Facebook
Twitter
Google Plus
Reddit
Pinterest
Tumblr
Delicious
LinkedIn
StumbleUpon
Posts Tagged: Robbin Thorp
Word of the Day: Nototribic
The black-tailed bumble bee wasn't flying very well. You wouldn't, either, if you were trying to fly with a backpack on your back. Except this wasn't a backpack but sticky pollen. The bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, was foraging in our Spanish...
A Bumble Bee on Mustard in the Golden State
What's better than a yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) on yellow mustard? Not much. Both are signs of early spring. Mustard is popping up all over, along with oxalyis and wild radish. The earth is warming. Spring is here. Get ready. In the...
Here Come the Carpenter Bees!
It's spring and it's loud in the Spanish lavender patch. The girls--the honey bees--are buzzing furiously as they forage among the blossoms, but so are the boys, in this case the mountain carpenter bee, Xyclocopa tabaniformis orpifex. The girls are...
The Boys Are Back in Town
The boys are back in town! Well, at least one is. We don't know where the girls are. Neither, apparently, does he. A male Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa varipuncta, aka "the teddy bear bee," buzzed into our mustard patch Sunday and nectared on the...
Wearing o' the Green
On St. Patrick's Day, we see green. We crave green. We wear green. And the penalty for not wearing green? You get pinched. Not so with green sweat bees. As their common name implies, they're green. A metallic green. But no pinching allowed! The green...
