Bug Squad

Welcome to the Bug Squad blog! The Bug Squad blog was launched Aug. 6, 2008 and is a daily blog (Monday through Friday). It showcases entomologists and the work they do. The blog focuses on scientists in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, the Bohart Museum of Entomology, Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, the UC Davis Bee Haven, and assorted campuswide events, including UC Davis Picnic Day, UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, and Bohart Museum open houses. The blog spotlights insects, including bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and praying mantises, as well as arachnids such as jumping spiders and crab spiders. Author and photographer is Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and a longtime journalist and community scientist with two degrees from Washington State University. She is a member of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE). Her blog posts and images have won international awards from ACE and ESA and appeared on journal and magazine covers. She shoots primarily with a Nikon Z-8 mirrorless camera, a Nikon D500 and Nikon 800, with assorted macro lenses. Feedspot lists it as one of the top entomology blogs on the Internet.

This is a Lasioglossum (Dialictus) sp. female, as identified by emeritus professor and native pollinator researcher Robbin Thorp of UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

No Sweat!

September 18, 2008

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Okay, everybody in the pool! That means bees, too? It does. Sweat bees. You may have noticed the tiny bees--common name sweat bees from the family Halictidae--in your swimming pool or pollinating your flowers. They're attracted to perspiring skin (thus the name sweat bees).

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UC Davis undergraduate student William Yuen wearing his dragonfly t-shirt. He has worked part-time in the Bohart Museum of Entomology for two years. (Photo by Fran Keller)

Behold the Dragonfly

September 17, 2008

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Some folks wear their heart on their sleeve. Others wear a dragonfly on their chest. As part of its public outreach education program and to showcase the world of insects, the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, has created t-shirts featuring a California dragonfly.

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Like a hovering helicopter, the hover fly lingers over flowers in the Ruth Risdon Storer Garden, UC Davis Arboretum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

To Bee or Not to Bee

September 16, 2008

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

To bee or not to bee. Not to bee. The flying insect hovering over the Ruth Risdon Storer Garden, UC Davis Arboretum, looked like a honey bee or wasp at first glance. It wasn't. It was a hover fly or syphrid fly from the order Diptera (Greek for "two wings") and family Syrphidae.

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A pollen-packin' honey bee heads toward a gaura (Gaura linheimeri). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

High-Wire Act

September 15, 2008

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's like going to the circus. A bee circus. When you see honey bees gather pollen from a gaura (Gaura linheimeri), it's as if they ran off and joined the circus. You'll see hire-wire (er...high-stem) acts, somersaults, pirouettes, cartwheels and cliffhangers.

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A honey bee heads for the colorful button-willows (Cephalanthus occidentalis).(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Cute as a Button (Willow)

September 12, 2008

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

A bee on a ball. When it flowers, the button-willow (Cephalanthus occidentalis), also known as willow, buttonbush, honey ball, and button ball (oh, that's so close to butter ball!) attracts honey bees and butterflies like you wouldn't believe.

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