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Bug Squad

Bug Squad blog image depicts a honey bee sting in action.

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. 

These are carpenter ants, Camponotus semitestaceus, as identified by UC Davis 2020 alumnus and ant researcher Brendon Boudinot, an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Research at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. (Photo taken in Vacaville, Calif. by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bees Are Your Buddies; Ants Are Your Friends

May 17, 2023
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
If bees are your buddies, ants ought to be your friends, right? Right. They belong to the same order, Hymenoptera, but some folks insist that ants don't belong in your life. Oh, but they do! Find out why at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, May 21.
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Forensic entomologist Robert "Bob" Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Mark Your Calendars: Three Bohart Museum Open Houses

May 16, 2023
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Mark your calendars! The Bohart Museum of Entomology has scheduled three open houses between now and Saturday, July 22. The first open house is themed "Ants!" It's set from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, May 21. The Phil Ward ant lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is planning the event.
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A crab spider is about to nail a katydid nymph when a longhorned bee, Melissodes agilis, appears on the Mexican sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Decisions, Decisions! The Katydid or the Bee?

May 12, 2023
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
So here's this crab spider stalking a katydid nymph foraging on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. Dinner awaits! Suddenly a native bee, Melissodes agilis, lands next to the katydid and begins to sip some nectar.
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A pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor, foraging April 30 on Jupiter's Beard in the UC Davis Student Farm's Ecological Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Pipevine Swallowtail: Battus philenor! Battus philenor!

May 11, 2023
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Battus philenor! Battus philenor! That's what UC Davis distinguished professor Art Shapiro called out when he spotted a pipevine swallowtail foraging on wild radish as we trudged up Gates Canyon Road several years ago. It's a beautiful butterfly, and one of the first we see in the spring.
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