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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. 

Bohart Museum associate and UC Davis entomology major Kaitai Liu delights in showing insects from the petting zoo to the crowd. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Faces in the Crowd at the Bohart Museum Open House

January 22, 2025
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
They discovered, explored, and connected. They met scientists, asked questions, and gained new knowledge about insect science. The recent Bohart Museum of Entomology open house, like all its open houses throughout the UC Davis academic year, is science communication (SciCom) in action.
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Jeff Smith (foreground), curator of the Bohart Museum of Entomology's global Lepidoptera, chats with guests. In back is Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

An Afternoon in the Lepidoptera Collection

January 20, 2025
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
What's his number? 2,530. That's how many specimen drawers that Jeff Smith, volunteer curator of the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology for the past 36 years, has crafted and donated to the "Lep" section. Smith brought another batch to the Bohart Museum at the Jan.
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A male yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, nectaring on a purple coneflower in Salem, Ore. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bumble Bee Contest Is Over!

January 17, 2025
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
The 2025 bumble bee contest is over. Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis announced today that "we have a winner" in the fifth annual Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest, sponsored by the Bohart Museum.
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