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LinkedInPosts Tagged: California Buckeye
Bees and Trees
We have a section of an old apple tree at the Haven that is being used by Valley carpenter bees, Xylocopa varipuncta, as a nest. I've included a picture here; the number and size of the galleries the bees have excavated is quite impressive. While entomologists generally don't regard carpenter bees...
Eye on the Buckeye
It won't bloom until summer, but already many eyes are on the California buckeye. The tree's blossoms are poisonous to honey bees. Bees are attracted to them and forage on them, but the end result of the food provisions to the colony can be deformed larval development. We've seen bee hives...
Honey bee foraging last May on a California buckeye, which is poisonous to honey bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A California buckeye blooming in May of last year on the UC Davis campus. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Miss Is as Good as a Mile
A miss is as good as a mile...or a smile. The Buckeye (Junonia coenia) is a striking butterfly patterned with eyespots and white bars. We saw one today nectaring on sedum, but with chunks of a wing missing. Perhaps a bird or a praying mantis tried to grab it. It narrowly escaped...
Buckeye butterfly on sedum. Note the missing chunks of its wings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Sideview of Buckeye butterfly-almost a meal for a predator. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An intact Buckeye on sedum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Pollen: Precious Gold
The California Gold Rush (1848-1855) has nothing on honey bees. Sometimes foraging honey bees are covered with their own kind of gold--pollen--or protein for their colonies. We saw this honey bee dusted with gold from head to thorax to abdomen as she gathered pollen from blanket flowers...
Honey bee is covered with pollen from a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee is dusted with pollen from the blanket flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Lift off? The bee struggles to take off. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Shall We Prey?
The California Buckeye (Junonia coenia), with its bold eyespots and white bars, is an easily recognizable butterfly. The problem: getting close enough for a photo and then patiently waiting for it to open its wings. At the first indication of danger, it flutters away. The eyespots are supposed to...
Buckeye spreads it wings on an African daisy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Shattered Buckeye, probably the work of a praying mantis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The predator? Could have been this praying mantis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
