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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Consperse stink bug, Euschistus conspersus, crawls on the bee sculpture in the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

Stink Bug on a Bee

November 4, 2011
When self-described "rock artist" Donna Billick of Davis created the morphologically correct honey bee sculpture for the Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis, she expected it to be a focal point. And it is.
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Larvae of an owlet moth turned bright red by the parasitic nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora. (Photo by Teresa Willis)
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Getting the Red Out

November 3, 2011
What's that? When award-winning photographer Teresa Willis of Vacaville encountered a red caterpillar on a dirt road at about 6000 feet in a canyon north of Paradise Valley, Nev., she did what photographers do--she captured an image of it.
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Ants crawl along a vine. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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In Pursuit of Ants

November 2, 2011
Ants are such tiny critters. But they're much more than that. Much more. Ant specialist Brian Fisher, an entomologist with the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, describes ants as "industrious, tenacious workers who live in colonies and obey a hierarchy of rulers.
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Tachinid fly (Peleteria species) on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Why Flies Are Fantastic

November 1, 2011
You want to know why flies are fantastic? They are, you know. Just ask Martin Hauser of the Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). He'll discuss "Why Flies Are Fantastic" at the Northern California Entomology Society meeting, set from 9:15 to 3 p.m.
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Proboscis or tongue of a fiery skipper dipped in nectar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Tongue in Cheek

October 31, 2011
Have you ever looked closely at a fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus) and seen its proboscis, aka tongue or feeding tube? If you stay still and don't shadow it while it's nectaring, you'll see the proboscis darting in an out of a blossom.
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