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.

Biologist Iris Bright checks out a red earthworm, one of the items available for sampling at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's open house on Sept. 21. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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This Bug's for You! Enjoy Tasty Bugs at the Bohart Museum Open House

September 16, 2019

Ever eaten a bug? Sure you have. Insect fragments are in just about all the foods we eat, from chocolate to coffee to wheat flour to pizza sauce to beer and more. An insect control company estimates that we eat, on the average, 140,000 "bug bits" every year. (See Business Insider.

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Eye-to-eye with a gravid (pregnant) tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans morsitans. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Geoffrey Attardo's Landmark Research on Genomics of Tsetse Flies

September 13, 2019

You probably don't think much about the blood-sucking tsetse fly--unless you're living in Africa or are planning to travel there. But if you're UC Davis entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, you do. He led landmark research published Sept.

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The UC Davis Department of Entomology, Feb. 3, 1970. In front (from left) are Dick Bushing, Frank Summers, Bob Schuster, Al Grigarick, Bob Washino, Harry Lange and Harry Laidlaw. In back (from left) are Charles Judson. Robbin Thorp, Vern Burton, Elmer Carlson, Oscar Bacon, Frank Strong, Don McLean, Ward Stanger and Ed Loomis. Among faculty not pictured: Stanley F. Bailey, R. M. Bohart, Warren R. Cothran, Norman Gary, G. A. H. McClelland, Howard McKenzie and Gene Stafford.

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Celebrating the Life of Robbin Thorp, Global Authority on Bees

September 12, 2019

A life well-lived. Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, was a global authority on bees and he generously shared his expertise with others.

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A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, nectaring on Cleveland sage. One of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminars during the fall quarter will be on "Bumble Bee Movement Ecology and Response to Wildfire" by doctoral candidate John Mola for his exit seminar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Who's Speaking at UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology Seminars

September 11, 2019

From honey bees to bumble bees to nematodes to mosquitoes to walnut twig beetles... Nine speakers are booked for the fall quarter seminars sponsored by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. The seminars begin Wednesday, Sept. 25 and continue through Wednesday, Dec. 5.

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Thomas Sparks at his desk. He was the first graduate student of UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock.

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No Generation Gap in this 'Family of Scientists'

September 10, 2019

Let's see...John Casida, Bruce Hammock and now Thomas Sparks. You probably recognize their names as exemplary scientists affiliated with the University of California system. They all meshed entomology, chemistry and toxicology and biochemistry.

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