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 hornworm is feeding on a pepper plant. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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The Hornworms Are Not Your Friends

August 30, 2021

If you love tomatoes, you probably hate hornworms. Frankly, the garden's not big enough for both of you, and one of you has to go. It's not you. It's the hornworm.

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California dogface butterfly expert Greg Kareofelas (far left) chats with Rob Stewart of the PBS program, "Rob on the Road."

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Meet 'The Dogface Butterfly Guy'

August 27, 2021

Meet "The Dogface Butterfly Guy." Naturalist Greg Kareofelas, an associate of the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology and an expert on the California state insect, the dogface butterfly, appeared several years ago on a segment of the PBS program, "Rob on the Road.

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UC Davis doctoral alumnus Jessica Gillung, now on the faculty of McGill University, is the winner of the Entomological Society of America's International Branch Early Career and Leadership Award.

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Jessica Gillung: Absolute Dynamo

August 26, 2021

Congratulations, Jessica Gillung! What an absolute dynamo! Gillung, an evolutionary biologist who received her doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 2018 and is now on the faculty of McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is the newly announced recipient of the Entomological Society of Amer...

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The late Robbin Thorp, UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor, kept his image of Franklin's bumble bee as his screensaver image on his computer. He last saw the bee in 2006 at Mt. Ashland, and was the last known person to see the pollinator. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Robbin Thorp Would Have Been Proud

August 25, 2021

The late Robbin Thorp, UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor and a tireless advocate of pollinator species protection and conservation, would have been proud.

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A female praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, peers at the photographer in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Oh, To Be a Praying Mantis...

August 24, 2021

Oh, to be a praying mantis, and hide among the flowers waiting for prey. On a warm sunny morning in Vacaville, Calif., this female Stagmomantis limbata positioned herself in a patch of Mexican sunflowers, Tithonia rotundifola.

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