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SOLDIER BEETLE, perched on a plum tree leaf, checks it surroundings. It's an avid aphid-eater. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

The Leather Wings

April 7, 2011
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Some call them "soldier beetles." Some call them "leather-winged beetles." Some call them "Cantharids" (family Cantharidae). Whatever you call them, be sure to welcome them to your garden. They eat aphids, lots of aphids. Like the good soldiers they are, they're ready to do battle.
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Festooning

April 6, 2011
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
That old saying, "Be all you can be," should be changed to "Bee all you can bee.
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BRUCE HAMMOCK, distinguished professor of entomology at UC Davis, in his habitat on the garden level of Briggs Hall. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

From Moths to Medicine

April 5, 2011
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
From moths to medicine... When distinguished professor Bruce Hammock of the UC Davis Department of Entomology speaks at the department's noonhour seminar tomorrow (Wednesday, April 6) in 122 Briggs Hall, his topic is sure to draw attention.
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HONEY BEES work the almonds at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bee-ing There for the Vote

April 4, 2011
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Beekeepers with more than 50 colonies and who do business in California will soon have the opportunity to help support honey bee research.
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Photo by Ron Harben.
Conservation Agriculture: Article

Cover crops: What goes around comes around

April 4, 2011
By Jeannette Warnert
Cover crops, or vegetation that was grown after the cash crop was harvested, was a practice that was widely used in the 1940s and 1950s. The vegetation was used to maintain or increase the fertility of the soil before commercial fertilizers became widely available.
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THIS MUTANT BEE, rarely found in the beekeeping world, is often called a "cyclops" bee. It has the head of a drone (note the wrap-around eyes or eyes that meet at the top of the head) and the body of a worker, complete with pollen baskets and a stinger. This one, about to take flight, is on the hand of bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, who spotted it in a Glenn County queen-production business. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Part Drone, Part Worker Bee

April 1, 2011
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Very rare. Very rare, indeed. It has the eyes of a drone and the body of a worker bee. And no, this is not science fiction. It's a mutant honey bee. "They're not totally uncommon," said Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. "But they're there.
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