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.

If You're Addicted to Insect Images...

October 27, 2017

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

If you're addicted to insects or insect photography, you'll want to see the international award-winning images on the Insect Salon website. Each year the Peoria (Ill.) Camera Club hosts the contest in conjunction with the Entomological Society of America (ESA).

View Article

Happy National Squash Bee Day!

October 26, 2017

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

In case you missed it, today was National Pumpkin Day. But it ought to be National Squash Bee Day, because the squash bee (my favorite species is Peponapis pruinosa) is an important pollinator of squash and pumpkins. A little bit about the squash bees: Squash bees are specialists; not generalists.

View Article

Jackson Audley: A Case Study with the Walnut Twig Beetle

October 25, 2017

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

So tiny and so destructive. It's about the size of a grain of rice but it's a killer. That's the walnut twig beetle, Pityophthorus juglandis, which in association with a newly described fungus, Geosmithia morbida, causes thousand cankers disease, wreaking havoc on native black walnut trees.

View Article

Bodil Cass and 'The Curious Case of Katydids in California Citrus'

October 24, 2017

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

What an interesting and innovative title: "The Ecoinformatics and the Curious Case of Katydids in California Citrus." That's what postdoctoral scholar Bodil Cass of the Jay Rosenheim lab, University of California, Davis, will discuss at her seminar from 4:10 to 5 p.m., Wednesday, Oct.

View Article

Orange You Glad It's Almost Halloween?

October 23, 2017

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

You can't get any more Halloween than a bold (daring) jumping spider with orange spots! This common North American spider was hanging out yesterday on our showy milkweed, Asclepias speciosa, trying to look like a spectator instead of a predator.

View Article