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)
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Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito (CDC Photo)
Bug Squad: Article

UC Davis Team: Mosquito Odorant Receptors Are Sensitive to Floral Compunds

August 19, 2019
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's well known that female mosquitoes possess a highly developed sense of smell. They manage to find us, don't they? Even when we're doing our best to try to avoid them! It's not so well-known that mosquitoes, both male and female, frequent plants to feed on nectar for energy.
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Future entomologists? A group of students in a Bay Area three-week insect class, taught by SaveNature.Org, poses for a photo.

Youths Experience the Joy of Insects

August 16, 2019
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Do you remember when insects first fascinated you or when you developed a love of insects? Odds are that the children who attend the SaveNature.Org insect-themed sessions in Berkeley will.
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Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, with his screensaver, an image he took of Franklin's bumble bee. He passed June 7. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Franklin's Bumble Bee May Be Protected: A Legacy of Robbin Thorp

August 13, 2019
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
The late Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, and a global authority on bees, worked tirelessly to try to include Franklin's bumble bee (Bombus franklini) as an endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).
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