Bug Squad

The Sting. (c) Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A female Checkered White butterfly, Pontia protodice (as identified by UC Davis distinguished professor Art Shapiro) nectars on lavender in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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A Checkered Past, a Checkered Future or Just Checkered?

June 30, 2022
Have you seen any Checkered White butterflies lately? They're quite common in the southern United States and northern Mexico (they're known as the Southern cabbage butterfly), but one CW fluttered through our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Solano County, Calif., on June 23.
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Entomologist Fran Keller, a professor at Folsom Lake College, demonstrates sticky and non-sticky spider silk with participants at the June 25th open house in the UC Davis Academic Surge Building. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Learning How Efficiently Spiders Capture Their Prey

June 28, 2022
A little yarn, a little glue and a little confetti--and attendees at the recent "Eight-Legged Encounters" open house, co-hosted by the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology and the American Arachnological Society (AAS), learned how spiders have evolved to capture their prey more efficiently.
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Shaked Hoffman, 5, of Davis, listens intently to an arachnologist talking about spiders. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Spiders Are Awesome!

June 27, 2022
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what are a series of photos taken at an open house showcasing spiders and other arachnids worth? Photos, that is, of children's candid expressions? Priceless.
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A crab spider dining on a bee on a blanketflower, Gallardia. Everyone eats in the garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Close Encounters of the Eight-Legged Kind

June 24, 2022
Those who know that spiders have eight legs know exactly what's being showcased at the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology open house, "Eight-Legged Encounters," on Saturday, June 25. Spiders and other arachnids. And you're invited.
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