Bug Squad

The Sting. (c) Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Bug Squad blog, by Kathy Keatley Garvey of the University of California, Davis, is a daily (Monday-Friday) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008. It is about the wonderful world of insects and the entomologists who study them. Blog posts are archived at https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/index.cfm. The story behind "The Sting" is here: https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7735.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui, nectaring on lantana. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Luck Be a Lady! (A Painted Lady)

March 18, 2015
The "Painted Ladies" are back in the Davis area. These are not the two-legged type, but the winged type--Vanessa cardui. They're migrating and driving UC Davis entomology and ecology students nuts.
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If you look closely, this green lacewing that fluttered onto a porch light fixture, is not alone. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Eating o' the Green

March 17, 2015
It was not the greatest of St. Patrick's Day surprises. A green lacewing nailed by a garden spider? And on the porch light fixture? So true.
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Honey bee foraging on flowering crab apple. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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How to Tell It's Almost Spring

March 16, 2015
You can tell it's almost spring when you hear bees buzzing on the flowering crab apples. Spring officially starts Friday, March 20, but don't tell that to the bees. They're in the midst of their spring build-up. Meanwhile, California Agriculture Day beckons.
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A green lacewing lands on an Iceland poppy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Lacewings! Lacewings! Lacewings!

March 12, 2015
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; otherwise, we may never have noticed it. Lacewings are the good guys and girls.
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