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LinkedInPosts Tagged: Gaillardia
Svastra: the Sunflower Bee
It's nicknamed "the sunflower bee" for good reason. It forages on sunflowers. We recently spotted a longhorned bee, Svastra obliqua, also called "the sunflower bee," on Gaillardia, aka blanket flower, a member of the sunflower family, Asteracease. Asteraceae is comprised of...
Svastra obliqua, "the sunflower bee," foraging on a blanketflower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Meet a Male Mantis in a Patch of Blanket Flowers
So there he is, a praying mantis in a patch of blanket flowers, Gaillardia, in a Vacaville garden. He's a male Mantis religiosa, as slim as a string bean, and scanning his environment. We're accustomed to seeing see the native Stagmomantis limbata in our garden, and not M....
The male Mantis religiosa, investigates his surroundings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Oh, I think I'll go this way. The male praying mantis changes directions. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The male mantis does an Olympic-style stretch. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Art of the Bee
Thought for the day... Every time we see a honey bee "posing perfectly" on a Gaillardia, commonly known as blanket flower, we think of a quote by internationally known honey bee geneticist, Robert E. Page Jr., a UC Davis doctoral alumnus and professor and chair emeritus of the UC Davis Department...
A honey bee on a blanketflower, Gaillardia, in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
About Those Two-Headed Butterflies...
UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, gets queries about two-headed butterflies. A two-headed butterfly? A wonderful and surprising find of a new species? And suitable for publication in ZooKeys, that...
A two-headed butterfly? No, a male and female Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, keeping busy on a Gaillardia or blanket flower. The butterflies are also known as "passion butterflies." Their host plant is the passionlower vine, Passiflora. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Blanket Flower: the Picture of Autumn
If you've been ignoring your calendar, you may have not realized that autumn began Sept. 23. We know it as the season between summer and winter, when days grow shorter, when liquidambar leaves turn red, and when the blanket flower lives up to its name. The blanket flower,...
A Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, clings to a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
