Bug Squad

A daily (M-F) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008 and about the wonderful world of insects and those who study them. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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UC DAVIS bioanalytical chemist Jun-Yan Liu, the senior author of the paper, at work in the Hammock laboratory. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Pursuing Relief from Pain

September 13, 2010
Pest management. Pain management. Early in his career, entomologist Bruce Hammock, now a distinguished professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis and a newly selected fellow of the Entomological Society of America, probed regulating the development of insect larvae.
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THIS BEE, a Svastra obliqua expurgata, forages on a purple coneflower in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology, is monitoring the many species of bees in the garden. To date: more than 50 over the last two years. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Glory Bee

September 10, 2010
Glory bee. There are more than just honey bees in the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. Think butterflies, dragonflies, sweat bees, metallic sweat bees, carpenter bees, hover flies, tachinid flies, wasps, praying mantids and what not.
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sarahdalrympleforweb
Bug Squad: Article

Thinking Outside the Box

September 9, 2010
Diane Ullman, Donna Billick and Sarah Dalrymple (Sarah is shown at right) are used to thinking outside the box. Now they are thinking inside and outside the hive. Visitors to the grand opening celebration of the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, set from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept.
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EUROPEAN PAPER WASP rests on a leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Capitalizing on the Colors

September 8, 2010
Ever notice how the coloring of the wool carder bee resembles a yellowjacket and European paper wasp? Talk about capitalizing on the colors. Carder bees, so named because they card the fuzz or down from leaves to make their nests, are black and yellow.
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A BEE FLY nectars on sedum. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Not Bees--They're Flies

September 7, 2010
There are "bees" and there are "flies." And then there are "bee flies." Bee flies? They're so named because they look somewhat like bees. Order: Diptera. Family: Bombyliidae. We spotted a single bee fly, as identified by UC Davis forensic entomologist Bob Kimsey, foraging on our sedum yesterday.
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