Posts Tagged: Art Shapiro

A Little Cinderella

In its larval stage, it's a pest of cole crops. As an adult, it's like a little Cinderella. That would be the cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae. In the fairy tale, a ragged Cinderella lives with her selfish stepmother and two mean...

A cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, nectaring on lavender in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, nectaring on lavender in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Lawn-pocalypse! Surviving Drought

Ah, summer! The season of sunburns, pool parties, and… lawn droughts. If your once lush, green carpet now looks like a crunchy brown doormat, you're not alone. Let's dive into why your yard is staging a dramatic death scene and what you can do to...

Bermuda grass and weeds overtaking drought stressed turf grass.

A patch of former lawn, mostly dead, with a few green weeds and Bermudagrass

The Heat. The Butterflies. The Butterfly Guru.

Don't expect to see UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus Art Shapiro monitoring butterflies on the 4th of July. There's a good reason why. Shapiro has monitored the butterfly populations of central California since 1972 and maintains a research...

A cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, nectaring on lavender in a Vacaville garden on June 24. Next Wednesday, July 4, promises to be a scorcher at 106 degrees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, nectaring on lavender in a Vacaville garden on June 24. Next Wednesday, July 4, promises to be a scorcher at 106 degrees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, flutters its wings, ready to fly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, flutters its wings, ready to fly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Gulf Fritillaries Doing Well

The Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, is definitely back from a comeback, at least in the Sacramento, Davis and Vacaville-Fairfield areas. In September of 2009, butterfly guru Art Shapiro, now a UC Davis distinguished professor...

Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, foraging on a zinnia in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, foraging on a zinnia in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Presenting: A Butterfly and a Fly

A gray butterfly and a fruit fly... Each has "fly" in its name but one is a member of the order Lepidoptera and the other, order Diptera. Etymology does not agree with entomology.  Ever managed to photograph a butterfly and fruit...

A fruit fly, Neotephritis finalis, peers up at a gray hairstreak butterfly, Strymon melinus, in a bed of Coreopsis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A fruit fly, Neotephritis finalis, peers up at a gray hairstreak butterfly, Strymon melinus, in a bed of Coreopsis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Closeup of a fruit fly, Neotephritis finalis, an organism commonly known as a "sunflower seed maggot." Green is reflected in its eyes. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Closeup of a fruit fly, Neotephritis finalis, an organism commonly known as a "sunflower seed maggot." Green is reflected in its eyes. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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