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.

HOVER FLY lands on red buckwheat (Eriogonum grande rubescens) and sips nectar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Seeing Red--On Buckwheat

November 3, 2009

Butterflies, honey bees and hover flies can't get enough of red buckwheat. Tight clusters of pink blossoms, coupled with gray-green foliage, grace red buckwheat (Eriogonum grande rubescens), a California native. It's good for the insects and good for the gardener. It's drought-tolerant.

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NEW BROOCH--Nanase Nakanishi, a UC Davis student who plans to become a veterinarian, cares for this rose-haired tarantula at the Bohart Museum. It's one of the live insects in the museum, which houses more than seven million specimens. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Everything's Coming Up Roses

November 2, 2009

Everything's coming up roses at the Bohart Museum of Entomology on the UC Davis campus. Roses? Make that rose-haired tarantulas. See, the Bohart not only houses some seven million insect specimens in its quarters in 1124 Academic Surge, but they have a few live ones, too.

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MALE--This is the male light brown apple moth, Epiphyas postvittana. (Photo courtesy of David Williams, principal scientist, Perennial Horticulture, Department of Primary Industries, Victoria, Australia.)

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LBAM: What's the Status?

October 30, 2009

Remember the ravenous light brown apple moth (LBAM) and all the controversy? The invasive agricultural pest, from Down Under, soars high on the agenda at the Northern California Entomology Societys meeting on Thursday, Nov. 5 in Concord. Also on the agenda: honey bee regulatory research.

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It All Bee-Gan at UC Davis

October 29, 2009

The "honey bee reproductive ground plan" hypothesis that originated two decades ago at the University of California, Davis with bee geneticist Robert E Page Jr. (right) is drawing international attention.

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THIS MALE green metallic sweat bee, Agapostemon texanus, is nectaring a Seaside daisy, the Erigeron glaucus Wayne Roderick. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Something Quite Magical

October 28, 2009

There's something so magical and captivating about the metallic green sweat bee. Shouldn't it be yellow? No. Is it a bee? Yes. Does it attract attention? Definitely.

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