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.

Have you seen a cabbage white butterfly yet this year? This image, taken last summer in Vacaville, shows a cabbage white butterfly trying to share a blossom with a honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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No Rapae Today! Maybe Tomorrow?

January 24, 2019

No winner yet. The annual Beer for a Butterfly" or "Suds for a Bug" contest has not produced a winner. But somewhere out there, is a cabbage white butterfly taking its first flight.

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This was the scene at the Bohart Museum of Entomology during the 2018 UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Ready for UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day?

January 23, 2019

Are you ready for the eighth annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day on Saturday, Feb. 16 when 13 museums and collections will be open on the University of California, Davis, campus? The event, free, family friendly and educational, is always held on Presidents' Day weekend.

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Benicia resident Gordon Hough captured this image of a bee nectaring on a Pyrus calleryana (Bradford pear or another cultivar) at the Benicia State Recreation Area on Monday, Jan. 21, as identified by Daniel Potter, UC Davis professor of plant sciences.

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'A' is for Almonds and 'B' is for Bees and Bradford Pear Blossoms

January 22, 2019

No, it's not Valentine's Day, yet. Yes, the almonds are blooming. No, it's not spring. But it looks like spring in Benicia. The almonds are blooming in the Benicia (Calif.) State Recreation Area. Some are on the road at the entrance to the park. Other trees are also blooming.

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The potato psyllid, a pest of potatoes, transmits a bacteria that causes zebra chip disease. (Photo by Don Henne)

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UC Davis Researcher Targeting Zebra Chip: It's Not a Chip You Want

January 21, 2019

When you're munching on French fries or potato chips, you're probably not thinking about the potato psyllid. But you should be. You should especially be thinking about the zebra chip. No, it's not a newly marketed potato chip or computer chip.

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UC Davis ecologist Rick Karban has researched plant communication in sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) on the east side of the Sierra since 1995.

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Plant Communication Research: 'Taking Root'

January 18, 2019

It's not outlandish now, if it ever were. A recent article in Science headlined "Once Considered Outlandish, the Idea that Plants Help their Relatives Is Taking Root," and dealing with how plants communicate, is drawing widespread attention.

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