Bug Squad

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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.

These are carpenter ants, Camponotus semitestaceus, as identified by UC Davis 2020 alumnus and ant researcher Brendon Boudinot, an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Research at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. (Photo taken in Vacaville, Calif. by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Bees Are Your Buddies; Ants Are Your Friends

May 17, 2023

If bees are your buddies, ants ought to be your friends, right? Right. They belong to the same order, Hymenoptera, but some folks insist that ants don't belong in your life. Oh, but they do! Find out why at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, May 21.

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Forensic entomologist Robert "Bob" Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Mark Your Calendars: Three Bohart Museum Open Houses

May 16, 2023

Mark your calendars! The Bohart Museum of Entomology has scheduled three open houses between now and Saturday, July 22. The first open house is themed "Ants!" It's set from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, May 21. The Phil Ward ant lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is planning the event.

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Symptoms of beech leaf disease include swelling and darkening of interveinal tissues as well as chlorosis. (Photo courtesy of Paulo Vieira of USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD.)

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USDA-ARS Researcher to Give UC Davis Seminar on Beech Leaf Disease

May 15, 2023

In the spotlight: the newly discovered beech leaf disease caused by the nematode, Litylenchus crenatae mccannii.

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A crab spider is about to nail a katydid nymph when a longhorned bee, Melissodes agilis, appears on the Mexican sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Decisions, Decisions! The Katydid or the Bee?

May 12, 2023

So here's this crab spider stalking a katydid nymph foraging on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. Dinner awaits! Suddenly a native bee, Melissodes agilis, lands next to the katydid and begins to sip some nectar.

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A pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor, foraging April 30 on Jupiter's Beard in the UC Davis Student Farm's Ecological Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Pipevine Swallowtail: Battus philenor! Battus philenor!

May 11, 2023

Battus philenor! Battus philenor! That's what UC Davis distinguished professor Art Shapiro called out when he spotted a pipevine swallowtail foraging on wild radish as we trudged up Gates Canyon Road several years ago. It's a beautiful butterfly, and one of the first we see in the spring.

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