Bug Blog
No Preying When You're Sprayed
One thing's for certain--a praying mantis does not like to get wet. If it were human, it would not dip a toe in the water and yell to its friends: "C'mon in, the water's fine!" Water is not...
Praying mantis, accidentally splashed with a water, tries to remove the droplets. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Drenched praying mantis raises a foreleg. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Plants, Pollinators and UC Davis
If you've never been to a UC Davis Arboretum plant sale, you should. The last plant sale of the year will take place Sunday, Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod...
Honey bee on a cenizo, Leucophyllum frutescens. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee on a white flowering quince, Chaenomeles speciosa "Contorta." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee on winter jasmine, Jasminum nudiflorum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What's That Caterpillar?
What's that caterpillar? This little fellow (or gal) was munching--quite contentedly, thank you--on the leaves of an aspen tree. The homeowner didn't take too kindly to the critter defoliating his...
Close-up of a Smerinthus cerisyi caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Smerinthus cerisyi caterpillar on aspen leaves. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Smerinthus cerisyi adult taken by Shawn Hanrahan at the Texas A&M University Insect Collection in College Station, Texas. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
Coming Right at You
It's not often you see a monarch butterfly and a digger bee in the same photo. Such was the case on a recent visit to a lantana patch at a west Vacaville home. The monarch butterfly touched down on...
Monarch butterfly nectaring lantana, while a digger bee, Anthophora urbana, heads toward it. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Green Bees
The folks at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis,call them "jungle gems." And "gems" they are. They're New World orchid bees (Euglossine bees), which museum director Lynn Kimsey, professor of...
New World orchid bees at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)