frit, or "passion butterfly" (Agraulis vanillae), lays her tiny, yellow eggs, singly, on her host plant, the passionflower vine (Passiflora). The egg? It's about the size of a pin head.
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A migrating monarch butterfly finds nectar in a zinnia in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Monarch vs. Honey Bee: 'Nectar for Me, None for You'

October 5, 2023
The monarch migration is well underway. The iconic butterflies fluttering into California from the Pacific Northwest engage in "nectar stops" to fuel their flight to their overwintering sites along coastal California. They are not the only ones seeking nectar.
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A praying mantis pretends to be a bodybuilder like Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Praying Mantis: Hey, Take My Picture!

October 4, 2023
The scenario: a male praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, is perched on a pink zinnia in a Vacaville pollinator garden filled with bees and butterflies. Praying Mantis: "Hey, photographer, take my picture! And, can you make me look like Arnold Schwarzenegger?" Photographer: "Sure, Mr. Mantis.
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A Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, clings to a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Blanket Flower: the Picture of Autumn

October 3, 2023
If you've been ignoring your calendar, you may have not realized that autumn began Sept. 23. We know it as the season between summer and winter, when days grow shorter, when liquidambar leaves turn red, and when the blanket flower lives up to its name.
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