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 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

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

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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This is the Jerusalem cricket t-shirt by artist Allen Chew, a UC Davis student and Bohart volunteer, and designer Fran Keller, professor at Folsom Lake College. Keller, a Bohart Museum scientist, is a UC Davis doctoral alumnus.

Potato Bug Lovers, Unite! A 'Vienna Sausage' T-Shirt!

July 26, 2022

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It had to happen.

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Entomologist Jeff Smith (second from left), curator of the Bohart Museum's Lepidoptera collection, talks to visitors at a recent Moth Night. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Oh, What a (Moth) Night This Will Be! A Conversation With Bohart's Lepidoptera Curator Jeff Smith

July 25, 2022

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Oh, what a (moth) night this will be! The Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis is celebrating National Moth Night on Saturday, July 30 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. and you're invited. The insect museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane.

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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

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

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

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

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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