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 parasitic tachinid fly feeds on nectar in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Arboretum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Pity the Poor Caterpillar

October 9, 2008
Pity the poor caterpillar. Here you are, minding your own business, and this tachinid fly comes along and lays eggs in your head. Good day for the tachinid fly. Bad day for the caterpillar.
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A pollen-packed honey bee dips her head in cenizo in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Arboretum.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Cenizo!

October 8, 2008
If you've ever visited the Storer Gardens, UC Davis Aboretum, you've probably noticed the honey bees enjoying the cenizo(Leucophyllum frutescens), an evergreen shrub with silvery foliage and bell-shaped pinkish-lavender flowers.
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A pollen-packed honey bee curls up in a pomegranate blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Queen of the Crops

October 7, 2008
We often hear of "cream of the crop," but the honey bee is the "queen of the crops." Honey bees are crucial to Californias $32 billion agriculture industry.
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The praying mantis, camouflaged, lies in wait. Hmmm, is that camera edible?(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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What's for Dinner?

October 6, 2008
The praying mantis isn't at all concerned about culinary choices. It doesn't worry about who's coming to dinner, only that dinner will come. This aggressive, predatory insect will eat just about anything it can get its claws on, entomologists agree.
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See the ceramic hive on this sign at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility? The black hole leads to a real hive, located in back of the sign. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Secret's Out

October 3, 2008
The secret's out. Or, rather, the secret's in. Inside. A number of years ago, UC Davis entomologist Diane Ullman created a ceramic sign outside the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, located on Bee Biology Road, west of the UC Davis campus.
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