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 katydid, or "long-horned grasshopper," from family Tettigonliidae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Hop to It!

June 14, 2013
What's that hopping on our patio? At first we thought it was a grasshopper.
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Honey bee heads toward a flowering artichoke. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Purple Forest

June 13, 2013
Flowering artichokes indicate one of two things (1) someone never bothered to harvest them or (2) someone loves bees. We let our artichokes flower. So does the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden on Bee Biology Road next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr.
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A female digger bee finishes her nest. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Overlooked Bees of Bodega Head

June 12, 2013
Those who hike the trails of Bodega Head, a small promontory in Sonoma County overlooking the Pacific Ocean, enjoy the colorful wildflowers, the roaring ocean, and a sheltered sandy beach. They picnic. They play. They pose for photos. But there's one thing they don't do.
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Gulf fritillary caterpillar munching away on passion flower leaves. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Welcome Back, Gulf Frit Caterpillars

June 11, 2013
The scrub jays are just doing their job. But they're doing it too well. The gulf frittillary butterflies (Agraulis vanillae) are mating and depositing their eggs on our passion flower vines--as we want them to do--but complete metamorphosis always seems to be incomplete.
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Metallic blue digger wasp from Sphecidae family. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Blue Wasp at Bodega Bay

June 10, 2013
Visitors to Bodega Head, Sonoma County, will see lupine, California golden poppies, wild radish, mustard, seaside daises and scores of other flowers in bloom. And if they're lucky--a metallic blue digger wasp from the Sphecidae family of thread-waisted wasps.
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