Posts Tagged: sand wasp

An Insect You May Overlook

If you're walking along the cliffs of Bodega Head, Sonoma County, you may overlook them. While you're watching for whales, scouting for seabirds and checking out the hikers, there's a lot of movement in the seaside daises (Erigeron glaucus) and seaside woolly sunflower (Eriophyllum...

Sand wasp, Bembix americana, foraging on a seaside daisy on Bodega Head, Sonoma County. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Sand wasp, Bembix americana, foraging on a seaside daisy on Bodega Head, Sonoma County. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Side view of sand wasp, Sand wasp, Bembix americana, foraging on a seaside daisy on Bodega Head, Sonoma County. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Side view of sand wasp, Sand wasp, Bembix americana, foraging on a seaside daisy on Bodega Head, Sonoma County. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Sand wasp foraging for food on the seaside woolly sunflower, also nicknamed lizard tail and seaside golden yarrow. Its botanical name is Eriophyllum staechadifolium. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Sand wasp foraging for food on the seaside woolly sunflower, also nicknamed lizard tail and seaside golden yarrow. Its botanical name is Eriophyllum staechadifolium. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

'The Little White Bees'

If it looks like a bee, sips nectar like a bee, and buzzes away like a bee, that doesn't mean it's a bee. Last weekend we visited a Fort Bragg nursery specializing in succulents, and these "little white bees" were all over the red flowering thyme (Thymus serphyllum). "Little white bees." That's...

Sand wasp on red flowering thyme. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Sand wasp on red flowering thyme. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Abdomen of sand wasp: note the black and white curvy stripes. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Abdomen of sand wasp: note the black and white curvy stripes. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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