Bug Squad

The Sting. (c) Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Bug Squad blog, by Kathy Keatley Garvey of the University of California, Davis, is a daily (Monday-Friday) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008. It is about the wonderful world of insects and the entomologists who study them. Blog posts are archived at https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/index.cfm. The story behind "The Sting" is here: https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7735.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOVER FLY foraging on cape mallow at the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis. The haven is known as a half-acre "bee friendly garden," but it's also a "pollinator-friendly garden." Located on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus, it is open year-around from dawn to dusk. Admission is free.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Around the Cape

February 25, 2011
It's not just honey bees that forage among the cape mallows in the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis. The brilliant magenta flowers also draw assorted other insects. Such as flies...hover flies.
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ALMOND ORCHARD in Dixon, Calif. shows rows and rows of popcornlike blossoms. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Closer, Closer, Closer

February 24, 2011
No thanks to the recent storms, almond orchards are encountering Nature's Extreme Makeover--from fluffy popcorn blossoms to tattered petals reminiscent of bottom-of-the-bag kernels. Still, there's something spectacular about driving down a rural road in Dixon, Calif.
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YELLOW-FACED BUMBLE BEE (Bombus vosnesenskii) gathers pollen on a rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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C'mon, Native Pollinators

February 23, 2011
So you want to attract native pollinators to your garden. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, based in Portland, Ore., has just published a 380-page book, Attracting Native Pollinators, that encourages you to do just that.
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SARAH HAN, who works in the Greg Lanzaro lab at UC Davis and plans to enter entomology graduate school, meets a thorny walking stick from Borneo. With her is UC Davis entomology graduate student Matan Shelomi, who studies with major professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Now That's Thorny

February 22, 2011
You never know who's coming to dinner...er...reception. When the UC Davis Department of Entomology hosted an open house today for prospective graduate students, the Bohart Museum of Entomology brought along some thorny walking sticks.
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A HONEY BEE heads for the only blossom on the nectarine branch. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Nectarines Bursting Into Bloom

February 21, 2011
It's Presidents' Day and far too early for nectarines to burst into bloom. The unseasonable weather, however, fooled 'em. Didn't fool the honey bees.
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