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

Sunflower bee, Melissodes agilis, on sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Color Them Beautiful

October 3, 2013

A brilliant sunflower clinging to the red ring of autumn. And here comes a common sunflower bee, Melissodes agilis (this is a female, as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis.

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Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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The Queen of the Queen Bees

October 2, 2013

Great to see the Wall Street Journal feature bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey in its Oct. 1st piece, "A Scientist Teaches Drones and Queens the Birds and the Bees." Sue Cobey is world renowned for her work in trying "to build a better bee.

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Jakub Gabka, a bee scientist from Poland, held this expression for a minute during the bee beard event at UC Davis. This photo appears on the cover of the current American Bee Journal. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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To Bee or Not To Bee?

October 1, 2013

To bee or not to bee? That was not the question. There was no question. The answer was "yes" before the event began. When visiting bee scientist Jakub Gabka of Warsaw, Poland, studied at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.

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Drone fly nectaring on bulbine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey

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Another Kind of Drone Strike

September 30, 2013

No, it's not a honey bee. But many people think all floral visitors are bees. It's a fly. A drone fly. Family: Syrphidae; subfamily Eristalinae; tribe Eristalini; genus, Eristalis. Like all syrphids, it has two wings. The honey bee has four.

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Inside the hive. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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All About Honey Bee Colony Health

September 27, 2013

(Editor's Note: Due to the government shutdown, this seminar has been cancelled.) It's a topic we've all been waiting for: "Honey Bee Health and Disease Resistance.

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