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.

Martha Leija and Mario Preciado and their daughter Valentina, 8, a family from Mexico City, check over the morpho butterflies. At right is Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Morphos! The Monarchs! The Bohart!

March 28, 2023

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

When the Bohart Museum of Entomology hosts an open house, a sure crowd-pleaser is the global Lepidoptera collection, which totals some 500,000 specimens--60 percent moths and 40 percent butterflies.

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A feral or wild bee colony in a fig tree in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, southern Kenya. (Photo by James Keatley Garvey)

Feral Bee Colony in Kenya: Nothing Short of Incredible

March 27, 2023

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

"EVERYTHING that colonies do when they are living on their own (not being managed by beekeepers) is done to favor their survival and their reproduction, and thus their success is contribution to the next generation of colonies. And I mean everything.

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A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, on a tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Big Bee Bash Is Beckoning: Learn About California's Native Bees

March 24, 2023

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's billed as a "Bee Bash," but it should be "Big Bee Bash." Urban entomologist Gordon Frankie, professor emeritus and research entomologist in the Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley, will be one of the speakers.

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Congratulating Olivia Winokur (center), recipient of the Hollandsworth Prize for best student presentation at the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) annual conference are Casey Crockett (left), AMCA Student Competition coordinator, and Dennis Wallette, 2022-2023 AMCA president.

Congrats to UC Davis Postdoc Olivia Winokur: Winner of AMCA's Hollandsworth Prize

March 23, 2023

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Congratulations to UC Davis postdoctoral scholar and vector-borne disease specialist Olivia Winokur of the Chris Barker lab who won the $2600 Hollandsworth Prize for best student research presentation at the American Mosquito Control Association's annual conference, held recently in Reno.

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With UC Davis students (right) assisting at the Bohart Museum arts-and-crafts table, artists create arthropods and other critters, using modeling clay. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

'Undescribed Species' Discovered at the Bohart Museum

March 22, 2023

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

"Spiders have been around for 400 million years and they are an incredibly diverse group with more than 50,000 species described with probably another 200,000 remaining to yet be discovered.

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