Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay

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UC ANR is renovating its website. 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/blogcore/archive.cfm

A multicolored Asian lady beetle looking for love--or prey--on a mallow on the first day of spring. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Spring Is Bustin' Out All Over

March 22, 2022

June is bustin' out all over All over the meadow and the hill Buds 're bustin' outa bushes And the rompin' river pushes Ev'ry little wheel that wheels beside the mill --Rodgers and Hammerstein Just remove "June" and replace it with "Spring.

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Every year, some 10,000 burn victims in the United States undergo an acute inflammatory reaction and die of burn-related infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This image is of a UC Davis Fire Department control burn of an abandoned home-turned lab. It was last used as an avian lab research facility. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Why a UC Davis Entomology Lab Is Pursuing Human Health Issues

March 21, 2022

While in the U.S. Army, UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock worked as medical officer in a burn clinic. His mother served 15 years as a nurse in a children's hospital burn center.

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Butterfly collections, like the Morpho displays, are a popular attraction at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Applications Due March 21 for UC Davis Bio Boot Camp

March 18, 2022

If there are youngsters in your life who love insects, birds, and all things nature, tell them about the UC Davis Bio Boot Camps. The deadline to submit an application is 11 p.m., Monday, March 21. To apply, students must write a letter about why they want to attend Bio Boot Camp.

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Principal investigator (PI) Marc Johnson (far right) led the team with co-PI Rob Ness (far left), second author; and doctoral student James Santangelo (center), first author, all of the University of Toronto. The research was published in the journal Science on St. Patrick's Day (Johnson's birthday anniversary), with the official publication set March 18 (Ness' birthday anniversary).

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Clover Research Published on St. Pat's Day: Luck o' the Irish?

March 17, 2022

When evolutionary ecologist Marc Johnson, a professor of biology at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, and his team published their Global Urbanization Drives Adaptation in the Plant White Clover research today (March 17, St.

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A newly emerged Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, an image taken in 2021. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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What's in a Name? Western Tiger Swallowtail

March 16, 2022

It's not "officially" spring until we see--and photograph--the spectacular Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus. That's what I posted April 2, 2021 on Bug Squad after seeing one land March 30 on a white lilac bush in a Vacaville park.

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