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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A praying mantis nails a monarch butterfly on a butterfly bush. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey(
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To Kill a Monarch

September 30, 2015
It's a sin to kill a mockingbird, wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee in her classic novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird." "Mockingbirds don't do one thing except make music for us to enjoy," one of her characters, Miss Maudie, wisely observed.
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Two Gulf Fritillaries doing what comes naturally. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Privacy, Please!

September 29, 2015
Privacy, please! You're walking by a patch of lavender and Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) and you notice that two Gulf Fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae) are doing what birds 'n' bees 'n butterflies do. Well, some folks call it "bug porn" and some call it a "two-for" images--two insects in one photo.
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Female mosquito, Aedes aegypti, also known as "the dengue mosquito," drawing a blood meal. (Photo by James Gathany. United States Department of Health and Human Services)
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ICE-ing on the Cake!

September 28, 2015
What a nice move! Especially since the United States is busily restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba. Think entomology. Think ICE. Think ICE'ing on the cake. Think ICE'ing on an entomological cake.
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A viable bee hive is a new addition in the bee garden, which was planted in the fall of 2009.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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'Bee' There Oct. 2 In the Bee Garden

September 25, 2015
Mark your calendar! The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology has scheduled a fall open house, the last of the season, at its Hagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Friday, Oct. 2 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. It's free and open to the public.
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A male digger bee, Anthophora urbana, (as identified by Robbin Thorp of UC Davis) heads for a lavender blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Nice to See You!

September 24, 2015
Nice to see you! In early spring and throughout most of the summer, we saw scores of digger bees, Anthophora urbana, living in our garden. The very territorial males patrolled the flowers, trying to save them for the females (to mate with them).
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