- (Focus Area) Natural Resources
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Monarch butterflies seem to be as scarce as hen's teeth around here.
And since hens have no teeth, that's pretty scarce.
And then it happened.
A late in-star monarch caterpillar appeared on our milkweed in our Vacaville pollinator-predator garden on the very last day of July.
We watched it munch the wilting milkweed leaves in the triple-digit temperature.
For one day.
The next day, Aug. 1, it vanished, never to be seen again. Did it pupate? Did the California scrub jays get it?
The scrub jays nesting in our cherry laurel hedges are prime suspects. They devour everything in the garden, from honey bees, longhorned bees and dragonflies to assorted butterflies,...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Can you name California's state insect?
Did you know that California has a state insect? It does.
Is it the honey bee? No.
Is it the lady beetle (ladybug)? No.
Bumble bee? No.
It's the California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice), an insect found only in California.
The state Legislature designated it as the state insect in 1972. The butterfly is nicknamed "dogface" in reference to the silhouette of what resembles a poodle head on the wings of the male. The female is mostly solid yellow except for a single black spot on its upper...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's nicknamed "the sunflower bee" for good reason.
It forages on sunflowers.
We recently spotted a longhorned bee, Svastra obliqua, also called "the sunflower bee," on Gaillardia, aka blanket flower, a member of the sunflower family, Asteracease.
Asteraceae is comprised of more than 32,000 known species of flowering plants. And Svastra? Fourteen different species occur in North America and seven in California, according to the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab, which provides this description:
"Overall they are medium to large, with stout bodies, gray hair on their thorax, and irregular striping on their abdomen. Females...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons.The best-known silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity." --Wikipedia.
Those attending the Bohart Museum of Entomology's recent Moth Night learned all about silkworms, moths, cocoons and textiles at a display staffed by Michael "Mike" Pitcairn, a retired...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
National Moth Week ended July 27 but you can go moth-ing any time.
Meanwhile, here's another look at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's 2024 Moth Night, which drew widespread interest.
No one knows exactly how many moth events took place across the nation during National Moth Week, just as no one can predict how many species of moths and other night-flying insects will come to your porch light at night, or to your blacklighting display (UV light illuminating a hanging white sheet).
"Scientists estimate there are at minimum 150,000 moth species, and some believe that there could be over 500,000! Moths have been found that are...