Bug Blog
Passionate About the Passionflower Vines
Valley carpenter bees are passionate about passionflower vines (Passiflora). You see these black bees foraging on the blossoms. Tiny grains of golden pollen, looking like gold dust, dot the...
A female Valley carpenter bee is covered with yellow pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Female Valley carpenter bee on a passionflower blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Streak of Gray
if it's a streak of gray, you don't wash it away. You welcome it. The gray hairstreak butterfly (Strymon melinus) is common on our sedum, a good fall plant for pollinators, including...
A gray hairstreak foraging in sedum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee joins a gray hairsteak on a sedum blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Just Emerged: Gulf Fritillary Butterfly
Call it serendipity. Call it a prize from the sky. Frankly, it's not every day that a newly emerged Gulf Fritillary butterfly, Agraulis vanillae, lands at your feet. It crawled from its...
Newly emerged Gulf Fritillary butterfly, fresh from its chrysalis, lands on a bed of wood chips. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Gulf Fritillary starts to stir. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Gulf Fritillary drying off on a passionflower vine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Gulf Fritillary slightly opens its wings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
First opening of the wings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Another butterfly comes down to investigate. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
One last spread of the wings, and it's off. It's a male.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Color Them Hungry
As summer nears its end, the honey bees are hungry. That's why Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology advocates that we plant flowers for late...
A honey bee foraging on a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee on sedum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee on a blanket flower (Gaillardia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee heading toward a tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Labor Day Travails
Today (Labor Day) began just like any other day. And it ended just like any other day, except for the Labor Day celebrations that we humans plan. For Nature's predators and prey that frequent our...
Western spotted orb weaver snares and wraps a honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The spider's spots are visible in this photo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
After tugging the honey bee into the tower of jewels, the spider proceeds to eat it. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This honey bee narrowly missed being a target of the spider. It is nectaring on a tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)