Bug Blog
Learning About Native Bees with The Experts
Oh, what a treasure to bee-hold! If you've ever visited UC Berkeley's Hastings Natural History Reserve in the upper Carmel Valley, Monterey County, and admired the yellow-faced bumble bees and other...
A yellow-faced bumble bee nectaring on vetch in May 2015 at Hastings Natural History Reserve. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, heads for vetch at the Hastings Natural History Reserve. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenkii, is a whirl of anticipation as it nears lupine at the Hastings Natural History Reserve. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Blue sky, vetch, a yellow-faced bumbe bee and all's right with the world. This photo was taken in May 2015 at the Hastings Natural History Reserve. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Ready for Parasitoid Palooza II? Bohart Museum Open House on Sunday, Jan. 10
If you've ever tried to rear monarch butterflies, you may have encountered a caterpillar parasitized by a tachinid fly, which oviposits or injects its eggs into it. The fly's life cycle...
A wasp parasitizing aphids. These wasps are from the family Aphidiinae. (Photo by Fran Keller)
Beer for a Butterfly: Good News and Bad News
What's the status of the "Beer for a Butterfly" Contest? Do we have a winner? Well, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news: Art Shapiro found and collected a cabbage white butterfly...
Two cabbage white butterflies foraging on catmint in the summer of 2008 in Vacaville, Solano County. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Why Pollination and Pollinator Protection Are Important
If you haven't already seen it, you need to watch it. "Pollination and Protecting Pollinators" is a 51-minute documentary by Washington State University (WSU) Cooperative Extension that explores how...
Honey bee pollinating an apple blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee foraging on mustard. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
May the Buzz Be With You
Did you feel the buzz in 2015? The honey bees, bumble bees, sunflower bees, sweat bees...what a year it was! It's time to walk down memory lane--or stray from the garden path--and post a few bee...
A female ultra green sweat bee, Agapostemon texanus, nectaring on cosmos. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenski, foraging on a tower of jewels. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee, Apis mellifera, foraging on a Bacopa. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Two sunflower bees battle it out: a male Svastra (larger bee delivers quick kick to a smaller male Melissodes. The flower is a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A praying mantis eating a bee, predator vs. prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Freeloader flies, family Milichiidae, and probably genus Desmometopa, dining on a honey bee, a spider's prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)