Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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A male monarch nectaring on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, on Monday, Oct. 24 in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Seen Any Monarchs Lately? They're Stopping for Flight Fuel

October 25th, 2022
Seen any monarchs lately? A beautiful male glided into our Vacaville garden late yesterday and made himself at home on our Mexican sunflowers, Tithonia rotundifola. He claimed the patch--"mine, all mine, all mine!"--until a honey bee buzzed by looking for nectar.
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Yao Cai dressed as a fruit fly to play the drums in The Entomology Band at the 2018 UC Davis Picnic Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Time Flies, But How Do Flies Tell Time? Ask Yao Cai

October 24th, 2022
If you attended the 2018 campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day and headed over to see the insects at Briggs Hall, home of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, you may have seen an enthusiastic drummer performing in The Entomology Band.
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A gravid praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, dines on a honey bee in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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A Good Day for a Praying Mantis

October 20th, 2022
It was a good day for a praying mantis. It was not a good day for a honey bee. Here's what happened in the "Daily Insect News": a gravid praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, ambushed and ate a honey bee on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville pollinator garden.
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A male Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa sonorina, engages in nectar robbing by drilling a hole in the corolla of the Mexican petunia to steal the nectar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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When a 'Teddy Bear Bee' Became 'Mr. October'

October 19th, 2022
We usually see male Valley carpenter bees, Xylocopa sonorina, in the spring and summer, but in the fall? On Oct. 17? But there he was, the familiar golden bee with green eyes, robbing nectar from a Mexican petunia, Ruellia simplex, in a Vacaville, Calif., garden.
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