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Posts Tagged: blanket flower
Are You Ready for National Pollinator Week?
Nothing says National Pollinator Week more than a honey bee coated in pollen. Make mine yellow. Yellow pollen. There's plenty of time to prepare. National Pollinator Week is June 21-27. You can register your activities--make that "socially...
Peek-a-bee! A honey bee, blanketed with pollen, forages on a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Up, up and away! A pollen-packing honey bee leaves the blanket flower, Gaillardia, taking the pollen with her. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Let's Hear It for the Bees and Beekeepers
Let's hear it for the honey bees. Right now they're scrambling to gather nectar and pollen from the blanket flower, Gaillardia. You could say they're blanketing the flower. When resources are scarce in the fall, the blanket flower, in the...
Two matched pairs of honey bees on a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Do Honey Bees Have Taste Buds?
You've seen honey bees nectaring on flowers. You've watched their proboscis (tongue) probing for nectar. Some linger quite awhile before they buzz off. Have you ever thought about this: Do they have taste buds? A colleague asked that question. In...
Honey bees sipping nectar from a blanketflower (Gaillardia), while another bee buzzes in. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Find the Praying Mantis!
It's early evening and the bees are all over the blanket flower (Gaillardia). But wait, if you look closely, you'll see a tiny sticklike figure on top of a seed head. It's a predator on top his world, scanning the view, feeling the buzz and looking for...
Find the praying mantis on the blanket flower (Gaillardia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Praying mantis rotates his head, looking for prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
How to Plan a Menu for a Crab Spider
Dear Crab Spider, Please don't eat the pollinators. You may help yourself to a mosquito, a crane fly, a lygus bug, an aphid, and a katydid, not necessarily in that order. And more than one if you like. In fact, how about an all-you-can-eat buffet of...
A crab spider dines on a sweat bee, a female Halictus tripartitus (as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Missed! A male long-horned bee, probably Melissodes agilis, eludes the crab spider. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A crab spider on top of the world, the cone of a petal-less blanket flower (Gaillardia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Hey, I can wait all day. And I will. I'm a Wait Watcher. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
