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 territorial bee, a male Melissodes agilis, confronts a monarch butterfly in a Vacaville, Calif. pollinator garden. The prize relinquished: a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Tiff on the Tithonia

May 27, 2021

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It was July 3, 2020. The male bees, Melissodes agilis, were getting quite territorial. Every time a butterfly, a honey bee or another insect in our family's pollinator garden expressed an interest in foraging on the Mexican sunflowers, Tithonia rotundifola, a male Melissodes buzzed them.

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Juan Amado “Ado” Sales working in the nematology lab of Shahid Siddique.

It's a Good Day When Nematodes Make the News

May 26, 2021

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

In an era when folks say they have no clue what nematology is, it's gratifying to see it make the headlines.

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Tiny Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars on their host plant, Dutchman's Pipe, at Vallejo's Loma Vista Farm. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Seen Any Pipevine Swallowtails Lately?

May 25, 2021

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Seen any Pipevine Swallowtails lately? The UC Davis Ecological Garden is teeming with eggs, larvae, pupa and adults. The butterflies there seem particularly fond of nectaring on Jupiter's beard, Centranthus ruber.

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In this image, taken in October 2018, consultant and mentor Vernard Lewis (left), confers with Andrew Sutherland, UC integrated pest management advisor for Bay Area counties, about the Villa Termiti at the UC Berkeley Field Station. Sutherland, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Davis, was recently awarded state funding to remodel the Villa for future training of pest management professionals in the state. (UC ANR Photo by Pam Kan-Rice)

Bravo to Vernard Lewis and Margaret Collins: Two Legendary Entomologists

May 24, 2021

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Congratulations to emeritus Cooperative Extension specialist Vernard Lewis of UC Berkeley, selected to deliver the Founders' Memorial Lecture at the 2021 annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), set Oct. 31-Nov. 3 at the Colorado Convention Center, Denver.

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This is the California fuchsia, Epilobium canum, from the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. UC Davis community ecologist Rachel Vannette isolated a new species of bacteria from this plant. (Photo by Rachel Vannette)

UC Davis Community Ecologist Involved in Tribute to Two Female Botanists

May 21, 2021

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Botanists Beverly Rathcke (1945-2011) and Jeanne Baret would have been proud. In their lifetimes, they didn't receive nearly enough credit for their work, but now they are memorialized in the names of newly described species of bacteria from the genus Acinetobacter that are specialized to flowers.

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