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 pollen-packing honey bee heads a patch of daffodils on the UC Davis campus. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Ever Seen a Honey Bee Foraging on a Daffodil?

February 15, 2022

Ever seen a honey bee foraging on a daffodil? In the early spring, blooms are few and far between. Daffodils are not usually considered "bee plants." But if nothing else is blooming, bees will head over to the daffodils. On a Feb.

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A honey bee, packing a load of orange pollen, heads for another almond blossom on Feb. 7, 2022 in Vacaville, Calif. Honey Bees are an integral part of the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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How to 'Bee My Valentine': Let's Help Out the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day

February 14, 2022

You can "Bee My Valentine" today--and throughout the month of February--by contributing to the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day.

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Asian citrus psyllid nymphs and adults on stem and leaves of a citrus. (USDA-ARS Photo)

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Molecular Biologist Michelle Heck: Challenges of Citrus Greening Disease

February 11, 2022

If you grow citrus, you've no doubt heard of the invasive pest, Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri. ACP they call it. A native of southern Asia, it was first detected it in the United States (Florida) in 1998.

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Monarchs overwintering in the Natural Bridges State Park, Santa Cruz, in 2016. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Guess Who's Back?

February 10, 2022

"Guess who's back?" butterfly guru Art Shapiro, UC Davis distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, asked in his "posse" email today. "Guess, who's back?" has nothing to do with the catchphrases uttered by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jack Nicholson.

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Community ecologist Louie Yang captured this image of monarchs at the Coronado Butterfly Preserve in 2006.

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Spotlight on UC Davis Professor Louie Yang and Monarch Research

February 9, 2022

It was a whopping 100-fold increase. California's 2021 western monarch Thanksgiving count, directed by the Xerces Society of Invertebrate Conservation, recorded 250,000 overwintering monarchs, as compared to a mere 2000 in 2020.

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