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.

Close-up of a new wasp species discovered by UC Davis entomologist Lynn Kimsey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

That's One Gigantic Wasp

August 19, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

That's one gigantic wasp! The new species that Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at UC Davis, discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi measures a whopping two and a half inches long. That's the male "warrior wasp.

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A springtail (look to the right of "of the") next to a penny. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Collembola!

August 18, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Collembola! Watch the springtails spring! Over the last several days, Art Shapiro, professor of evolution and ecology at the University of Caifornia, Davis, has patrolled a UC Davis sidewalk checking out a huge volume of springtails.

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Yellow sulphur butterfly ready for take-off. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Butterfly Fancy

August 17, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Noted butterfly expert Art Shapiro of UC Davis sees about 40 yellow sulphur butterflies, aka alfalfa butterflies, during alfalfa-cutting time. We saw one yesterday. It was fluttering over by the tennis courts, corner of Russell Boulevard and Howard Way, on the University of California, Davis campus.

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Honey bee foraging on sunflower in a field off Pedrick Road, Dixon. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bee Heaven

August 16, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

A field of green ribboned in yellow. Anyone who drives down Pedrick Road in Dixon, Calif., and sees the spectacular sunflower fields can't help but smile. Yellow sunflowers do that to you. They make you smile.

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Honey bee on a yellow starthistle flower on Bee Biology Road at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

'Star' Quality?

August 15, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's a perfect example of "the bad, the ugly and the good." In that order. Not "the good, the bad and the ugly." The yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) is the kind of obnoxious weed you wish would go away forever.

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