Bug Squad

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.

These three graduate students in the Phil Ward lab at UC Davis are among the members of the UC Berkeley-UC Davis Linnaean Games Team. From left are Zachary Griebenow, Jill Oberski and Brendon Boudinot. Boudinot, president of the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association, was a member of both the UC Davis national championship teams in 2015 and 2016. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Insects and Graduate Students Share Spotlight at Linnaean Games

November 2, 2018

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Where are you most likely to encounter a rheophilic insect? If you know the answer to that, you could have scored at the Linnaean Games competition at the recent meeting of the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA). The answer: "In moving streams.

View Article

Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, welcomes the new addition, a microsculpture of a ruby-tailed wasp by Levon Biss of London. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Picture This: A 5x6-Foot Ruby-Tailed Wasp at Bohart Museum

November 1, 2018

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Picture this! A 5x6-foot ruby-tailed wasp! When you visit the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, that's what will greet you at its entrance.

View Article

A newly eclosed monarch, ready to take flight. This image was taken on Sept. 24, 2018 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Those Iconic Monarchs: Treats on Halloween and Every Other Day

October 31, 2018

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's Halloween and scores of trick-or-treaters are donning monarch butterfly costumes. But they can't do justice to the living monarchs, those iconic, majestic butterflies that are always dressed in Halloween colors: black and orange.

View Article

Two co-creators of the monarch chrysalis piñata--Charlotte Herbert Alberts and husband George Alberts--pose with the piñata just before the start of the game. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Why This Monarch Chrysalis Was a Big Hit

October 30, 2018

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

A monarch chrysalis at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis proved to be a big hit. Literally.

View Article

UC Davis entomology doctoral candidate Charlotte Herbert Alberts and her husband, George, pose with their Brittany Spaniel, Westley. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bohart Museum Halloween Party: A Night of Frights and Delights!

October 29, 2018

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

What a night of frights and delights! The Bohart Museum Society hosted the Bohart Museum of Entomology's 24th annual pre-Halloween party on Saturday, Oct. 27 at the University of California, Davis, billing it as They Come From Within" and promising a haunting night full of frights and delights.

View Article