Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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Booklice, Liposcelis bostrychophila, in cornmeal. This image was taken with a Canon MPE-65mm lens. The bugs are five times their life size. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Yes, You Do Eat Insects!

April 5th, 2018
Yes, you do eat insects! Maybe not deliberately, as in those who engage in entomophagy, the technical term for eating insects. Think of chocolate chirp cookies! Think of cricket flour! Think of making a meal out of mealworms.
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Close-up of a mealworm on Styrofoam. This image was taken with a Canon MPE-65 mm lens. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Why These Mealworms Don't Miss a Meal

April 4th, 2018
Several years ago you probably read about the Stanford researchers who discovered that mealworms--larvae of darkling beetles--eat Styrofoam. And if you attended the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on Dec.
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Close-up of the eye of a honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Bee-hold: The Eye of a Honey Bee

April 2nd, 2018
Bee-hold, the eye of a honey bee! Have you ever looked into the eye of a honey bee? Really looked? If you read Norm Gary's popular book, Honey Bee Hobbyist: The Care and Keeping of Bees, you'll see just how marvelous they are.
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A male mountain carpenter bee, Xyclocopa tabaniformis orpifex, nectaring on Spanish lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Here Come the Carpenter Bees!

March 30th, 2018
It's spring and it's loud in the Spanish lavender patch. The girls--the honey bees--are buzzing furiously as they forage among the blossoms, but so are the boys, in this case the mountain carpenter bee, Xyclocopa tabaniformis orpifex.
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