Bug Blog
UC Davis Arboretum Plant Sale!
If you missed the first fall plant sale at the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive, you're in luck. The next public sale is Saturday, Oct. 25 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. We attended the...
Honey bee heading toward a bulbine (Bulbine frutesens). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee foraging on a blanket flower (Gallardia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
These are some of the bee condos that bee enthusiast/UC Master Gardener Tom Tucker displayed at the Oct. 11 fall sale. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Plant enthusiasts attending the Oct. 11 fall sale. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Seeing Eye-to-Eye on a Sedum
If you've ever watched a Gray Hairstreak butterfly (Strymon melinus) nectaring a sedum, and then watched a honey bee (Apis mellifera) land on the same flower, it's a study in sharing. "I was here...
Honey bee sharing a sedum blossom with a Gray Hairstreak. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A little closer...the honey bee edges toward the Gray Hairstreak. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Too close for comfort. The Gray Hairstreak takes off. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Gathering of Beekeepers: Follow That Buzz!
Follow that buzz! When the California State Beekeepers' Association, founded in 1889, meets Nov. 18-20 in Valencia for its 2014 convention, it will mark a milestone: 125 years of...
CSBA President Bill Lewis of the San Fernando Valley talks bees with Barbara Allen-Diaz, vice president of the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) at the California Agriculture Day, State Capitol, in March. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bees pollinating almonds. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bees 'n Blooms
Bees 'n blooms. Blooms 'n bees. Add "California" to it and you have California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists. It's a book that's well-planned, well-executed, well-written...
A honey bee and yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenski, share a coneflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp with a copy of the book. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Fly Is a Fly Is a Fly
A bee is a bee is a bee is a bee. 'Cept when it's a fly. Lately we've been seeing lots of images on social media (including Facebook and Twitter), news media websites, and stock photo sites of...
Drone fly, Eristalis tenax, sipping nectar from a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The "H" is easily seen on the drone fly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Drone fly heads for another blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)