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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JERDON'S JUMPING ANT or Harpegnathos saltator will be among the topics discussed at the Christian Peeters' lecture from noon to 1 p.m., Wednesday, April 15 at 122 Briggs Hall, UC Davis. (Photo courtesy of entomologist-insect photographer Alex Wild)
Bug Squad: Article

Jumping Jehosaphat!

April 14, 2009
If you're accustomed to seeing ants crawl, wait a minute...some can actually jump. Ants? Jump? Like leaping lizards? True. Harpegnathos saltator, aka Jerdon's jumping ant, a species found in India, can indeed jump. It can leap a distance of about 10 centimeters (about 3.9 inches).
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APHIDS ON A ROSE BUSH--Aphids suck plant juices, as these are doing here. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Fast Food

April 13, 2009
In a matter of days, the aphids discovered our newly purchased rose bushes. They clustered around the buds and unfolding leaves, piercing the tender stems and sucking the plant juices as if there were no tomorrow. For some of them, there would be no tomorrow.
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ROWS OF QUEEN BEE CELLS are framed against the blue sky. This photo was taken at the apiary of C. F. Koehnen & Sons, Inc., Glenn, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Peanuts, Popcorn, Cracker Jacks? No, Queen Bee Cells

April 10, 2009
With the opening of baseball season, it's "peanuts, popcorn and Cracker Jacks!" But to beekeepers, it's peanuts. Or rather, peanut-like shells. Immature queen bees grow to maturity in cells that resemble peanut shells. When UC Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey, manager of the Harry H.
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THIS HOODED PRAYING MANTIS, a baby, is a new resident of the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Hoodie

April 9, 2009
A baby hooded praying mantis is among the new residents of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, 1124 Academc Surge, on the UC Davis campus. It's a Rhombodera basalis or Giant Malayasian Shield Mantis and is a gift from a teacher in Elk Grove.
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MAGGOT ART will be offered at the UC Davis Picnic Day for the seventh consecutive year. It's about dipping a maggot in non-toxic, water-based paint and letting it crawl across white paper. Maggot Art was coined by forensic entomologist Rebecca O'Flaherty, who is seeking her doctorate at UC Davis.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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You're Painting with What?

April 8, 2009
If you want to create art that's bound to be a conversation piece, you need to head over to Briggs Hall at the University of California, Davis on Saturday, April 18.
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