Bug Blog
Catch Me If You Can
Do they ever slow down? Not much. The male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum), a yellow and black bee about the size of a honey bee, spends most of the day defending its "property"...
A male European wool carder bee, Anthidium manicatum, warms its flight muscles on a bluebeard blossom (Caryopteris clandonensis). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Morning sip of nectar for a wool carder bee is like a morning sip of coffee for us humans. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Dorsal view of a male European wool carder bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Well, hello there! This male wool carder bee eyes the photographer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
'Double-Spined Murder Clamps' at the Ready
So here's this tiny praying mantis hovering over a spider's web in the bluebeard (Caryopteris clandonensis) in our pollinator garden. In the web are freshly caught prey, including a honey bee. Now...
A young praying mantis keeps looking down at a spider's web in the bluebeard blossoms. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
If you've ever been puzzled by all those anatomical parts of a praying mantis, no worries. Macro photographer and life-long entomology enthusiast Darren McNabb of Darren's Bugs has figured it all out. (Meme used with permission)
How Do You Weigh a Bumble Bee? Ask UC Davis Entomologists and Engineers
A bumble bee news story released today by Andy Fell of UC Davis News and Media Relations is a great example of scientific collaboration between entomologists and engineers. How it all began:...
A bumble bee leaving an experimental colony housed in a cooler. The "bee scale" to weigh the insects has to be placed in this tunnel. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis pollination ecologist Neal Williams with a bee colony housed in a cooler. Williams and his team hope to understand the demographics of bumble bee colonies, including weighing individual bees as they enter or leave the hive. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
How to Plan a Menu for a Crab Spider
Dear Crab Spider, Please don't eat the pollinators. You may help yourself to a mosquito, a crane fly, a lygus bug, an aphid, and a katydid, not necessarily in that order. And more than one if you...
A crab spider dines on a sweat bee, a female Halictus tripartitus (as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Missed! A male long-horned bee, probably Melissodes agilis, eludes the crab spider. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A crab spider on top of the world, the cone of a petal-less blanket flower (Gaillardia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Hey, I can wait all day. And I will. I'm a Wait Watcher. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Happy Independence Day!
Today we celebrate the Fourth of July, also known as Independence Day. History books tell us that on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, declaring the 13...
A newly eclosed female monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, touches down on an American flag. Another star. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)