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

A northern giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia, which the news media dubbed "Murder Hornet." (Photo courtesy of the Washington State Department of Agriculture)

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Bohart Museum Open House: Get Acquainted with Social Wasps

January 11, 2024

Let's be social! How much do you know about social wasps? Would you like to engage in a "meet-and-greet" with them and talk to a wasp expert?

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A cartoon from the William Ja lab. Ja, with the Herbert Wertheim Scripps UF Institute for Biomedical Innovation and Technology in Jupiter, Florida, will speak on "Eat, Excrete, & Die: Regulation of Homeostatic Behaviors and Aging in Drosophila" at 4:10 p.m., Monday, Jan. 22.

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UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology Hosting Winter Seminars

January 10, 2024

The winter seminars hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology are underway. All seminars are on Mondays at 4:10 p.m. in Room 122 of Briggs Hall and also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672. No seminar will take place on Monday, Jan.

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Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, shows butterfly specimens to guests. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Gearing Up for 13th Annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day

January 9, 2024

Meet the scientists! Ask questions! Plans are underway for the 13th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, a free "Super Science Day" for the public to see science in action and learn about 10 UC Davis museums and collections. The event is set for Saturday, Feb.

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In the field: David James, an entomologist and associate professor at Washington State University.

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A Fascinating, Must-Read Book: 'The Lives of Butterflies'

January 8, 2024

Butterflies are treasures, like great works of art. Should we not value them as much as the beauty of Picasso's art or the music of Mozart or the Beatles?Lincoln Brower (1931-2018), renowned Lepidopterist educated at Princeton and Yale universities.

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A jumping spider eyes the photographer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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A Conversation with a Jumping Spider

January 5, 2024

Photographer: "Well, hello there, Jumping Spider! What 'cha doing?" Jumping Spider: "Sunning myself, that's all." Photographer: "And you're not looking for prey? Jumping Spider: "I tried to hide in that red zinnia over there, and ambush a syrphid fly but I missed.

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