Bug Blog
Bee My Valentine
It's nice to remember the honey bee on Valentine's Day. You'll see many Valentine cards inscribed with "Bee My Valentine" and featuring a photo of a bee. Many of those photos depict a queen...
Queen bee (with dot) and worker bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Another queen bee in the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The queen and her retinue. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
It Pays to Be a Relative
Plants communicate. They do. Ecologist Richard Karban, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology, points out that one of the simplest forms of communication involves shade. When a plant...
Grasshopper feeding on sagebrush. (Photo courtesy of Rick Karban)
Rick Karban collecting volatile (chemical) cues.
Attacking Thrips
Thrips, those tiny little critters about a millimeter long or less that wreak economic havoc to U.S. agricultural crops--not to mention crops worldwide--may have met their match. They're under...
Western flower thrips. (Photo by Jack Kelly Clark, courtesy of entomologist Diane Ullman)
Monarch Migrations
Everyone recognizes the mighty monarch butterfly. But how many people know about its migration? Steve Reppert, chair and professor of the Department of Neurobiology at the University of...
Monarch butterflly shares a Tithonia (Mexican sunflower) with a honey bee at the Haagen Dazs Honey Bee Haven, UC Davis, last summer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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)