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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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This is the tiny insect--a fruit fly known as the spotted-wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) that Antoine Abrieuz studies in the Joanna Chiu lab at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Congrats to Antoine Abrieux, Innovator Fellow Award

January 8, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Congrats to postdoctoral researcher Antoine Abrieux of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis! Abrieux, an international scholar from France in the Joanna Chiu lab, is one of two recipients of an Innovator Fellow Award from the UC Davis Innovation Institute for...
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Photographer Allan Jones captured this image of a black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, on Jan. 6 in UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden to win the Robbin Thorp Memorial Bumble Bee Contest.

We Have a Winner of the Yolo-Solano Bumble Bee Contest!

January 6, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
We have a winner of the Yolo-Solano Memorial Bumble Bee Contest! Macro insect photographer extraordinaire Allan Jones captured an image of a female black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus on Monday, Jan. 6 on the UC Davis campus. The time: 1:45 p.m.
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