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 legendary Robbin Thorp in front of an almond tree on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis campus. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

The Legendary Robbin Thorp: A Tribute Well Deserved

September 8, 2023
When UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal created a video tribute honoring the UC Davis faculty who recently transitioned to emeriti, he singled out one very special emeriti as an example of tremendous community, academic and scientific engagement: Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), distinguished eme...
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A male monarch nectaring on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

A Monarch Takes Flight

September 7, 2023
A monarch on the move... When you see a monarch foraging on a flower, have you ever seen them--or photographed them--taking flight? It's not your iconic image of monarch, but a few twists and turns, jumble of colors and jagged lines, and the monarch takes flight.
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An Anise Swallowtail, sipping nectar from a red zinnia, seems unaware of a buzzing honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

A Bee-Butterfly Battle Over a Zinnia

September 5, 2023
An Anise Swallowtail, Papilio zelicaon, settles on a red zinnia in a Vacaville pollinator garden and begins sipping the nectar. A honey bee buzzes by. Was she just passing through or did she want the same nectar? The bee brushes the butterfly's wings. Okay! I'm leaving! Score: Bee, 1; butterfly 0.
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