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 female Melissodes agilis foraging on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Meet a Longhorned Bee

July 14, 2022
Picture this. A female Melissodes agilis, the so-called "agile longhorned bee," is foraging on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. Longhorned? So named because they have unusually long antennae.
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A common checkered skipper, Pyrgus communis, warming its flight muscles in Vacaville, Calif., on July 3, 2022. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Butterfly: The Gateway Bug to Entomology?

July 13, 2022
A retired Fairfield elementary school teacher says that butterflies are the "gateway bug" to entomology. It's the symmetry, the beauty, the agility, he says. He's right. So, forget about the old adage, "stop and smell the roses" (although that's good, too).
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