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 monarch caterpillar chomping on showy milkweed, Asclepias speciosa, in a Vacavile garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Gotta Love Those Monarch 'Cats

November 2, 2023

Did you celebrate National Cat Day on Oct. 29? We haven't had a cat since our 16-year-old tuxedo, Xena the Warrior Princess crossed the Rainbow Bridge in March of 2016. She sported a butterflylike marking on her left leg. Monarch butterflies fascinated her.

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A female monarch butterfly sipping nectar from a tropical milkweed on Wednesday, Nov. 1 in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Monarchs on the Move: A Migration and a Bohart Museum Open House

November 1, 2023

It's Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 1 and a female monarch butterfly flutters into our Vacaville pollinator garden. Me: "Welcome Ms. Monarch! Aren't you a little late for the migration?" Ms. Monarch: "No, I'm just a late bloomer,. so to speak.

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UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey (center), director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, thanks UC Davis biology lab manager and UC Davis alumna Ivana Li (far left), who catered the party. Also pictured (from left) Professor Fran Keller of Folsom Lake College, postdoctoral researcher Severyn Korneyev and his wife, artist Kristina Kernytska, UC Davis alumna Brittany Kohler and Tabatha Yang, Bohart education and outreach coordinator. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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No Predation at Bohart Museum of Entomology's Pre-Halloween Party

October 31, 2023

If you attended the Bohart Museum of Entomology's private party, hosted by the Bohart Museum Society for its members and friends, you witnessed a praying mantis, a dragonfly, a honeybee, a monarch butterfly and a horse fly all getting along fabulously.

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Two female praying mantes, Stagmomantis limbata, encounter one another on a potted plant in Vacaville. (Cell phone image by Mike Castro)

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'This Hanging Pot Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us!'

October 30, 2023

"This hanging potted plant ain't big enough for both of us!" That's what a female praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, seemed to be warning when she encountered another female on "her" hanging potted plant. So, how do you beat the competition? You defeat 'em and then you eat 'em.

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

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A Treat for the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day

October 27, 2023

Trick or treat? Treat, please, says this jumping spider. It's time to jump in to help the 13th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day crowdunding project. It's a Super Science Day to be held Saturday, Feb. 10 on the UC Davis campus. It's a free and family friendly event.

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