Archive Nut, Prune and Olive Programs

The photo just begs for a caption. The praying mantis, with a female sweat bee grasped in its spiked forelegs, suddenly turns its head to look at the photographer. Actually, three photographers: Davis insect photographers/bee enthusiasts Allan Jones and Gary Zamzow and I.

Spotted wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii has become a potential concern for strawberries following its damage to cherries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries in coastal California. Other species of Drosophila are morphologically not equipped to attack ripening strawberries.

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Dairy feed production is particularly amenable to conservation agricultural practices, according to four dairy operators featured in Part 4 of the Conservation Agriculture documentary series, released today on the Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation website. (The video is also posted below.

Diggin' the digger bee... We spotted this female digger bee, Anthophora urbana, zooming in on some zinnias at UC Davis. She buzzed loudly, virtually owning the zinnia patch. Smaller sweat bees scattered.

Meet a carpenter bee. This one (below) is a male carpenter bee, Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex, as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis. It's also called a "mountain" or "foothill" carpenter bee.

Don't look now, but a garden spider almost grabbed a tiger by the tail. The tiger? That would be the Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus. The ragged wings of the butterfly (below) show signs of a close encounter with a predator--maybe another spider, a praying mantis or a bird.

The drama unfolds slowly. The crafty praying mantis that's perched atop a zinnia raises its spiked, grasping forelegs and silently waits for unsuspecting prey. A sweat bee cruises by. Then a second one. Then a third. They do not land and the praying mantis does not move.

Ah, the little intricacies of life... We were walking along a stretch of the coastal town of Bodega Bay when we spotted something we'd never seen before: a bubble on a syrphid fly. Syrphid flies, also known as hover flies or flower flies, are pollinators, just like honey bees.

The history of California processing tomato production is an impressive success story. Over the past 90 years, the tomato industry has boosted per-acre production by 740 percent. The state accounts for more than 95 percent of U.S. processing tomatoes.