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Posts Tagged: Robbin Thorp

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Know Your Native Bees: Here's How!

Female sweat bee, Svastra obliqua expurgate, on purple coneflower, Echinacea purpurea. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Do you know your native bees? Can you distinguish a sweat bee from a leafcutting bee from a cuckoo...

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Posted on Monday, August 22, 2016 at 6:48 PM

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Tags: Barbra Ertter (1), California Bees and Blooms (6), Gordon Frankie (13), Gretchen LeBuhn (2), Kate Frey (2), native bee workshop (1), Robbin Thorp (183), Rollin Coville (6), The Bee-Friendly Garden (1), UC ANR (1)

Drama in the Pollinator Patch

A pollen-packing female longhorned bee, probably Melissodes agilis (as identified by Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis) wants the same flower that the male monarch has claimed. This is a Mexican sunflower, genus Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

So here's this newly eclosed male monarch trying to sip a little nectar from a Mexican sunflower...

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Posted on Wednesday, August 3, 2016 at 4:53 PM

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Tags: California Bees and Blooms (6), Danaus plexippus (2), Greg Kareofelas (2), Heyday (1), Melissodes agilis (5), monarch butterfly (2), Robbin Thorp (183), Tithonia (4)

What's Better than Sighting a Bumble Bee?

A newly emerged yellow-faced bumble bee queen, Bombus vosnesenskii, eyes the photographer as it forages on blanket flower (Gaillardia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

What's better than sighting a yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii? Well, a newly emerged...

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Posted on Friday, July 1, 2016 at 1:16 PM

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Tags: blanket flower (3), Bombus vosnesenskii (11), Gaillardia (4), queen bee (1), Robbin Thorp (183), UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (5), yellow-faced bumble bee. Bumble Bees of North America (1)

That Cuddly Teddy Bear Bee

A male Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa varipuncta, sipping nectar from a broadleaf milkweed, Asclepias speciosa. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Oh, that cuddly teddy bear. The male Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa varipuncta, also known as...

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Posted on Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 4:58 PM

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Tags: Asclepias latifolia (1), broadleaf milkweed (1), male Valley carpenter bee (5), monarch (1), Robbin Thorp (183), Xylocopa varipuncta (12)

Bed and Breakfast for a Bumble Bee

Male black-faced bumble bee, Bombus californicus, resting on a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

We just met a male black-faced bumble bee, Bombus californicus. It was early morning and he was...

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Posted on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 at 6:37 PM

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Tags: black-faced bumble bee (3), Bombus californicus (3), Gaillardia (4), Gretchen LeBuhn (2), Kate Frey (2), Robbin Thorp (183), The Bee Friendly Garden (1)

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