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 honey bee and a lygus bug sharing a batchelor button in the UC Davis Ecological Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

The Bee and the Lygus Bug

April 29, 2021
Ever seen a beneficial insect and a pest sharing the same blossom? At a recent visit to the UC Davis Ecological Garden at the Student Farm, we watched a honey bee, Apis mellifera, and a lygus bug nymph, Lygus hesperus, foraging on a batchelor button, Centaurea cyanus. The bee: the beneficial insect.
View Article
A male monarch on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

The Look-at 'Cats

April 27, 2021
They were the "Look-at-Cats." The feral cats on our farm (the progeny of strays dropped off by "imperfect" strangers) became known as "The Look-at-Cats." You couldn't touch, pet or hold them. You could feed them, though, and spay or neuter them--if you could catch them. And you could name them, too.
View Article
A common crane fly, Tipula oleracea, on a tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

You Don't Have to Crane Your Neck to See Them

April 26, 2021
They're out there, and you don't have to crane your neck to see them. Some folks mistakenly call them "mosquito hawks" or "mosquito eaters," but they are neither. They are crane flies, members of the family Tipulidae of the order Diptera (flies). They're everywhere.
View Article
Subscribe