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)
A queen bee and worker bees. "On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 12 deathwatch beetles drumming, 11 queen bees piping, 10 locusts leaping, 9 mayflies dancing, 8 ants a'milking aphids, 7 boatmen swimming, 6 lice a'laying, 5 golden bees, 4 calling cicadas, 3 French flies, 2 tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The 13 Bugs of Christmas, Revisited

December 21, 2021
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's time to revisit the "Thirteen Bugs of Christmas!" Back in 2010, Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (now emeritus) and yours truly of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology decided that "The 12 Days of Christmas" ought to be replaced with insects.
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A female tachinid on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It's Friday Fly Day!

December 17, 2021
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
If it's Friday, it must be "Friday Fly Day!" And a perfect day to post an image of a fly. This is a female tachinid, genus Peleteria, in the family Tachinidae. It is perched on a lavender in Vacaville, Calif. The genus is characterized by two prominent setae in front of the lower part of the eye.
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The cover image of BioScience by Diego Delso shows a Bombus terrestris, a buff-tailed bumble bee that is one of the most numerous bumble bee species in Europe.

Do Forests Play a Role in Bumble Bee Life History?

December 16, 2021
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Do forests play a role in bumble bee life history? Yes, says UC Davis alumnus and research ecologist John Mola and his colleagues in a newly published article, "The Importance of Forests in Bumble Bee Biology and Conservation," the cover story in the current edition of the journal Bioscience.
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