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.

Distinctively colored tachinid fly, probably Trichopoda pennipes, on Santolina rosmarinifolia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Not Your Average Lookin' Fly

June 15, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The feather-legged fly looks as if it were formed by a committee. It's about the size of a house fly, but there the similarity ends. Black head and thorax, hind legs fringed with a "comb" of short black hairs, and an abdomen that's the color of honey--bright orange honey.

View Article

Honey bee heads for flowering artichoke in the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis. Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Let the Artichokes Flower

June 14, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

To attract honey bees to your garden, it's a good idea to let the artichokes flower. Sure, you could pick them for your dinner, but you'd be depriving honey bees of theirs. At the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis, the artichokes are beginning to flower.

View Article

Pollen-packing honey bee heads toward a rock purslane blossom, already occupied by another worker. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

In the Pink

June 13, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Honey bees in the pink? Yes. If you plant rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora), a perennial succulent, be prepared for a posse of honey bees.

View Article

Tabatha Yang, outreach and education coordinator at the Bohart Museum, wearing a Xerces Blue Butterfly shirt. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

And Then There Were None

June 10, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The Bohart Museum of Entomology has five. Nature has none. Zip. Zero. Zilch. The Xerces Blue Butterfly, which once thrived on the San Francisco Peninsula before urbanization chased it away, is extinct. There are no more.

View Article

Aedes aegypti transmits dengue. (Photo courtesy of James Gathany, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Zeroing in on Dengue

June 9, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Deep in the heart of the Amazon forest, the dengue mosquito, Aedes aegpti, is on the prowl. So are researchers from the Thomas Scott lab at UC Davis.

View Article