Bug Blog
Robbing Nectar
We all take short cuts--short cuts around the campus, to the beach, to a favorite restaurant... Honey bees take short cuts, too. We've often watched assorted bumble bees and carpenter bees drill a...
Carpenter bee, Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex, robbing nectar from salvia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee gathering nectar from a carpenter bee's pierced hole in the long tube of a salvia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Another honey bee reaping the benefits of nectar robbing by a carpenter bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Hovering in the Wind
The 40 mile-per-hour howling wind didn't seem to bother the syrphid fly, aka hover fly and flower fly. It clung to a blossom on the tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii, and proceeded to...
Syrphid fly nectaring on tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Syrphid sparkles in the early morning sun. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What's Not to Love About Roses?
I beg your pardonI never promised you a rose gardenAlong with the sunshineThere's gotta be a little rain sometime... So began Joe South in his hit song, "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,"...
Yellow roses are popular at the rose sale. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This is what you don't want to see on your rose: rose curculio or rose weevil. You can ask questions about pests at the rose event. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
From Butterflies to Goldspotted Oak Borers
Thursday, May 2 is a good day to learn about butterflies. That's when butterfly expert Art Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, will be speak at the Northern California...
Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
About That Stink Bug...
It doesn't usually make the 6 o'clock news--or even the 10 o'clock news--but it's trouble. Trouble, indeed. The brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha hales), a native of Asia, was first...
Brown marmorated stink bugs. (USDA, Stephen Ausmus)