- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If Barbie had a praying mantis, it would be pretty in pink.
Do you think Barbie would fawn over a praying mantis nestled in a bed of pink zinnia petals?
We spotted this Stagmomantis limbata in our living laboratory (pollinator garden), and admired her stance. Then Ms. Mantis nabbed an invasive multicolored Asian lady beetle feasting on aphids and proceeded to eat it. (Barbie probably would have preferred a difference menu choice for her pet, such as a stink bug or a cabbage white butterfly.)
"Multicolored Asian lady beetle can be found in almost any type of vegetation that hosts its prey. It was introduced to control soft-bodied pests on fruit and nut trees. Since arriving in California in the 1990s, multicolored Asian lady beetle has become the most common lady beetle in many habitats. It has outcompeted and displaced certain native lady beetles that were more common prior to its arrival in the state."--UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management.
Barbies? I never had a Barbie in my childhood, but the toy, launched in 1959, "has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over six decades," Wikipedia tells us. "Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company's largest and most profitable line...According to MarketWatch, the release of the 2023 film Barbie is expected to create 'significant growth' for the brand until at least 2030. As well as reinvigorated sales, the release of the film has triggered a fashion trend known as Barbiecore."
Did you know that there is a Barbie, the Entomologist? The playset includes a tree for field research, a workstation for lab work, a magnifying glass, and an insect-collecting net. However, the ad writers made a few mistakes that might make a real entomologist cringe. The ad mislabels the chrysalis as a "cocoon," and spiders as "insects." How many bugs in the playset? 2 butterflies, 2 bees, 2 spiders, 1 beetle, 1 water beetle, 1 ladybug (it's actually a lady beetle) and 1 dragonfly.
Missing from the playset is the praying mantis! What happened to the mantis, Mattel?
If Barbie were real, she'd probably want to take Ken and attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on praying mantises from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 27 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. It's free and family friendly.
While there, Barbie could hold a live Madagascar hissing cockroach and/or a walking stick and take a selfie. Hmm, maybe the next Barbie the Entomologist playset will include a cockroach?
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
What are you having for Thanksgiving?
Turkey and all the trimmings?
Well, this little jumping spider had his sights set on ambushing a delicious syrphid fly.
Here's the scenario: The syrphid fly, a pollinator, hovers over a zinnia, sees no danger (the spider is tucked beneath a petal) and touches down. Ms. Fly slurps the nectar--ooh, that's good--and circles the blossom for more.
Ms. Fly, so busy slurping, is unaware that danger lurks with eight legs, excellent acuity and powerful leg muscles.
In a flash, Mr. Jumping Spider leaps.
Missed!
No meal today for Mr. Jumping Spider. Another day for Ms. Fly.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Something was wrong.
The Anise Swallowtail (Papillo zelicaon) that fluttered into our bee garden last weekend and began nectaring on zinnia wasn't quite herself.
Her yellow and black coloring and the striking blue spot on the rear left wing looked fine. But the blue spot was MIA on the rear right wing. In fact, a huge chunk of that wing was MIA.
Its missing parts told part of the story: It had managed to escape a predator, probably a bird, praying mantis or spider.
"Good thing she survived," said butterfly expert Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis who monitors the butterflies of Central California. "It's a gravid female." (Distended with or full of eggs.)
"They have several generations (late February or March-October)," he writes on his website, Art's Butterfly World. The Anise Swallowtails breed largely on fennel or anise (Foeniculum vulgare) and poison hemlock (Conium maculatum). Both, he says, are naturalized European weeds.
The butterfly's usual range, according Wikipedia, "extends from British Columbia and North Dakota at its northern extreme, south to the Baja California peninsula and other parts of Mexico. It is occasionally reported from the southeastern United States, but its normal range does not extend east of New Mexico. In all the more northerly parts of the range, the chrysalis hibernates."
The Anise Swallowtail is commonly found in fairly open country, Wikipedia says, and "is most likely to be seen" on bare hills or mountains, in fields or along roadsides. "It is often seen in towns, in gardens or vacant lots."
We've seen P. zelicaon on plants from A to Z: anise along roadsides and zinnias in our garden.
Zelicaon on a zinnia...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Orange zinnias not only brighten our autumn days but glorify our gardens.
And when there's a bug on the zinnias, all the better.
This insect, identified by Senior Insect Biosystematist Martin Hauser of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, is a fenale Eristalis hirta, aka hover fly or flower fly. It belongs to the family Syrphidae, order Diptera and is one of about 99 species in the genus.
Look for them on a flower near you. And oh, yes, they're pollinators, pollinating such fruits as apples, pears, blackberries and raspberries.
And speaking of plants and insects, if you're around UC Davis on Wednesday, Nov. 6, don't miss the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar by Patrick Abbot, an associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. He'll speak on “Cooperation and Conflict at the Plant/Insect Interface” from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in 122 Briggs. Plans are to record the seminar for later posting on UCTV.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Honey bees foraging on zinnias?
Yes. It's not considered a "bee plant" like the salvias, lavenders and mints, but bees do forage on it occasionally.
The genus, from the aster family (Asteraceae), derives its name from the German botanist, Johann Gottfried Zinn.
At the Hoes Down Harvest Festival last weekend at the Fully Belly Farm, an organic farm in Guinda, deep in the heart of Capay Valley, life took a celebratory twist. The annual festival, so named because folks put down their hoes to celebrate the harvest, includes educational farm tours, a children’s area, hands-on workshops, live music, and the sale of organic produce (fruits, vegetables, olive oil and honey).
This year, the 23rd annual event, weavers wove, spinners spun and a blacksmith blacksmithed just as our great-grandparents did.
And those little honey bees that make it all possible, buzzed amid the basil, mints, salvias--and yes, zinnias.