Posts Tagged: blister beetle
The Intensity of a Territorial Bee Targeting a Blister Beetle
If you're feeling overwhelmed during the holiday season and just can't seem to concentrate, check out the focus and intensity of this male territorial bee, a Melissodes agilis. It was back in July of 2015 when I spotted a meloid beetle on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola,...
A male Melissodes agilis targeting a meloid beetle on a Tithonia in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The blister beetle eating pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bees, Parasites and Maybe the End?
Thursday, Nov. 7 promises to be an exciting day for the Northern California Entomology Society--a great presentation by UC Davis evolutionary ecologist Leslie Saul-Gershenz, who researches how blister beetle nest parasites cooperate to mimic the sex pheromone of a digger bee. However, there may be...
A digger bee, Habropoda pallida, with blister beetle larvae. (Photo by Leslie Saul-Gershenz)
Caution: Toxic!
It was a reddish-orange beetle, moving a little but not a lot. We spotted it on a sunflower bordering the Avant Garden in Benicia. The garden, located at the corner of First and East D streets, thrives with assorted tomatoes, peppers, onions, strawberries, cucumbers, eggplant, squash and...
Meloid blister beetle, which produces a toxin known as cantharidin, peers at the camera. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Meloid blister beetle foraging on a sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Phoresy!
Phoresy!If that word is not in your everyday vocabulary, just think of a symbiotic relationship where one organism transports another organism of a different species for the benefit of both.And there you have it--at least part of it--of what evolutionary ecologist Leslie Saul-Gershenz of the...
Larvae of a blister beetle, Meloe franciscanus, on a digger bee, Habropoda pallida. (Photo by Leslie Saul-Gershenz, used with permission)
Digger bee, Habropoda pallida, a solitary ground-nesting bee, on Borrego milkvetch. (Photo by Leslie Saul-Gershenz, used with permission)