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.

FLY ON A ROSE--We're accustomed to seeing insects on roses, but not flies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Fly on a Rose Petal

April 16, 2009

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Poet Gertrude Stein wrote in her 1913 poem, "Sacred Emily," that "a rose is a rose is a rose." Things are what they are. The laws of identity. No matter where I go, there I am. When I captured this photo last Sunday of a fly on a rose petal, I immediately thought "A fly is a fly is a fly.

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COOPERATIVE EXTENSION APICULTURIST Eric Mussen (center) answers questions about honey at the annual honey tasting table at Briggs Hall, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Taste of Honey

April 15, 2009

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

If you attend the 95th annual UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 18 and stop by Briggs Hall between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., you'll get a taste of honey. In fact, six tastes of honey.

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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)

Jumping Jehosaphat!

April 14, 2009

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

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)

Fast Food

April 13, 2009

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

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)

Peanuts, Popcorn, Cracker Jacks? No, Queen Bee Cells

April 10, 2009

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

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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