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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CRANE FLY, also known as a "mosquito hawk," nestles among the blades of grass. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Not Your Basic Giant Mosquito

May 4, 2009
It looks like a giant mosquito. But it isn't. It's a crane fly (family Tipulidae), also known as a "mosquito hawk." It's a slender, long-legged insect that cats like to target. Our cat, Xena the Warrior Princess, loves to bat them out of the air--and then look around for more.
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Pollen-packing honey bee in winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) in Storer Gardens, University of California, Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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What's Happening with the Bees?

April 30, 2009
What's happening with the honey bees? Those following the mysterious phenomonen known as colony collapse disorder (CCD)--characterized by bees abandoning their hives--are eagerly waiting the latest developments.
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BUTTON WILLOW--This photo of a honey bee nectaring a button willow appears in the New York Times' article on "Let's Hear It for the Bees" by guest writer Leon Kreitzman. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey on a Yolo County farm tour)
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Yes, Indeed, Let's Hear It for the Bees

April 29, 2009
Great article in the Tuesday, April 28 edition of The New York Times on "Let's Hear It for the Bees." And did I mention that the photo accompanying the article is one I shot last year on a Yolo County farm tour? The bee is nectaring a button willow (Cephalanthus occidentalis).
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SYRPHID LARVA, on a rose leaf, is feeding on aphids. Soon it will become a flower fly or hover fly, like the one below. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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To Sir (Syrphid), With Love

April 28, 2009
If you see a caterpillar near a cluster of aphids, don't squash it. It could very well be the larva of a syrphid or hover fly (family Syrphidae) and it's eating aphids.
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