Bug Blog
When a Butterfly Looks Like a Penguin
A sharp-eyed youngster noticed the resemblance. When entomologist Jeff Smith, a volunteer associate at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, was showing elementary school...
This is an owl butterfly, genus Caligo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The spectacular Morpho cypress cyanide. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
If you haven't seen a single monarch yet this year, you'll see plenty of them at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Lacewings! Lacewings! Lacewings!
There it was. A beautiful green lacewing, family Chrysopidae, resting on a yellow Iceland poppy in our bee garden. It literally glowed. Nice to have it land there instead of on a green leaf;...
A green lacewing lands on an Iceland poppy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Membranous wings of the green lacewing. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This lacewing was checking its surroundings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What Bees, Butterflies, Beetles, Birds and Bats Have in Common
Bees do it. Butterflies do it. Beetles do it. Birds do it. Bats do it. Do what, you ask? They pollinate! The Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, will greet...
A Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, visiting a flowering quince in the UC Davis Arboretum. Butterflies are pollinators. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee pollinating an almond blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A lady beetle pollinating an Iceland poppy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
How Many Bumble Bees Have You Seen This Year?
Quick! How many bumble bees have you seen so far this year? For me, it's zero, zilch, nada. They're out there, though. Talent insect photographer Allan Jones of Davis, shared some of his images...
The yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, on rock purslane. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A black-faced bumble bee, Bombus fervidus (formerly Bombus californicus) on a coneflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This is the Western bumble bee, Bombus occidentalis, which is declining rapidly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, with a load of red pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Loving the Lupine
It's a given: Honey bees love lupine. We watched them buzzing around a flower patch of blue (lupine) and gold (California poppies) today along Hopkins Road, University of California, Davis, west of...
A honey bee heads for lupine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee with a huge pollen load. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Saddlebags? No, a heavy load of pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)