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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. 

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Santa greets a monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. This one is a male. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Chrysalis

December 24, 2021
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's beginning to look a lot like...chrysalis. It didn't "look at all like chrysalis" this year in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif. We spotted only one monarch--repeat, only one monarch--and it fluttered around and finally oviposited on our milkweed. The eggs vanished.
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A beewolf photographed by Gwen Erdosh, aka Gwentomologit, and posted on her Instagram account.

The Amazing World of 'Gwentomologist' Gwen Erdosh

December 23, 2021
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
"It's wasp time! This is a beewolf! Have you ever heard of beewolves? Well, neither had I until I discovered a bunch of them nectaring on Queen Anne's Lace flowers near my apartment complex! Have you noticed a pattern in the insects I post? A lot of them prey on bees.
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In this award-winning image, a cuckoo bee, Nomada sp.(left), and an Anthophora bee share honey on a twig. The work of Ian Wright, it was selected as a September (inset) image in the ESA's World of Insects calendar. (Copyrighted Photo by Ian Wright)

Image by UC Davis Alumnus Ian Wright Appears in ESA World Calendar

December 22, 2021
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
The 2022 Entomological Society of America's World of Insects Calendar is filled with amazing images and one of them is by UC Davis alumnus Ian Wright of Riverside, a field biologist and research specialist with the UC Riverside Department of Entomology. His work shows a cuckoo bee (Nomada sp.
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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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