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

Damselfly, with water mites attached, lands on the leaf of a passion flower vine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Mighty Mites on a Damselfly

July 25, 2013

It pays to have a pond. A pond attracts dragonflies and damselflies. Last weekend, though, we spotted a damselfly a good 65 feet away from our pond. It touched down on our passion flower vine (Passiflora). Lights, camera, action...

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California dogface butterfly is illustrated on the California State Fair monorail. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Ridin' the Rails With a Butterfly

July 24, 2013

Quick! What butterfly is depicted on the California State Fair monorail train? Hint: It's the state insect. "What, we have a state insect?" you ask. Yes, and it's the California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice).

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A cellar spider eyes a honey bee in the catmint (Nepeta). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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All Wrapped Up

July 23, 2013

Just call it a missed opportunity. Catmint (genus Nepeta) draws scores of insects, from honey bees to leafcutter bees to European wool carder bees. It also draws spiders. We usually see a cellar spider (family Pholcidae) trapping prey in its web.

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Gulf fritillary butterfly. Agraulis vanillae, lands on Mexican sunflower, Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Touchdown! At Last!

July 22, 2013

For months, I've been waiting ah, so patiently (well, not always s-o-o-o patiently) for the gulf fritillary butterfly to touch down on our Mexican sunflower, Tithonia. A perfect match, I figured.

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A male mountain carpenter bee, Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex, nectaring on bulbine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Big on the Bulbine

July 19, 2013

Look at the Xylocopa on the Xanthorrhoeaceae. If that sounds like a mouthful, think of the mountain or foothill carpenter bees, Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex, on bulbine from the genus Bulbine in the family Xanthorrhoeaceae.

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