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Posts Tagged: Mexican sunflower
Let's Roll!
Let's roll! During the golden hour, right before sunset, have you ever watched a male longhorned bee roll full-barrel over a flower at Top Gun speed? During the day, the male longhorned target assorted insects foraging on "their" patch of flowers....
A male Melissodes agilis barreling over a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
And Just Like That, A Monarch Fluttered into Our Garden
And just like that, a female monarch butterfly fluttered into our Vacaville pollinator garden this morning, Aug. 10, and left a dozen or so calling cards: precious eggs. We earlier saw a male monarch patrolling the garden on the morning of...
A female monarch flutters into a Vacaville garden on Aug. 10 and checks out the narrow-leafed milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The monarch heads for another milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The monarch investigates a tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A tiny monarch egg clings to the underside of a narrow-leafed milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What Good Is a Butterfly?
In his fascinating book, "Life on a Little-Known Planet: A Biologist's View of Insects and Their World," Connecticut-born biologist/entomologist Howard Ensign Evans (1919-2002) asks "What good is a butterfly?" "To the farmer, it is an adult...
A tattered Gulf Fritillary sipping nectar from a zinnia in a Vacaville, Calif., garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Gulf Fritillary laying an egg on her host plant, Passiflora. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Gulf Fritillary showing rejection toward a mate after laying an egg on the tendrils of a passionflower vine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Fiery Skipper Likes 'Places Where People Mow Lawns'
Ah, the fiery skipper, Hylephila phyleus! They are, as UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus Art Shapiro says, "California's most urban butterfly." Shapiro, who has monitored the butterfly populations of Calfornia since 1972 and maintains a...
A fiery skipper, Hylephila phyleus, takes flight. The flower is the Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Defensive Measures: Leave Me Alone!
Have you ever seen the defensive antics of a female longhorned bee, sometimes called a sunflower bee, as she's trying to forage on flowers while a suitor is trying to get her attention? (To mate with her) Such is the case in our family's pollinator...
A male Melissodes agilis dives toward the female of his species, but she's not interested. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
In a defensive, leave-me-alone measure, the female Melissodes agilis kicks at the male. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The male Melissodes agilis flies off, leaving the female alone, but not for long. He'll be back. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
