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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. Feedspot lists it as one of the top entomology blogs on the Internet. 

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Jeff Smith, curator of Lepidoptera collection, Bohart Museum of Entomology

A Tiny and Beautiful Moth from Texas

December 16, 2025
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 Not everything is big in Texas.If you're used to seeing the huge Texas longhorns, with horns spanning eight feet in length from tip to tip, then this is quite the comparison.Entomologist Jeff Smith, the volunteer curator of the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis, just…
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Blue morpho butterflies at Bohart Museum of Entomology.

And the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day Design Contest Winners Are...

December 15, 2025
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 These designs showcasing the 15th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day will "draw you in."The BioDiv Committee recently sponsored a design contest and selected the two winners. They are....drum roll...Haylie Wilcox, a first-year master's degree student in the lab of Professor Neal Williams, a…
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Honeycomb (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Sweet Collaboration: Honey and Mead

December 12, 2025
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 A sweet collaboration!The California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP), based at UC Davis, and The HIVE Tasting Room and Kitchen in Woodland, have joined forces--sweet forces--to present two courses at The Hive:  the first is The Science of Honey Tasting  from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., on…
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Speaker delivering a talk. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Who's Speaking at ENT Seminars?

December 11, 2025
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 Who's speaking at the winter seminars hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology?Marshall McMunn, coordinator of the seminars for the 2025-26 academic year, has announced the "spring list."All seminars will take place at 12:10 p.m. on Wednesdays  in 122 Briggs Hall. They also…
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Cluster of overwintering monarchs.

Radio-Tagging the Migratory Monarchs

December 10, 2025
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 What exciting research--fitting overwintering monarch butterflies with the newly developed ULTRALIGHT solar-powered radio tags to monitor their movements.Senior conservation biologist Emma Pelton of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation today announced in a news release that “Scientists are…
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