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 cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, nectaring on catmint last summer in Vacaville. (Too late in the season last year to win Art Shapiro's contest.) (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Pieris rapae, Pieris rapae, Pieris rapae...

January 24, 2020

"Today dawned foggy," began Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, in a Jan. 22nd group email.

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A male monarch nectaring on Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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A Troubling Question: Why Are the Monarchs Declining in the West?

January 23, 2020

The question is troubling: What's going on with the monarch butterfly population in the West? The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation reported this week that its Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count shows a decline for the second consecutive year.

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These rocks at the Bohart Museum of Entomology depict favorite insects: honey bees and ladybugs (lady beetles.) The larger rock, inspired by Valentine's Day, is titled "Love Bugs." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Why These Rock Artists Are Rock Stars

January 22, 2020

Rock artists, all. Those who painted rocks at the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on Saturday, Jan. 18 were not just rock artists. They were rock stars, painting creative, inspirational and seasonal illustrations.

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Tien Ferreira, 4, of Fairfield, displays her blue butterfly cape, as Bohart associate Greg Karofelas holds a collection of blue morpho butterflies. In back is Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera section. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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'Eyes on the Butterflies' at the Bohart Museum of Entomology

January 21, 2020

Tien Ferreira, 4, of Fairfield knew just what to do. She donned her special outfit, a blue butterfly cape, and headed over to the open house at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, to see the blue butterflies. The event, held Saturday afternoon, Jan.

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Doctoral student Ann Holmes holds up a bat specimen. Next to her is Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor of entomology at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Bohart Museum Open House: A Science of a Day

January 20, 2020

It was a "Science of a Day" at the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology open house last Saturday afternoon, Jan. 18. For three hours, six UC Davis doctoral students discussed their research and fielded questions from the 270-plus guests, ranging from pre-kindergarten students to senior citizens.

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