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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A gravid praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, dines on a honey bee in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Good Day for a Praying Mantis

October 20, 2022
It was a good day for a praying mantis. It was not a good day for a honey bee. Here's what happened in the "Daily Insect News": a gravid praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, ambushed and ate a honey bee on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville pollinator garden.
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A male Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa sonorina, engages in nectar robbing by drilling a hole in the corolla of the Mexican petunia to steal the nectar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

When a 'Teddy Bear Bee' Became 'Mr. October'

October 19, 2022
We usually see male Valley carpenter bees, Xylocopa sonorina, in the spring and summer, but in the fall? On Oct. 17? But there he was, the familiar golden bee with green eyes, robbing nectar from a Mexican petunia, Ruellia simplex, in a Vacaville, Calif., garden.
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