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.

HOVER FLY foraging on cape mallow at the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis. The haven is known as a half-acre "bee friendly garden," but it's also a "pollinator-friendly garden." Located on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus, it is open year-around from dawn to dusk. Admission is free.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Around the Cape

February 25, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's not just honey bees that forage among the cape mallows in the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis. The brilliant magenta flowers also draw assorted other insects. Such as flies...hover flies.

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ALMOND ORCHARD in Dixon, Calif. shows rows and rows of popcornlike blossoms. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Closer, Closer, Closer

February 24, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

No thanks to the recent storms, almond orchards are encountering Nature's Extreme Makeover--from fluffy popcorn blossoms to tattered petals reminiscent of bottom-of-the-bag kernels. Still, there's something spectacular about driving down a rural road in Dixon, Calif.

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YELLOW-FACED BUMBLE BEE (Bombus vosnesenskii) gathers pollen on a rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

C'mon, Native Pollinators

February 23, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

So you want to attract native pollinators to your garden. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, based in Portland, Ore., has just published a 380-page book, Attracting Native Pollinators, that encourages you to do just that.

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SARAH HAN, who works in the Greg Lanzaro lab at UC Davis and plans to enter entomology graduate school, meets a thorny walking stick from Borneo. With her is UC Davis entomology graduate student Matan Shelomi, who studies with major professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Now That's Thorny

February 22, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

You never know who's coming to dinner...er...reception. When the UC Davis Department of Entomology hosted an open house today for prospective graduate students, the Bohart Museum of Entomology brought along some thorny walking sticks.

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A HONEY BEE heads for the only blossom on the nectarine branch. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Nectarines Bursting Into Bloom

February 21, 2011

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It's Presidents' Day and far too early for nectarines to burst into bloom. The unseasonable weather, however, fooled 'em. Didn't fool the honey bees.

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