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.

A Yellow Face and Red Saddlebags

June 30, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The yellow-faced bumble bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) may be one of the most underappreciated pollinators. You see it buzzing around lavender, lupine, California poppies, mustard and other plants.

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A Banner Day

June 29, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

First it was the California poppies. Then the lupine. And now it's coreopsis, aka tickseed. It's seasonal blooming at the Campus Buzzway, a quarter-acre wildflower garden planted last fall at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road at UC Davis.

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An Aphid-Kind of Day

June 28, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

It was an aphid-kind of day. When a ladybug landed on a gaura in our bee friendly garden, it was business as usual. The business: eating aphids. The rose aphids sucking the plant juices from the tender shoot didn't last long. This is why ladybugs are known as "beneficial insects.

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The Eyes Have It

June 25, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

The eyes have it. Look at the compound eyes of an insect. Some are colorful, some are drab. But they are all organs that detect light.

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As Tiny as a... Sweat Bee

June 24, 2010

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

If you like to take photos of insects that are as small as a grain of rice, then you'll love--absolutely love--stalking a sweat bee. Sweat bees, members of the worldwide family Halictinae and order Hymenoptera, are so-named because they are attracted to human perspiration or "sweat.

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