Bug Blog
Made for Each Other
What a perfect match when a Gulf Fritillary butterfly touches down on a blanket flower. They're both reddish-orange and showy. Last weekend we spotted a Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis...
Gulf Fritillary touches down on a blanket flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Getting ready for takeoff. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
And away it goes! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Countdown in the Good Life Garden
Did you count pollinators on Thursday, May 8? That was "Be a Scientist Day," sponsored by the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources' Day of Science and Service to commemorate 100 years of...
Butterfly expert Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, talks pollinators with Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee foraging on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) on catmint. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Skipper butterfly on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bugs Galore at Dixon May Fair
There are bugs galore at the Dixon May Fair, which opened today (Thursday, May 8) and continues through Sunday, May 11. The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology is showcasing insects in...
Sharon Payne, superintendent of the Today's Youth Building at the Dixon May Fair, stands by a 6-year-old's bug exhibit, which won a blue ribbon and best of show. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center, will engage youngsters in arts and crafts. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Entomologist Jeff Smith of the Bohart Museum of Entomology will show fairgoers his rose-haired tarantula. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bee-ing a Part of the Solution
This is a story about a third-grade classroom in Galt, Calif., that loves honey bees. It's also a story about a beekeeper named Brian Fishback of Wilton who eagerly taught them to love bees....
Beekeeper Brian Fishback shows students at Lake Canyon Elementary School, Galt, a frame of bees. (Photo by Beth Bartkowski)
Brian Fishback points to an emerging bee. (Photo by Beth Bartkowski)
Students wrote "love notes" to the bees. (Photo by Beth Bartkowski)
This is the students' interpretation of a hive. (Photo by Beth Bartkowski)
Not a 'Mosquito Hawk'
Some folks call them "bugsy" or "mosquito hawks" or "skeeter eaters" "flying daddy longlegs." They may look like Texas-sized mosquitoes but they're not mosquitoes. Neither do they eat mosquitoes....
A crane fly lands on a stucco wall. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A resting crane fly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)