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 Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, laying an egg on Labor Day weekend in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Happy Labor Day from a Gulf Fritillary

September 7, 2020
Happy Labor Day! And what an appropriate time to post an image of a Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, depositing an egg! The females lay their eggs on the tendrils and leaves of the butterfly's host plant, the passionflower vine (Passiflora) but we've seen them depositing eggs on nearby fences whe...
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Boone Vale, a volunteer with the Bodega Bay Fire Department, took this heartbreaking image of a fire reaching the Pope Valley hives of Caroline Yelle, owner of Pope Valley Queens. Yelle credits him for saving some of her hives. (Photo by Boone Vale, used with permission)

The Bee People, The Bees, and The Fires

September 4, 2020
The wildfires that raged through California, crippling and/or destroying beekeepers' homes and their livelihoods are heartbreaking. One victim, Caroline Yelle, owner of Pope Canyon Queens (PCQ), located on 8307 Quail Canyon Road, Vacaville, lost 500 hives.
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A cuckoo bee, Xeromelecta californica, rests on a leaf in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Ever Seen a Cuckoo Bee?

September 3, 2020
Ever seen a cuckoo bee? They're also called parasitic bees or "kleptoparasites" or "cleptoparasitises." They cannot carry pollen (no apparatus) and do not construct their nests. They lay their eggs in the nests of their hosts and then eat the food meant for the hosts.
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This monarch caterpillar was reared from an egg collected on a tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Welcome to the World of Monarchs, Greta!

September 1, 2020
Welcome to the world of monarchs, Greta! We don't normally name the monarch butterflies we rear, but we decided that the first one reared from an egg "The Greg Way" would be named for Greg--naturalist Greg Kareofelas, associate at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis.
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