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

A newly emerged bee at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. During the busy season, a worker bee will live only four to six weeks.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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It's All About the Bees

September 24, 2008

It's all about the bees. When A. G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the newly selected State Apiary Board meet from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3 at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

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A honey bee on sage. Fossil evidence indicates that the very first insects inhabited this earth 400 million years ago. Honey bees existed at least by 7000 B.C., per a primitive drawing in a cave wall in eastern Spain. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Holy Moly!

September 23, 2008

Quick! How long have insects inhabited this earth? If you're taking a biology or an entomology course, you'll be asked that question on an exam. If you're attending the Entomological Society of America conference Nov. 16-20 in Reno, you probably already know that. A good answer: 400 million years.

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A drone (front) starts his takeoff to find a virgin queen. At left is a worker bee, his sister. Drones don't survive the winter; the girls kick the boys out of the hive.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?

September 22, 2008

It's tough being a drone honey bee this time of year. The drones, or male bees, don't survive the winter. Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis admits to having a soft spot for drones.

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A Consperse stink bug (Euschistus conspersus) races down a post at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis campus. Note its distinctive shield shape and its five-segmented antennae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Why the Stink Bug Stinks

September 19, 2008

Ever wonder why the stink bug stinks? The stink bug, from the family Pentamodae, is a shield-shaped insect that tomato growers would love to ban from the face of this earth. Some 50 species exist in California. The adults are either brown or green. Most stink bugs are plant feeders.

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This is a Lasioglossum (Dialictus) sp. female, as identified by emeritus professor and native pollinator researcher Robbin Thorp of UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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No Sweat!

September 18, 2008

Okay, everybody in the pool! That means bees, too? It does. Sweat bees. You may have noticed the tiny bees--common name sweat bees from the family Halictidae--in your swimming pool or pollinating your flowers. They're attracted to perspiring skin (thus the name sweat bees).

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