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.

In the field: David James, an entomologist and associate professor at Washington State University.

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A Fascinating, Must-Read Book: 'The Lives of Butterflies'

January 8, 2024

Butterflies are treasures, like great works of art. Should we not value them as much as the beauty of Picasso's art or the music of Mozart or the Beatles?Lincoln Brower (1931-2018), renowned Lepidopterist educated at Princeton and Yale universities.

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A jumping spider eyes the photographer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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A Conversation with a Jumping Spider

January 5, 2024

Photographer: "Well, hello there, Jumping Spider! What 'cha doing?" Jumping Spider: "Sunning myself, that's all." Photographer: "And you're not looking for prey? Jumping Spider: "I tried to hide in that red zinnia over there, and ambush a syrphid fly but I missed.

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Monarch butterfly nectaring on milkweed in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Adler Dillman: Of Monarchs, Toxins, and Nematode Parasitism of Insects

January 4, 2024

"Target-site insensitivity (TSI) is an important mechanism of animal resistance to toxins," says nematologist Adler Dillman of the University of California, Riverside.

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Here's a close-up of what this bumble bee species, Bombus melanopygus, looks like. (Photo taken in Vacaville by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Here's Who Won the Bohart Bumble Bee Contest!

January 3, 2024

So, you're sitting in your backyard, enjoying some sunshine (sun break!) on the first day of the year, and you hear a bumble bee buzzing in your Madrone tree.

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The search is on to collect the first cabbage white butterfly of the year in the three-county area of Yolo, Sacramento and Solano. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Two Insect Contests: One Winner, One to Go

January 2, 2024

One down, one to go! We have a winner in the 4th annual Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest, sponsored by the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Details are being gathered, with the winner to be announced soon.

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