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

Pollen-laden honey bee foraging on a pink African daisy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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In the Pink: A Backyard Safari

October 3, 2011

You don't have to travel to Africa to go on safari. You can go on a "bug" safari in your own backyard. And you can stay as little or as long as you like without incurring such costs as air travel, hotel stays, and food expenses.

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This grasshopper, aka locust, is a banded-winged grasshopper, family Acrididae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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The Locusts Are Coming!

September 30, 2011

The locusts are coming! The locusts are coming! No, not the one below, a banded-winged grasshopper (family Acrididae and subfamily Oedipodinae) that we spotted west of the UC Davis campus--and identified by Steve Heydon, senior museum scientist at the Bohart Museum of Entomology.

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Female Valley carpenter bee, caught in flight, dusted with gold pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Pardon My (Gold) Dust

September 29, 2011

A gold rush of sorts. When the female Valley carpenter bees forage among the passion flowers (Passiflora), they turn from solid black to a mixture of gold and black. The pollen on their head, thorax and abdomen stands out like magical gold dust, as if sprinkled by the Good Fairy.

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Buckeye spreads it wings on an African daisy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Shall We Prey?

September 28, 2011

The California Buckeye (Junonia coenia), with its bold eyespots and white bars, is an easily recognizable butterfly. The problem: getting close enough for a photo and then patiently waiting for it to open its wings. At the first indication of danger, it flutters away.

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Close-up of Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Skipping Along

September 27, 2011

In the big, beautiful butterfly world, the Fiery Skipper stands out as the most common urban butterfly in California. It may not be as showy as the Monarch, the Gulf Fritilliary and the Painted Lady, but the Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) holds its own.

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