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 Gulf Fritillary butterfly, Agraulis vanillae, sharing a passion flower with honey bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

The Flower Feeders

September 20, 2013
University of Minnesota honey bee researcher Marla Spivak, in her TED talk on honey bee health, referred to bees as "flower feeders." That they are. Flower feeders. As are other pollinators from butterflies to beetles to bats.
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Night time for the praying mantis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey
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Up Close and Personal With a Praying Mantis

September 18, 2013
If you've never been up close and personal with a praying mantis, here's your chance. At the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house on Saturday, Sept. 21 from 1 to 4 p.m., at the University of California, Davis, you'll see not one, but two, praying mantids. And very much alive.
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Honey bee on a tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Cold, Hard Facts About Honey Bees

September 17, 2013
Photos of honey bees can sometimes exude a dreamy, even ethereal quality, but in real life, bees are in trouble. That's why Marla Spivak's TED talk should be required viewing.
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A praying mantis leaps at a fluttering butterfly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Monarch and the Mantis

September 16, 2013
It happened so quickly. The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) fluttered to the lantana for a sip of nectar when the unexpected happened. A praying mantis, lying in wait, leaped high and grabbed it by its wings. Unable to fly, the monarch struggled to right itself.
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Love in the bean field at the UC Dry Bean Field Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Love in the Bean Field

September 13, 2013
Love is where you find it. And sometimes you find it in a bean field. Take the UC Dry Bean Field Day on Sept. 5 at UC Davis.
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