Bug Blog
Find the Praying Mantis!
Whether you call them "praying" mantis or "preying" mantis, one thing is for sure: they are difficult to find. Tucked away in vegetation and as quiet as "the proverbial mouse" (except praying...
Late afternoon sun gives away the location of this praying mantis hidden in a bed of lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Dead Tithonia leaves camouflage this praying mantis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A very gravid female hanging out in the lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
These are all green leaves, right? No, there's a green praying mantis here, too. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
How Small Is Small?
Sometimes in a world of towering skyscrapers, jumbo jets and warehouses big enough to hold a small planet--or at least a state the size of Rhode Island--we don't realize how “small”...
A lady beetle, a monarch caterpillar and an infestation of oleander aphids. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An oleander aphid on "the nose" of a monarch caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An oleander aphid on the back of a monarch caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An oleander aphid crawling on a tentacle of a monarch caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Thank You, Mrs. Monarch!
Thank you, Mrs. Monarch. Thank you for laying your eggs on our newly planted narrowleaf milkweed. We planted the narrowleafed milkweed last spring, hoping we could coax you to come. We...
A monarch caterpillar chowing down milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The long and short of it. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An adult monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Spreading his wings--a male monarch on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Yes, It Happens: Sexual Cannibalism in Praying Mantids
Yes, it happens. We've heard the stories and read some of the scientific literature about what a female praying mantis will do to her partner during the mating process. Sexual cannibalism. She'll...
A mating pair of praying mantids. At left is the male, soon to lose his head. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The headless male lived about eight hours. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of the headless male. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Effect of the Drought on Insects
The severe California drought--we're in the fourth year--is affecting us all, but it's also affecting insects, says Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of...
he drought has caused a number of immature praying mantids to die for lack of food. This is a female female Stagmomantis californica, as identified by Andrew Pfeiffer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)