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.

A male Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa sonorina, engages in nectar robbing by drilling a hole in the corolla of the Mexican petunia to steal the nectar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

When a 'Teddy Bear Bee' Became 'Mr. October'

October 19, 2022

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

We usually see male Valley carpenter bees, Xylocopa sonorina, in the spring and summer, but in the fall? On Oct. 17? But there he was, the familiar golden bee with green eyes, robbing nectar from a Mexican petunia, Ruellia simplex, in a Vacaville, Calif., garden.

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Filipa Rijo-Ferreira (left) won the Brown-Goldstein Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research in 2021 for her work investigating the circadian clocks of human parasites. This is the highest honor bestowed by the University of Texas Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Here she looks over data with world-renowned circadian rhythm researcher Joseph Takahashi. (Photo courtesy of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas)

Filipa Rijo-Ferreira: Zeroing in on Circadian Rhythms in Parasitic Diseases

October 18, 2022

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

"In 2020, malaria deaths increased by 12 percent compared with 2019. The increases in malaria cases are deaths were associated with disruption to services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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A blue orchard bee, Osmia lignaria, heads toward Phalacia. (Photo by Clara Stuligross)

Exit Seminar on Oct. 18: Clara Stuligross, Ph.D., Is Passionate About Wild Bees

October 17, 2022

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Clara Stuligross is passionate about wild bees, and you should be, too. Stuligross, who received her doctorate in ecology on Sept.

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A drone fly, Eristalis tenax, nectaring on a pumpkin-orange Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It's Friday Fly Day! Say 'Hi' to a Drone Fly

October 14, 2022

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

'Tis "Friday Fly Day" (also known as #Fridayflyday in the Twitter world), and it's almost Halloween.

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A honey bee foraging on a California golden poppy, the state flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Citizen Scientists Invited to Join the Seed Pile Project

October 13, 2022

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Want to join the 2022-23 Seed Pile Project, a community science initiative by Miridae Living Labs of West Sacramento and UC Davis faculty that aims to better understand the dynamics of native plant seed dispersal in human-dominated landscapes?

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