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.

Lygus bug (Lygus herperus) could be one of the insects studied in the honors program. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Because They Care

April 29, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's not just future entomologists who study insects. So do future physicians, veterinarians, chemists, ecologists and scores of others.

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Honey bee and male carpenter bee (Xylocopa varipuncta) on tower of jewels (Echium wildpretii). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Just Wanna Be Your Teddy Bear...

April 28, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

"Just wanna be your teddy bear..." When Elvis Presley sang that, his fans swooned. Well, there are bee fans that can't get enough of the "teddy bear" bee, aka the male Valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa varipuncta). It's often called a "golden bumble bee." Golden, it is. Bumble bee, it is not.

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Molecular geneticist Joanna Chiu at work in her lab at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Fruit Fly Research: Link to Human Sleep Disorders

April 27, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

If you're suffering from a sleep disorder, then you'll want to know the kind of research that molecular geneticist Joanna Chiu of the UC Davis Department of Entomology is doing--with fruit flies. The research may one day lead to alleviating your sleep disorder.

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A wooly bear caterpillar munching on foliage at the Bodega Head. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Wooly Bear of a Caterpillar

April 26, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

If you enjoy climbing the cliffs of Bodega Head on the Sonoma coast, keep your eyes out for bears--wooly bear caterpillars, that is. The so-called "wooly bear caterpillar" is reddish, black and woolly and has a voracious appetite much like that of Joey Chestnut.

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Honey bee settles on a fiddleneck. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Fiddle De-Dee!

April 25, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Nero may have fiddled while Rome burned, but the honey bees just kept on working. We recently visited an apiary in Glenn County, and the honey bees were all over the fiddlenecks in patches adjacent to the hives. A springtime scene of golden flowers and buzzing bees. An artist's dream...

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