Bug Blog
Celebrate Moths at the Bohart Museum on Saturday Night, July 30
Ready...set...go! It's almost time to celebrate moths! How much do you know about moths? Do you know the difference between a moth and a butterfly? Have you ever seen some of the world's largest...
UC Davis entomology graduate student Jessica Gillung shows Atlas moths from the Bohart Museum collection. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
These moths are Rothschildia cincta, also known as giant silkworm moths. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Show Me the Honey!
Show me the honey! If you're a beekeeper in the United States and folks rave about your honey, then you'll want to enter the annual Good Food Awards event. You'll have a chance to win awards--and...
A sunny day in the apiary--this is one of the scenes at Olivarez Honey Bees, Orland, Calif., owned by Ray Olivarez. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Rooftop beekeeping! Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (right, now emeritus) holds up a frame for a photograph. This photo was taken on the rooftop of the San Francisco Chronicle. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee on a honey comb. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Find the Praying Mantis!
It's early evening and the bees are all over the blanket flower (Gaillardia). But wait, if you look closely, you'll see a tiny sticklike figure on top of a seed head. It's a predator on top his...
Find the praying mantis on the blanket flower (Gaillardia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Praying mantis rotates his head, looking for prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Love Out of the Blue
Birds do it...bees do it... You've probably seen the territorial male European carder bees on patrol. They dart through the stems of a nectar treasure, such as bluebeard (Caryopteris 'Blue Mist'),...
European male carder bees mating. The male, the larger bee, is about the size of honey bee. The European carder bees were introduced in New York in 1963 and became established in California in 2007, scientists say. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A female European carder bee sipping some nectar from bluebeard, Caryopteris "Blue Mist." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A male European carder bee pauses during patrol for nectar refueling. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
To Kill a Honey Bee
How times change with the advancement of knowledge. It's long been known that when honey bees—as well as other insects—get trapped in the milkweed's pollinia, or sticky mass of pollen,...
Honey bee (at right) perished when her foot got caught in the pollinia and she was unable to free herself. At left is a foraging bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee flies off with pollinia on her leg. She returned to gather more nectar from the milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)