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)

Musical Flowers: Jockeying for Position

October 19, 2017
You've heard of "musical chairs," that anxiety-driven elimination game involving chairs, music and players. When the music stops and a chair is eliminated, the players race for the remaining seats. No one wants to be the first loser.
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Autumn's Majesty: Tithonia

October 18, 2017
If there's any flower that should be crowned "Autumn's Majesty," that would be the Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia), aka "Torch.
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Why This UC Davis Course Is Sweet

October 17, 2017
"The bee hive is the ultimate home sweet home," Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, told the crowd at the Western Apicultural Society's 40th annual conference, held in early September at UC Davis. She's right.
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Why Friday the 13th Is Not an Unlucky Day

October 13, 2017
Friday the 13th is not an unlucky day--not when migratory monarchs make a pit stop at your home on their way to their overwintering sites. Today a male monarch fluttered into our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif., and sipped nectar from a tropical milkweed.
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