Posts Tagged: Peter Cranston

How to Flush Out a Praying Mantis

So you want to capture an image of a praying mantis. You have to find one first. Sometimes it's a case of hide 'n seek--it hides, you seek. Mantises, or mantids, are camouflaged. Many camouflaged (cryptic) insects are "sit-and-wait predators," write emeritus professors Penny Gullan and Peter...

Praying mantis on a watered tomato plant. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Praying mantis on a watered tomato plant. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Praying mantis licks water from its forelegs, specialized to seize prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Praying mantis licks water from its forelegs, specialized to seize prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Praying mantis rests on a tomato vine prior to flying to a nearby tree. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Praying mantis rests on a tomato vine prior to flying to a nearby tree. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

This Bug's for You

Last weekend we spotted a San Francisco-bound car sporting a bumper sticker that read simply:"I brake for bugs." Indeed. Bugs rule. Bugs are cool. Bugs are definitely worth stopping for (especially if it's the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis which houses seven million specimens). Lot of...

Peter Cranston

PETER CRANSTON, an entomology professor at the University of California, Davis, was one of a select group of entomologists invited by the Royal Entomological Society, United Kingdom, to write a blog during National Insect Week.

Thomas Miller

THOMAS MILLER. an entomology professor at the University of California, Riverside, was one of a select group of entomologists invited by the Royal Entomological Society, United Kingdom, to write a blog during National Insect Week.

Long Awaited: The Insects

The Insects are coming. The Insects are coming. That would be the fourth edition of The Insects: An Outline of Entomology,  the newly published work of professors Penny Gullan and Peter Cranston (at right) of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. "The gold standard of entomology textbooks"...

Textbook Cover

TEXTBOOK COVER of "The Insects: An Outline of Entomology." The textbook, considered "the gold standard of entomology books," will be available in the United States in March. It is the work of UC Davis professors Penny Gullan and Peter Cranston.

Tongue-Tied

Blue merle mini-Australian shepherds have one. So do honey bees. What? A tongue. For a puppy, the tongue can symbolize pure happiness. For a worker honey bee: a solid work ethic. It's easy to take a photo of a happy puppy with her tongue hanging out, but not so easy to capture an image of a...

Happy puppy

Blue merle mini-Australian shepherds have one: a tongue. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Industrious honey bee

Just like the puppy above, the industrious honey bee has a tongue, too, or what entomologists call "mouthparts." Here's a pollen-dusted bee in the UC Davis Aboretum nectaring a flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Down Under and on Deadline

They're Down Under and on deadline. Entomology professors Penny Gullan and Peter Cranston of the University of California, Davis, are finishing the fourth edition of their popular textbook, The Insects: An Outline of...

Douglas Williams and Penny Gullan

STUDYING INSECTS--University of California, Davis entomologist Penny Gullan, a native of Australia, and noted British entomologist Douglas Williams collaborate on insect scale taxonomy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Peter Cranston

UC DAVIS ENTOMOLOGIST Peter Cranston looks over posters at the Entomological Society of America meeting, held recently in Reno. He and colleague Penny Gullan are now finishing the fourth edition of their textbook, "The Insects." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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