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Posts Tagged: garden
Why It's Called a 'Boys' Night Out'
Ever seen the male longhorned bees, Melissodes agilis, zipping around your garden, trying to bump all critters, large and small, off of "their" blossoms? They own them, ya' know. These male bees are SO territorial. We've seen them target honey bees, bumble bees, carpenter...
A horizontal view of male Melissodes bees sleeping on a lavender stem. Image taken just after dawn in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What's up, sleepy head? A sleepy male Melissodes agilis bee begins to stir at dawn. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Mantis on the Milkweed
So here's this immature praying mantis, a Stagmomantis limbata, perched on a narrow-leafed milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis, in a Vacaville pollinator garden. She's camouflaged quite well. She's as green and thin as the leaves. Me: "Hey, Ms. Mantis, whatcha doin'?" Ms. Mantis: "Just...
A camouflaged praying mantis, a Stagmomantis limbata, perched on a narrow-leafed milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Praying mantis perched on a milkweed, the host plant for monarchs. She seems to be saying: "Sure, I'm occupying a milkweed, but I promise I'll never even LOOK at a monarch. I'll close my eyes should one flutter by." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The mantis keeps an eye out for prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The mantis assumes the prayerful position--let us prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Art of the Bee
Thought for the day... Every time we see a honey bee "posing perfectly" on a Gaillardia, commonly known as blanket flower, we think of a quote by internationally known honey bee geneticist, Robert E. Page Jr., a UC Davis doctoral alumnus and professor and chair emeritus of the UC Davis Department...
A honey bee on a blanketflower, Gaillardia, in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Behold: the Banded Alder Borer
So there it was, an exotic-looking bug resting against a freshly painted red bollard at a Vacaville supermarket. It was not there to shop. Or to stop vehicles from crashing into the store or colliding with shoppers. It was there, I suspect, because of the pheromone-like scent of the fresh...
The banded alder borer is attracted to fresh paint, probably because of the phermone-like scent. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A banded alder borer, Rosalia funebris, crawls on a leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Side view of the banded alder borer, Rosalia funebris. It's a longhorned beetle in the family Cerambycidae. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Eye to eye with a banded alder borer, Rosalia funebris. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Bee and a Butterfly: Sharing a Lavender Blossom
Ever seen a honey bee and a butterfly sharing a lavender blossom? Just in time for National Pollinator Week, June 17-23, we saw this today. What could be more pollinator friendly than that? The honey bee, Apis mellifera, and the Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, meet on many a...
A Gulf Fritillary and a honey bee sharing the same lavender blossom in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)