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.

Malay Lacewing butterfly (Cethosia hypsea). Photographed by Richard Tenaza and identified by professor/butterfly expert Arthur Shapiro of UC Davis.

The Sounds of a Rainforest

April 19, 2012

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

When you listen to a rainforest, what do you hear? What does it tell you? Those who attend the free public event, Mentawai: Listening to the Rainforest, on Sunday, April 22 on the UC Davis campus will find out.

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UC Davis honey ready to be extracted last fall. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Show Me the Honey! (And Taste It, Too!)

April 18, 2012

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

One of the six honey varieties that the UC Davis Department of Entomology will serve during the campuswide 98th annual UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 21 is...drum roll...cactus honey. Yes, you heard that right. Cactus honey.

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Honey bees ready to swarm at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Unhappy Ending

April 17, 2012

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Bee swarms don't always have happy endings. Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology was quoted in a news story published today about a bee swarm on a Stockton ballfield.

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Pea aphids on a rose leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Oh, Those Pestiferous Aphids!

April 16, 2012

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

By now, you're probably seen enough aphids to last you for the entire year. That's why we're looking forward to hearing Bryony Bonning speak on "Novel Toxin Delivery Strategies for Management of Pestiferous Aphids" at the next UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar, scheduled from 12:10 to 1 p.m.

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Honey bee swarm on the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Facility grounds on Friday the 13th. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

It Happened on Friday the 13th

April 13, 2012

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It happened on Friday the 13th. It was the first swarm of the season at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis. The bees swirled, darkening the sky, and then swarmed from one of bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey's hives around 2 p.

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