Bug Squad

A daily (M-F) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008 and about the wonderful world of insects and those who study them. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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A monarch caterpillar munching away on its host plant, milkweed, in a Vacaville, Calif., garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Monarch Butterflies: Closer to Extinction

July 27, 2022
It was a good news/bad news/sad news kind of day on July 21 when the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced that the migratory monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is now on its "Red List of Threatened Species as Endangered--threatened by habitat destruction and climate chan...
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In this 2018 file photo, UC Davis arachnologist Jason Bond checks out the specimens at the Bohart Museum's blacklighting display while "Moth Man" John De Benedictis observes. Bond, the Schlinger Endowed Chair of Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, was recently named associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Mark Your Calendar for 'Moth Night' at Bohart Museum: July 30

July 22, 2022
Mark your calendar! The Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, is celebrating National Moth Night on Saturday, July 30 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.--both indoors in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building at 555 Crocker Lane, and outdoors, within a short walking distance.
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No 'Brotherly Love' for California Sister

July 21, 2022
It definitely wasn't a case of "brotherly love" when a predator--maybe a bird or a praying mantis--grabbed the California Sister in our pollinator garden. The butterfly, Adelpha bredowii californica, didn't survive.
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