Bug Squad

The Sting. (c) Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fruit fly, Neotephritis finalis, peers up at a gray hairstreak butterfly, Strymon melinus, in a bed of Coreopsis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Presenting: A Butterfly and a Fly

March 25, 2024
A gray butterfly and a fruit fly... Each has "fly" in its name but one is a member of the order Lepidoptera and the other, order Diptera. Etymology does not agree with entomology.
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A National Geographic Facebook image shows a hover fly masquerading as a bee.
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Today's Honorary Bee Image Award Goes to...a Fly

March 22, 2024
Today's Honorary Bee Image Award goes to...drum roll...an image of a humble hoverfly appearing on the National Geographic Facebook page. The caption reads "A bee sits on a marigold flower in Coronado National Forest, Arizona, USA.
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A pipevine swallowtail nectaring on Jupiter's beard in Vacaville. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Mary Louise Flint's Article in The Acorn: 'Butterflies in Decline'

March 21, 2024
You won't want to miss the cover story, "Butterflies in Decline," in the spring 2024 issue of The Acorn, the quarterly magazine published by the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. The center, operated by the American River Natural History Association (ARNHA), is located at 2850 San Lorenzo Way, Carmichael.
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It's spring! A honey bee heads toward a Virginia stock blossom, Malcolmia maritima. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Take Stock: It's the First Day of Spring

March 19, 2024
Take stock of your flowers and pollinators; today is the first day of spring. If Virginia stock, Malcolmia maritima, is blooming in your garden now, you'll likely be seeing honey bees, syrphid flies and other pollinators. M.
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