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

Monarch caterpillar on milkweed in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Observing International 'Cat Day

August 8, 2024

Today (Aug. 8) is International Cat Day, the feline kind. It was created in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare as a day to "raise awareness for cats an learn about ways to help and protect them.

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A visitor! A late in-star monarch caterpillar munches on wilting milkweed in a Vacaville garden in triple-temperature conditions. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Welcome, Little 'Cat; 'Bye, Little 'Cat!

August 7, 2024

Monarch butterflies seem to be as scarce as hen's teeth around here. And since hens have no teeth, that's pretty scarce. And then it happened. A late in-star monarch caterpillar appeared on our milkweed in our Vacaville pollinator-predator garden on the very last day of July.

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Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology, holds a drawer of California dogface butterfly specimens. The butterfly is California's state insect. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Can You Name California's State Insect?

August 6, 2024

Can you name California's state insect? Did you know that California has a state insect? It does. Is it the honey bee? No. Is it the lady beetle (ladybug)? No. Bumble bee? No. It's the California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice), an insect found only in California.

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Svastra obliqua, "the sunflower bee," foraging on a blanketflower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Svastra: the Sunflower Bee

August 5, 2024

It's nicknamed "the sunflower bee" for good reason. It forages on sunflowers. We recently spotted a longhorned bee, Svastra obliqua, also called "the sunflower bee," on Gaillardia, aka blanket flower, a member of the sunflower family, Asteracease.

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Bohart Museum associate Michael Pitcairn, retired from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, answers questions about silkworm moths and textiles. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Silk Textile Displays Grab Attention at Bohart Museum's Moth Night

August 2, 2024

"Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons.

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