Bug Squad
It's a Girl!
At last! From an egg to a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a butterfly. And it's a girl! For several days we've been protecting a Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) chryalis on our passionflower vine (Passiflora) from predators. It works like this:...
Female Gulf Fritillary butterfly dries her wings after emerging from her chrysalis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Newly emerged Gulf Fritillary butterfly hangs on the fence. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A suitor approaches the female. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Almost engaged. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Mating Gulf Fritillary butterflies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The female is doing a post-coital stretch, according to butterfly expert Art Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis. "She's a tad oddly marked, too." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Let Us Prey
So patient, so passionate. The praying mantis looked hungry last Thursday when it perched on a coneflower in the half-acre Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis. Where's breakfast? Where's...
Praying mantis waits and waits. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Maybe hunting is better on the other side? (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What's on the other side? (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Keeping cool beneath the coneflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Häagen-Dazs Boosting Honey Bee Research at UC Davis: There's a Concerto for That!
Just before you open your carton of premier ice cream, you may want to enjoy the sound of violins and cellos. There's an app for that. More specifically, there's a concerto for that. And it all deals with the Häagen-Dazs premier ice cream brand...
The sign in front of the Laidlaw facility includes bees, a skep, almond blossoms and DNA. It is the work of artist Donna Billick of Davis, a co-founder and co-director of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Beekeeper Billy Synk, manager of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, demonstrates the Haagen-Dazs Concerto Timer with a cell phone and ice cream carton. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Wolf at Your Door
So there you are, a little sweat bee, foraging in the buckwheat. You sip some nectar, and suddenly, a flash of yellow. A wolf is at your door. It's a beewolf, a crabronid wasp from the genus Philanthus, as identified by Lynn Kimsey, director of...
A beewolf, or crabronid wasp, on buckwheat. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Beewolf maneuvering around the buckwheat. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of beewolf head. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Beewolf lands on the same flower occupied by a hungry praying mantis. The wasp quickly left. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Medflies: Permanent Residents
Breaking news shook the agricultural world today. The Mediterranean fruit fly, considered the world's worst agricultural pest, is one of at least five fruit flies established in California. It cannot be eradicated. So says entomologist James Carey of...
Mediterranean Fruit Fly. (Photo by Jack Kelly Clark)