- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you head over to the California State Fair, which opened July 14 and continues through July 31, be sure to check out the Insect Pavilion at "The Farm."
It's a treasure house of not only insects, but spiders and assorted other critters.
At the entrance, tuck your head inside the monarch butterfly cutout and have someone take your photo. You can be "Butterfly for the Day."
Then it's off to see the "live" monarchs, a few steps away. The contrast between the painted cutout and the real insects is startling. Nature does a much better job!
Other highlights at the Insect Pavilion include honey bees, wasps and spiders.
The site probably should be called "The Bug Pavilion" because some of the critters, such as spiders, aren't insects.
Beekeeper Brian Fishback of Wilton, a member of the California State Beekeepers' Association and a volunteer at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis, provided the bee observation hive.
Parents exclaim to their children: "Look! Bees!"
Then they usually point out that bees make honey and "No, honey, they can't sting you; they're behind glass."
It shouldn't be about stinging. It should be about their pollination services, not their defensive mechanism. Bees pollinate one-third of the food we eat.
However, a walk through the nearby vegetable garden buzzes home the point that honey bees are invaluable.
Next Tuesday, July 26, the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis will display live insects and specimens at The Big Bugs attraction at the state fair, according to Tabatha Yang, the Bohart's education and outreach coordinator. The specimens will be in the "oh, my" drawers--so called, she says, because that's what folks say when they see them: "Oh, my!"
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Blue damselflies should be on "Dancing with Stars."
Because, in many respects, they ARE the stars--the stars of the insect world.
They're slender, delicate and beautiful dancers that look like blue-stick diamonds.
Damselflies are often confused with dragonflies, which are in the same order, Odonata, but in a different suborder. Both are predators. Damselflies, however, hold their wings parallel to the body. They're usually smaller than dragonflies and don't move as fast.
But if you stalk them, they're leery. If you shadow them, these needlelike insects vanish in a flash of blue.
Fossil records show that dragonflies and damselflies lived on earth 300 million years ago. Ancient insects, indeed.
The best time to photograph damselflies is in the early morning when they're warming their flight muscles. Sometimes they'll perch motionless on a plant as if they're posing.
Poet-playwright William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) asked "How can we know the dancer from the dance?"
We can't.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Two's company, three's a crowd?
Yes, when a spotted cucumber beetle tries to share a sunflower with two honey bees.
That was the scene Sunday in a sunflower field along Pedrick Road, Dixon, Solano County.
The spotted cucumber beetle is a pest. Honey bees are beneficial.
It was a bucolic scene: blue skies, golden sunflowers, scores of honey bees....and a few pests.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's often mistaken for the honey bee.
But it's not a honey bee (Apis mellifera). It's a different species of bee. Specifically, it's a long-horn sunflower bee.
We spotted this sunflower bee July 11 in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, University of California, Davis. Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis who does bee research in the garden, identified it as a "female long-horn sunflower bee, Svastra obliqua expurgata (family Apidae)."
You often see it on sunflowers and other members of the aster family (Asteraceae), including black-eyed Susans, Mexican hat flowers and Gaillardia.
The sunflower bees put the "sun" in sunflowers.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's a crucial time for bees, which are the victims of the mysterious colony collapse disorder, probably closely linked with a multitude of issues, including viruses, parasites, pests, pesticides, diseases, stress and malnutrition.
As the guest of veteran beekeeper Brian Fishback of Wilton, past president of the Sacramento Area Beekeepers’ Association and a member of the California State Beekeepers’ Association (CSBA), Bryson will be helping out at the CSBA booth July 16 to 21. The booth is located in the California Foodstyle building.
She also will be working in the insect pavilion at “The Farm,” which includes an observation hive. Bryson will answer questions from the public on Saturday, July 16 from 2 to 3 p.m. and on Wednesday, July 20 from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m.
In addition, she’ll be speaking at the Sacramento Area Beekeepers’ Association meeting set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 19 at 4049 Marconi Ave., Sacramento. The site is located in the second module behind the Town and Country Lutheran Church.
The American Honey Bee Queen competition is sponsored by the American Beekeeping Federation.
“As the American Honey Bee Queen, I travel across the United states promoting beekeeping and the use of honey,” she said. She educates the public with “facts on the beekeeping and honey industry concerning pollination of our nation’s crops and how dependent we are on the honey bee for agriculture, how honey is a healthy substitute for sugar, and how honey also extends the shelf life of baked products and adds that extra special something, such as taste or texture to other products.”
Bryson’s year as American Honey Queen ends in January when she will crown the next queen at the American Beekeeping Federation’s annual conference in Las Vegas.
Bryson is a junior at Hagerstown Community College, Hagerstown, Md., where she is double-majoring in English and forensic science. She is a member of the National Honor Society and has been on the dean’s list for the last two years.
A 4-H member for 10 years, she serves as a leader for two clubs. Bryson has kept bees for three years, and manages five hives in her family's apiary. In her leisure time, she said she enjoys reading, sewing, and caring for the many animals on her family's small farm.
Fishback, a volunteer at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis, owns and operates BD Ranch and Apiaries, Wilton.
