Bug Squad

A daily (M-F) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008 and about the wonderful world of insects and those who study them. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Can you spot the bumble bee in this bed of Eryngium amethystinum in the Sunset Gardens, Sonoma Cornerstone? (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Very Hungry Bumble Bee

November 22, 2022
She was all bees-ness, this yellow-faced queen bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii. There she was, foraging in a bed of steely blue-purple flowers, Eryngium amethystinum, a genus that belongs to the carrot family, Apiaceae. A native bee on a non-native plant. It was Saturday, Nov.
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A syprhid fly and a Gulf Fritillary sharing a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Friday Fly Day: A Syrphid Fly and a Butterfly

November 18, 2022
It's Friday Fly Day and time to post a syrphid fly with a butterfly. The occasion: a syrphid fly and the Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) or passion butterfly are sharing a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, and neither seems bothered that the other is there.
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