- 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
Tabatha Yang saw it first.
She's the education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis.
What she saw--in a grassy field at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, west of the central campus--was a golden ladybug, aka lady beetle.
It looked just like a yellow jelly bean.
Not!
Systemic entomologist Natalia Vandenberg of the Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, identified it as Coccinella septempunctata.
Tabatha is "holding an adult ladybug that is newly eclosed from the pupa," Vandenberg said. "Note that the flight wings are yellow in the teneral adult instead of grey and they are stretched out so that they can expand fully and dry properly. The pronotal markings and body shape identify this as a member of the genus Coccinella. When the adult first leaves the pupa the dark pigment of the pronotum is already present, but the elytral spots develop gradually."
"If you had watched the beetle for 15 minutes the spots would begin to show. There is a spotless Coccinella that occurs in California (C. californica), but what you have is most likely to be a 7 spot that hasn’t developed the spots yet."
We watched it for several minutes and then released it back into its habitat.
By now, it's no doubt formed those characteristic spots.
Somewhere out there is a yellow jelly bean....with spots.
