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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EGGS inside honey bee cells will turn into larvae, which will increase in weight 1000 times during the six days that they feed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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A Weighty Matter in the Hive

February 18, 2011
Think what it would be like if you increased your weight by 1000 times in six days. But that's exactly what worker bee larvae do in the honey bee colony.
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HONEY BEE heads for almond blossoms at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Flight of the Honey Bee

February 17, 2011
Friday, Feb. 11 seemed like a glorious spring day. Almond trees at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis burst into bloom. Early birds...err...early bees...began foraging among the blossoms. A faux spring. Then the rains came.
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QUEEN BEE and her colony. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Bee-utiful Find

February 16, 2011
It was a bee-utiful find: A how-to book published in 1890 on rearing honey bees. We found the book, ABC of Bee Culture: A Cyclopedia of Everything Pertaining to the Care of the Honey Bee; Bees, Honey, Hives, Implements, Honey-Plants, Etc. by A. I.
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OVERWINTERING ladybug perches on top of a tangerine tree leaf as temperatures hit 75 degrees. This is an introduced species, Coccinella septempunctata, as identified by Natalia Vandenberg, a USDA employee with the Systematic Entomology Lab, Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Ladybugs in February

February 15, 2011
The overwintering ladybugs tucked in the leaves of our tangerine tree are gone. Sunny temperatures hit 75 degrees, and off they went. Guess they thought it was spring. Anyhow, they made a glorious sight as emerged from the folds of a tangerine leaf.
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HONEY BEE on a comb of honey at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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A Honey of a Day

February 14, 2011
It's Valentine's Day and it's a honey of a day. Valentine cards proclaim "Bee Mine" and "Bee My Valentine." Invariably, there's a happy honey bee buzzing around a flower on a Valentine's Day card.
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