Bug Blog
What's Wrong With This Picture?
Take a look at the insect below. "It's a cricket," you say. Correct. It is a cricket. But it doesn't belong there. Why? It's the wrong cricket. It's not a "field cricket" but a "house cricket."...
What's wrong with this picture? This is not a field cricket but a house cricket. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee and a cricket sharing the same blanket flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Robbing the Nectar
It's the easy way to do it. A carpenter bee heads for a foxglove blossom and drills a hole in the corolla to sip the nectar. This is "nectar robbing"--bypassing the pollination process and heading...
A honey bee looking for a hole drilled by a carpenter bee in the corolla of a foxglove. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Still searching--the honey bee is getting closer to finding the hole pierced by a carpenter bee.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Found it! Ah, sweet nectar! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bring on the Bugs!
Insects populate the earth and they're also populating the 140th annual Dixon May Fair (May7-10). Sharon Payne, superintendent of the Youth Building in Denverton Hall, noticed quite a few insects in...
Dixon May Fair Youth Building superintendent Sharon Payne with some of the insect photographs taken by youth exhibitors. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Lady beetles, aka lady bugs, are popular images at the Dixon May Fair. Dixon May Fair Youth Building assistant superintendent Julianna Payne holds two of them. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Chris Conklin works on the agricultural display in Madden Hall, Dixon May Fair. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Dixon May Fair chief administrative officer Patrica "Pat" Conklin stands next to a photo of a bee pollinating an almond blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Buzzingham Palace
"All the buzz" in England is the birth of a new member of the royal family, Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge. Born last Saturday in London, she will be known as...
This bee observation hive, named "The Buzzingham Palace," will be on display Thursday through Sunday, May 7-10 at the Dixon May Fair. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Staff research associate Billy Synk of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis, opening the Buzzingham Palace. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Staff research associate Billy Synk of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis, checking the frames. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Case of Mistaken Identity
"Ah, look at that cute little yellow ladybug! Isn't it pretty?" How many times have you heard that? Often it is not the beneficial lady beetle--commonly referred to as a ladybug--but that dratted...
A spotted cucumber beetle foraging on Iceland poppy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)