Bug Blog
May the Buzz Be With You
Did you feel the buzz in 2015? The honey bees, bumble bees, sunflower bees, sweat bees...what a year it was! It's time to walk down memory lane--or stray from the garden path--and post a few bee...
A female ultra green sweat bee, Agapostemon texanus, nectaring on cosmos. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenski, foraging on a tower of jewels. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee, Apis mellifera, foraging on a Bacopa. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Two sunflower bees battle it out: a male Svastra (larger bee delivers quick kick to a smaller male Melissodes. The flower is a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A praying mantis eating a bee, predator vs. prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Freeloader flies, family Milichiidae, and probably genus Desmometopa, dining on a honey bee, a spider's prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Can't Get Enough of Those Gulf Frits
No matter how many we see or how often we see them, we can't get enough of the Gulf Frits. That would be the Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae), a brightly colored orangish-reddish butterfly with...
A newly eclosed Gulf Fritillary. Note the pupal case. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The newly eclosed Gulf Fritillary pauses before it takes flight. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Gulf Fritillary spreads its magnificent wings and takes flight. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Gulf Fritillary on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Celebrate Biodiversity Museum Day on Saturday, Feb. 13 at UC Davis!
Is your 2016 calendar up on the wall yet? Or are you calendaring everything on your smart phone? No matter how you keep track of your "things to do," how about setting aside Saturday, Feb. 13? The...
The sign says it all. The fifth annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day is set Saturday, Feb. 13. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, planted in the fall of 2009, will be among the venues at the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day. The bee sculpture, which anchors the garden on Bee Biology Road, is the work of Davis artist Donna Billick. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bohart Museum associate Robbin Thorp (center, in maroon shirt), distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, volunteers at the open houses. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
To Catch a Cabbage White
What are you doing New Year's...New Year's Day? Gathering your family and friends? Watching football? Eating black-eyed peas? Trying to keep a resolution? (Or keeping a resolution NOT to make a...
A cabbage white butterfly nectaring on catmint. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A cabbage white butterfly showing its spots. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Buggy Kind of Christmas: A Poem Revisited
It's a buggy kind of Christmas. Mussen/Garvey style.You've heard "The 12 Days of Christmas," beginning with a single "partridge in a pear tree" and ending with "12 drummers drumming." In between: two...
Golden bee (Cordovan) nectaring on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Varroa mites are Pubic Enemy No. 1 of beekeepers. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)