Bug Squad

The Sting. (c) Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Sting: A bee stings the wrist of Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen. That's the abdominal tissue trailing. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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'The Sting' Revisited

August 26, 2015
Photographers are frustrated, and rightfully so, with all the thievery on the Internet. Like many other photos, "The Sting," is being used illegally for commercial purposes. It's appeared on sites like PhotoBucket where unscrupulous people sell it as canvas prints and holiday cards.
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Stéphane De Greef (© Anna Bella Betts)
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An Amazing Ant/Millipede Video

August 25, 2015
Deep in the jungles of Cambodia, near the temples of Angkor, an unlikely drama takes place. Blue ants of the genus Leptogenys, native to southeast Asia, surround their prey, a massive millipede. It's almost like circling the wagons in a scene from the Wild West. Or "rodeo-style behavior.
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Pipeline swallowtail on Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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For the Love of Butterflies

August 24, 2015
A passion for butterflies coupled with a yearning to protect their habitat is what drives 98-year-old Louise Hallberg, founder of the nine-acre Hallberg Butterfly Gardens in Sebastopol.
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A honey bee prepares to visit another primose. Note the stringy mass of pollen hanging from her hind legs. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Why She's Packing Pollen That Way

August 21, 2015
If you've ever seen honey bees foraging on primrose, you may have seen something unusual. What's with the pollen hanging below their hind legs as they buzz from primrose to primrose? There's a reason for that.
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A frame from the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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An App for Bee Health

August 20, 2015
So you want to know about bee health? Yes, there's an app for that--and you're welcome to download it for free. Our good neighbor to the north of us, Alberta Agriculture, has just developed Phase 1 of its Bee Health.
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