Bug Blog
Troubling Bee Shortage in Almond Orchards
California almond growers are worried--and rightfully so--about the honey bee shortage. Honey bee guru Eric Mussen, Extension apiculturist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology, said today that...
Honey bee heading toward an almond blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee foraging on an almond blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Table for One, Please
Ah, what an intoxicating scent! If you've ever been around the winter daphne, Daphne odora, cultivar "Aureomarginata," you know that its aroma precedes it. You'll ask "What's that fragrance?"...
Table for one, please! A honey bee in the shadows of a daphne bloom at the Storer Garden, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Going with Your Gut
“Of the one millions insects so far described, 120,000 are butterflies or moths, 150,000 are flies, 400,000 are beetles, and only 3000 are walking sticks. Which are my speciality. Not too much...
A walking stick at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Buffet for the Bees
When the honey bee meets the flowering quince, the bee is "the belle of the ball." The winter ball. Suddenly the flowering quince (genus Chaenomele) transforms the bleak wintery landscape into...
Honey bee foraging in a flowering quince. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An upside-down bee in the flowering quince. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Pollen-packing honey bee inside a flowering quince bud. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
About Those Non-Social Bees...
About those non-social bees... A good place to learn about them is at the UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Wednesday, Feb. 6. James “Jim” Cane, a research entomologist with...
Female mason bee, genus Osmia (Family Megachilidae), as identified by native pollinator specialist/emeritus professor Robbin Thorp of UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)