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 spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii, is one of the flies that Joanna Chiu, vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, studies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Learn About These Scientists' Research at UC Davis Seminar

February 24, 2020

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's seminar on Wednesday, Feb. 26 will feature six Faculty Flash Talks on topics ranging from honey bees to tsetse flies to digger bees to trapdoor spiders to fruit flies. The seminar, set from 4:10 to 5 p.m.

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Leslie Saul-Gershenz of UC Davis will speak on "Is Insect Biodiversity, Biomass and Abundance Declining?” at the Hillside Club's Fireside Lecture Series, Berkeley, on March 2.

Scientists Focusing on Insect Biodiversity and Insect Decline

February 21, 2020

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

If you're looking for a thought-provoking discussion on insect biodiversity and decline, mark your calendars. Chemical ecologist and conservation biologist Leslie Saul-Gershenz of UC Davis and Norman Gershenz, conservation biologist and CEO of SaveNature.

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Martin Hauser of the California Department of Food and Agriculture will speak on stingless bees of Palo Alto at the Pacific Coast Entomological Society meeting on Feb. 27. Here he introduces Madagascar hissing cockroaches to Bohart Museum of Entomology guests on Feb. 15 during the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Martin Hauser: 'The Curious Case of the Stingless Bees of Palo Alto'

February 20, 2020

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The title is intriguing: "The Curious Case of the Stingless Bees of Palo Alto." Isn't it illegal to import stingless bees in the United States? It is.

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UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal, distinguished professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, has just been named recipient of the UC Davis Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Students. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Walter Leal: Lighting the Way and Sparking the Fire of Knowledge

February 19, 2020

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

"I don't teach because I have to; I teach because it is a joy to light the way and to spark the fire of knowledge." So says noted chemical ecologist Walter Leal, newly selected recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching from the UC Davis Academic Senate.

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Harvesters or daddy-long legs mating. (Photo courtesy of Mercedes Burns Lab)

Mercedes Burns: Evolutionary Biology of Sex and Sexual Conflict of Harvesters

February 18, 2020

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Evolutionary biologist Mercedes Burns of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, should draw a large crowd when she discusses her research on the evolutionary biology of sex and sexual conflict of harvesters or "daddy-longlegs.

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