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.

The Beetle Boys Meet at the Bohart

August 4, 2017

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The Beatle Boys made their mark in Liverpool, but across the pond, specifically at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, the real Beetle Boys emergedentomology-driven youth who have made their mark with the Coleopterists Society, an international society devoted to the st...

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The Bee and the Tiger

August 3, 2017

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Talk about a butterfly ballet... A large Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, with a wingspan of about four inches, flutters into the Vacaville, Calif. pollinator garden and lands on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia).

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Ever Seen a Snakefly?

August 2, 2017

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Have you ever seen a snakefly? Not a snake. Not a fly. A snakefly! They're predators but rarely seen. They eat insects such as aphids and mites. They have a long neck, or technically, an elongated prothorax, their most distinguishing characteristic.

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The Monarch Butterflies Arrive!

August 1, 2017

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

A little haggard, a little worn, a little ragged, a little torn. But there she was on Monday, Aug. 1, the first monarch of the season to lay eggs in our little pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif.

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The Buzz Behind the Bee

July 31, 2017

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

What's the buzz behind the bee? The Western Apicultural Society, headed by president Eric Mussen of UC Davis, Extension apiculturist emeritus, wanted a unique bee T-shirt design for its 40th anniversary conference, set Sept. 5-8 at UC Davis.

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