Bug Squad

The Sting. (c) Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Moth Man" John DeBenedictus (left) shows Professor Jason Bond the insects on the sheet in the Bohart Museum's blacklighting display last year. Bond is the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Like a Moth to a Flame: Moth Night at Bohart Museum of Entomology

July 26, 2019
Like a moth to a flame... That's what it will be like when folks flock to the Bohart Museum of Entomology on Saturday night, Aug. 3 for its annual Moth Night. It's free and family friendly--and it's all in keeping with National Moth Week: Exploring Nighttime Nature, July 20-28.
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A male longhorned bee, Melissodes agilis, targets the back of a painted lady, Vanessa cardui, on a Mexican sunflower in a Vacaville pollinator garden. This is typical territorial behavior. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Just Being Totally Territorial

July 25, 2019
What was that! If you grow Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia) in your pollinator garden, you've probably noticed the fast-flying longhorned male bees being totally territorial. Their job is to target whatever's on the Tithonia.
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A female Tramea lacerata or black saddlebags dragonfly, on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) in Vacaville, Calif. Shortly after this image was taken, it flew. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Of Predators, Sidewalks and Black Saddlebags...

July 24, 2019
It's always a good day when you encounter a dragonfly on Main Street USA. Such was the case on Wednesday, July 17 when seemingly out of nowhere, a shiny Tramea lacerata "black saddlebags" appeared in front of me on the sidewalk fronting the Vacaville Chamber of Commerce.
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Keynote speaker Lynn Dicks (far left) of the School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, with conference co-chair Neal Williams, pollination ecologist, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and speaker Rachel Vannette of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who addressed the crowd on her hummingbird research. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Lynn Dicks: The Importance of People in Pollinator Conservation

July 23, 2019
The global decline of pollinators ought to concern everybody, and everybody ought to get involved, said bee conservation researcher Lynn Dicks of the School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, in her keynote address at the fourth International Pollinator Conference, he...
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The California State Fair's Insect Pavilion is home to multiple displays borrowed from the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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If You Were a Bug, What Would You Be?

July 22, 2019
"If you were a bug, what would you be?" That sign greets visitors to the California State Fair's Insect Pavilion. It's a good conservation starter. The Insect Pavilion showcases insect specimens and insects from the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis.
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