Bug Blog
Purple Paradise
If you want to attract insects to your garden, plant an artichoke and let it flower. You'll get honey bees, syrphid flies, butterflies, carpenter bees and leafcutter bees. (And well, a few...
Male cuckoo leafcutting bee (genus Coelioxys) emerges from the purple strands of an artichoke blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Male cuckoo leafcutting bee (genus Coelioxys) walking on an artichoke blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Not Your Usual Pollinator
Since this is National Pollinator Week, you're probably out celebrating the bees--maybe doing hand stands, cartwheels and pirouettes. But have you ever thought about beetles as pollinators? They...
Melyrid beetle (Endeodes insularis) on a poppy petal. (Photo y Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of melyrid beetle covered with pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Wild Blue Yonder
Sometimes you see honey bees "making a beeline." Such was the case when this honey bee (below) encountered a native wildflower, blue lupine (Lupinus). Lupines are known more as pollen plants than...
Honey bee heading for blue lupine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee touches down on "the landing strip" of a blue lupine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee, wings a soft blur, makes a beeline for a lupine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Off to Italy on a Very Important Mission
It won't be lock, stock and barrel, but it will be stock. A team of scientists from UC Davis and Washington State University will be heading for Italy tomorrow (June 19) to gather germplasm (sperm)...
Italian honey bee heading toward lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Applause for the Pollinators
Let's have a pause--and applause--for the pollinators. Next week, June 18-24, is National Pollinator Week, as designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). That means, says Pollinator...
ORNAMENTAL--A bumble bee visiting a rock purslane. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
VEGETABLE--A squash bee nestled in a squash blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
FRUIT--Honey bees battling over a pomegranate blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)