Bug Blog
NIMBY? Yes, When It Comes to Butterflies!
NIMBY isn't always a negative or contentious term. NIMBY--"Not in My Back Yard"--is a term used to target unwanted development projects in a neighborhood. Irate residents ban together and tell a...
Melanic phase of a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar, rare in California. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Melanic Gulf Fritillary caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An adult Gulf Fritillary on a passion flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
In Search of Butterflies
What an enthusiastic group that gathered for Steve Daubert's "Butterfly Ecology Talk and Tour" on Sunday morning, Sept. 29 on the Wyatt Deck, UC Davis Arboretum. Sponsored by the UC Davis Arboretum,...
Steve Daubert checks out the caterpillar of a moth, an Arctiid. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tour guide Steve Daubert (center, in black t-shirt) talks butterflies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tour group, partially shown here, proved very attentive. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Surprise! Bees and Ants More Closely Related Than Most Wasps
Who would have thought? Who would have thought that ants are more closely related to bees than they are to most wasps? In ground-breaking research to be published Oct. 21 in Current Biology, a team...
A bee and an ant; they're more closely related than they are to most wasps. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Ants and bees are more genetically related to each other than they are to social wasps, such as this yellow jacket. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
On the Trail of the Giant Hornet
A hornet’s nest is nothing like a bee in the bonnet. You don’t want to mess with hornets, especially the world's largest hornet, found in many parts of Asia. Lynn Kimsey, director of the...
This is the world's largest hornet, Vespa mandarinia. (Photo by Terry Prouty, courtesy of Wikpedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Hornetboy1970)
Color Them Beautiful
A brilliant sunflower clinging to the red ring of autumn. And here comes a common sunflower bee, Melissodes agilis (this is a female, as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp,...
Sunflower bee, Melissodes agilis, on sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Hi, nice to meet you! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Time to leave! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)