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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honey bee heading toward almond blossoms. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Zombie Bees

January 13, 2012
Zombies! What do you think of when someone says "zombies?" Students sitting inattentively in class? A souless body? Or a honey bee infested with parasitic flies? A Zombie, according to Wikipedia, is a term used "to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means, such as witchcraft.
View Article
Honey bee foraging on a blooming bok choy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Bees Don't Balk at Bok Choy

January 12, 2012
If you let your bok choy go to seed, what a treat for the honey bees. The mild unseasonable weather and blooming bok choy--perfect for foraging honey bees searching for food in January. Mother Nature may fool them. Bok choy does not.
View Article
This is a parasitic orchid bee, Exaerete kimseyae, named for Lynn Kimsey.
Article

Names Matter

January 10, 2012
The names are delightful. There's a fairy moth named Adela thorpella. Its namesake: native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis. Who wouldn't want to be Adela thorpella? The name just rolls off the tongue.
View Article
Professor Art Shapiro with his newly found cabbage white butterfly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Pop Goes the Pieris

January 9, 2012
Pop goes the Pieris. So wrote professor Art Shapiro of the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology from his office in Storer Hall. Yes, he won his own contest again.
View Article
Subscribe