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.

Santa and a monarch. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Santa and the Monarch

December 25, 2024

Santa Claus and the monarch butterfly share a commonality. Both are icons, easily recognizable. One may become extinct. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Dec. 10 its plans to add the monarch butterfly to its list of threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

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UC Cooperative Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (1944-2022) of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility apiary. Image taken in 2010. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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2024: Revisiting 'The 13 Bugs of Christmas'

December 24, 2024

Back in 2010, UC Cooperative Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (1944-2022) of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and yours truly, department communications specialist, wondered why no insects appear in "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Zero. Zilch. Nada.

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UC Davis third-year doctoral candidate Abigail "Abby" Lehner

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Insect 'Infomercials' You Won't Want to MIss

December 23, 2024

If you have some free time during the holidays--free time, what's that?--and you're interested in insects, you'll want to watch a series of UC Davis insect "infomercials.

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UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus Art Shapiro. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Suds for a Bug, or a Pitcher of Beer for a Butterfly

December 20, 2024

Suds for a bug? A bug for some suds? The annual Beer for a Butterfly contest, launched in 1972 by butterfly guru Art Shapiro, now a UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus, gets underway Jan. 1.

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This is one of the bumble bees that microbial ecologist Danielle Rutkowski studies: a yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Congrats to Danielle Rutkowski: Early Career Entomology Award

December 19, 2024

We're delighted that microbial ecologist Danielle Rutkowski, a UC Davis doctoral alumna and now a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Iowa State University, has just received a Royal Entomological Society Early Career Entomology Award, Highly Commended, for her research piece, Bee-Ass...

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