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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. 

Praying mantis nymphs, Stagmomantis limbata, scatter on a metallic quail sculpture near where they hatched the afternoon of April 9 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Quail of a Time

April 15, 2022
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Talk about a quail of a time.... When the ootheca of a praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, hatched April 9 on a clothespin clamped to our clothesline in our yard, all the nymphs scattered. Some crawled up a metallic quail sculpture, the highest structure on the clothesline.
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This is what the ootheca looked like in mid-March. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Day a Clothespin Sprang to Life

April 14, 2022
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Saturday, April 9 was the day a clothespin sprang to life. Some 200 praying mantis nymphs emerged from an ootheca that Mama Mantis (Stagmomantis limbata) had deposited last summer in our pollinator garden in Vacaville.
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This lady beetle, aka ladybug, appears to ponder its next move. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Flight of the Ladybug, The Origami Master

April 13, 2022
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ladybug, ladybug fly away home Your house is on fire and your children are gone All except one, and her name is Ann And she hid under the baking pan. So says a traditional nursery rhyme traced back to 1744 when it appeared in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Songbook, according to Wikipedia.
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This image from a spring 1975 class taught by UC Davis entomology professor Robbin Thorp (back row, far left) shows students showing their collections. Gary Lamberti points out he is in the front row, second from right "in the dark blue shirt with all the dark hair."

Gary Lamberti: Remembering UC Davis Department of Entomology

April 11, 2022
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
When UC Davis entomology alumnus Gary Lamberti, professor of aquatic science in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, and director of the university's Stream and Wetland Ecology Laboratory, accepts a Society for Freshwater Science (SFS) Career Award on May 18 in Grand Rapi...
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