Bug Squad

The Bug Squad blog, by Kathy Keatley Garvey of the University of California, Davis, is a daily (Monday-Friday) blog launched Aug. 6, 2008. It is about the wonderful world of insects and the entomologists who study them. Blog posts are archived at https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/index.cfm. The story behind "The Sting" is here: https://my.ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7735.

This is how Dr. Helen Taylor, conservation programme manager for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, described the various bee emojis.

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Identity Crisis: When a Honey Bee Is NOT a Honey Bee

August 18, 2022

Identity crisis! If honey bees could talk, they would be "BEE-wildered" at all the bee emojis out there that don't resemble them.

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Green legs of this male praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, are camouflaged in this patch of African blue basil. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Green Legs and Bam!

August 17, 2022

Have you ever seen a green-legged praying mantis on a green leaf? Praying mantis expert Lohitashwa "Lohit" Garikipati, identified this species as a subadult male, Stagmomantis limbata, perched in a patch of African blue basil in our family's pollinator garden.

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A honey bee packing pollen on a UC Davis almond tree. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Registration Now Underway for Almond Board of California Conerence

August 16, 2022

The Almond Board of California (ABC) just announced that registration is now underway for its 50th annual Almond Conference, set Dec. 6-8 at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in downtown Sacramento. It's a gathering of folks from both the almond and bee industries and beyond.

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Foraging on Capeweed

August 15, 2022

Honey bees and native bees love capeweed, Arctotheca calendula, also called South African capeweed, cape dandelion and cape marigold or cape gold.

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A syrphid fly foraging on a tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii, in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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It's Friday Fly Day!

August 12, 2022

It's Friday Fly Day! And what better day than a Friday to post an image of a syrphid fly nectaring on a tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii? We all need "pretty" in our lives.

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