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.

Asian citrus psyllid nymphs and adults on stem and leaves of a citrus. (USDA-ARS Photo)

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Molecular Biologist Michelle Heck: Challenges of Citrus Greening Disease

February 11, 2022

If you grow citrus, you've no doubt heard of the invasive pest, Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri. ACP they call it. A native of southern Asia, it was first detected it in the United States (Florida) in 1998.

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Monarchs overwintering in the Natural Bridges State Park, Santa Cruz, in 2016. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Guess Who's Back?

February 10, 2022

"Guess who's back?" butterfly guru Art Shapiro, UC Davis distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, asked in his "posse" email today. "Guess, who's back?" has nothing to do with the catchphrases uttered by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jack Nicholson.

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Community ecologist Louie Yang captured this image of monarchs at the Coronado Butterfly Preserve in 2006.

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Spotlight on UC Davis Professor Louie Yang and Monarch Research

February 9, 2022

It was a whopping 100-fold increase. California's 2021 western monarch Thanksgiving count, directed by the Xerces Society of Invertebrate Conservation, recorded 250,000 overwintering monarchs, as compared to a mere 2000 in 2020.

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The FRAME (FoRests Among Managed Ecosystems) program will be featured at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar on Feb. 9. This is a screen shot from the FRAME website.

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Vince D'Amico: Zeroing in on 'The Forests of the BosWash Megalopolis'

February 8, 2022

What do you know about BosWash? It's a name coined by futurist Herman Kahn in a 1967 essay describing a theoretical United States megalopolis extending from the metropolitan area of Boston to that of Washington, D.C.," according to Wikipedia.

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A jumping spider eyes the photographer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Spider Alert! Guess Who's Coming to UC Davis?

February 7, 2022

Spider alert! If you dislike spiders, you might want to check out the political scene (probably not!), the almond pollination season (yes, it's coming), or ask Siri "When does spring begin? (Answer: March 20) Wait, are you still there?

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