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)

The larvae of the alfalfa butterfly are major pests of alfalfa. This butterfly is sipping nectar from a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Good, the Bad and the Bugly

October 20, 2020

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The good, the bad, and the bugly... Don't miss the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology virtual open house on alfalfa and rice from 11 a.m. to noon on Thursday, Oct. 22.

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Aedes aegypti, also known as "the yellow fever mosquito." (CDC Photo)

Geoffrey Attardo: Invasive Mosquito Populations Moving Throughout California

October 17, 2020

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

A virtual seminar to be hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology on Wednesday, Oct. 21 should draw widespread interest, especially with the discovery last month of Aedes aegypti in Yolo County.

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A common green bottle fly, Lucilia sericata, seeking nectar on a tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

On the Fly

October 16, 2020

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Flies seem to be in the news a lot lately.

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Cooperative Extension specialist Ian Grettenberger at work in his lab at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bohart Museum Virtual Open House: Think Pests of Alfalfa and Rice

October 15, 2020

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Mark your calendar. The Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, is hosting a virtual open house dealing with alfalfa and rice.

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Signs of a predator. A tattered Buckeye butterfly, Junonia coenia, sipping nectar from a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Buckeye Butterfly: Wanna Piece of Me?

October 14, 2020

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Wanna piece of me? "Hey, Buckeye butterfly, you over there with chunks of a wing missing, yeah you, what happened?" "Well, it was like this. I was just fluttering around, looking for some good nectar, and a predator grabbed me. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was a praying mantis.

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