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 (Svastra spp.) foraging on cosmos. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Pollen Party

July 13, 2012
Makes sense that the sunflower bee (Svastra spp.) forages on the genus Cosmos. Cosmos (also the common name) is a member of the sunflower family, Asteraceae. Sunflower bee: sunflower family. A specialist bee.
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Mayfly, from the family Baetidae, rests on a flowering artichoke. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Oh, the Critters We Overlook

July 12, 2012
Oh, the critters we overlook. If you have flowering artichokes, expect to see honey bees, bumble bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees and syrphid flies foraging on them. And a few spiders waiting for dinner. Don't expect to see a mayfly. The mayfly habitat is in or around water.
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Alfalfa butterfly, Colias eurytheme, lands in a swimming pool. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

These Colors Didn't Run

July 10, 2012
We've seen bumble bees, honey bees, sweat bees, wool carder bees and syrphid flies topple into our swimming pool, but never an alfalfa butterfly until now.
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Worker bees working inside the hive. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Bee-ing Young

July 9, 2012
Pity the poor worker bee. In the spring/summer months, she lives only four to six weeks and then she dies. Bee scientists say she basically works herself to death.
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