Posts Tagged: egg
Honey Bee Larvae: Weigh to Go!
It's a week before Christmas and it's not just the geese that are getting fat. If you're thinking that the bathroom scale and you are not good friends, not to worry. We remember the late Extension apiculturist emeritus Eric Mussen (1944-2022) of the UC Davis Department of...
Queen bee laying an egg. A honey bee egg weighs about 0.1 mg, according to the late Extension apiculturist emeritus Eric Mussen, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Over the next six days, a tiny egg will soar to 120 mg. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee larvae grow fast. Here a bee, next to larvae, is ready to emerge. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Newly emerged honey bee. It weighs about 1000 times the weight of a one-day-old bee larva. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Butterfly Egg: The Promise of a New Generation
Ever seen a Gulf Fritillary laying an egg? The Gulf Frit, or "passion butterfly" (Agraulis vanillae), lays her tiny, yellow eggs, singly, on her host plant, the passionflower vine (Passiflora). The egg? It's about the size of a pin head. Look closely and you'll see it's ridged like the...
The adult Gulf Fritillary butterfly is a brilliant orange, with silver-spangled underwings. This one is nectaring on a Mexican petunia in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Gulf Fritillary laying an egg on a tendril of a passionflower vine in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
These Beetles Don't Want to Hold Your Hand
The Beatles sang "I Want to Hold Your Hand." The elm leaf beetles and their larvae don't want to hold your hand--unless perhaps you're holding a elm leaf that they can eat. A recent walk down the 200 block of Buck Avenue, Vacaville, California, revealed the damage this pest does. The stately...
Assorted elm leaf beetles and larvae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Eggs of the elm leaf beetle. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Elm leaf beetle larva or caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An adult elm leaf beetle. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An elm tree on Buck Avenue, Vacaville, showing defoliation by the elm leaf beetle and its larvae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Elm leaf beetles on an elm leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Day 2 of National Pollinator Week: Focus on a Tiny Egg
It's Day 2 of National Pollinator Week. So, I guess I should "toot my own horn" (we don't have one, but in our household we do have a piano, a double bass, a guitar, a banjo, a ukulele, a dulcimer, a harmonica, a sousaphone, a set of hand drums, and two accordions. Note that the last...
This image of a tiny monarch egg won a silver award in the international Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences (ACE). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This is the first in a series of images of Gulf Fritillaries that won a bronze award in the ACE competition. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This is the second in a series of images of Gulf Fritillaries that won a bronze award in the ACE competition. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This is the third in a series of images of Gulf Fritillaries that won a bronze award in the ACE competition. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This is the fourth in a series of images of Gulf Fritillaries that won a bronze award in the ACE competition. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Oleander Aphid and the Monarch Egg
You never know about those photo-bombers. You can't trust 'em. So here I was, trying to photograph a tiny egg that a monarch butterfly had just deposited on our milkweed. I held it up for a better look. And then, the photo-bomber! An oleander aphid, Aphis nerii, appeared...
A monarch butterfly just deposited this egg on a milkweed leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Photo-bomber! An oleander aphid appears out of nowhere, heading toward the monarch egg. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Curious oleander aphid checks out the monarch egg. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)