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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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A male monarch on Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) on Aug. 30 in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

What's Going On with the Monarchs?

August 31, 2018
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
What's going on with the monarchs? Our little pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif., usually draws dozens of them in the summer as they flutter around, sip nectar from the Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) and lay their eggs on their host plant, milkweed.
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Lady beetle larva dining on aphids on milkweed, UC Davis campus. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Incredible Aphid-Eating Machines

August 30, 2018
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Just call them the "incredible aphid-eating machines." That would be the lady beetles, commonly known as ladybugs (although they are not bugs; they're beetles belonging to the family Coccinellidae, and they're not all "ladies"--some are male!).
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Gulf Fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae)on their host plant, Passiflora, doing what nature intended. At the far right is a Gulf Frit caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Two-Headed Butterfly?

August 29, 2018
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
There's an old joke circulating among entomologists about excited novices contacting them about finding a "two-headed butterfly." Sounds like National Enquirer stuff, right? Wrong. Just two butterflies mating.
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Spotted wing drosophila on a raspberry. Both Frank Zalom and Joanna Chiu of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty, research collaborators, will speak on this pest. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

UC Davis Scientists Heading to Entomology Conference in Brazil

August 27, 2018
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Three faculty members from the University of California, Davis, will be among those sharing the "people" spotlight at the joint meeting of the XXVII Brazilian Congress and X Latin American Congress of Entomology --and the spotted wing drosophila will be among the insects sharing the "insect" spotlig...
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