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.

Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, holds the first cabbage white butterfly of 2015. He collected it Jan. 26 in West Sacramento, Yolo County. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It's Over

January 26, 2015

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The Beer-for-a-Butterfly contest is over. And we have a winner! Drum roll...Art Shapiro...

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Ulysses butterfly (Papilio ulysses) collection in the Bohart Museum of Entomology. These are all males. The females have barely any blue on their wings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It's a Butterfly Week!

January 23, 2015

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

When the week is about butterflies instead of guerrilla attacks, murderous rampages, measles outbreaks, and deflated footballs, it's a good week. Butterflies draw smiles instead of scowls, pleasure instead of pain, glee instead of grief. So, here's Part 1 of the good news.

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A queen black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, foraging on pansies on Jan. 22, 2014. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Waiting for the Bees

January 22, 2015

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Where, oh where, is that first bumble bee of the year? It's about this time of the year when the queen black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, and the queen yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, emerge.

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Honey bee foraging in a flowering quince. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Why Spring Doesn't Seem So Distant

January 21, 2015

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The honey bees are hungry. Those venturing out from their colonies as the temperatures edge toward 55 degrees or more aren't finding much. It's the dead of winter. Spring seems so distant. But wait, the flowering quince is blooming.

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Honey bee foraging on a tulip. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Marla Spivak's Keynote Speech: 'Helping Bees Stand on Their Own Six Feet'

January 20, 2015

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

"Helping Bees Stand on Their Own Six Feet." Yes, honey bees have six feet, and that's the title of a keynote speech to be presented May 9 at the University of California, Davis by Distinguished McKnight Professor and 2010 MacArthur Fellow Marla Spivak of the University of Minnesota.

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