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 honey bee foraging in a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Here's to Celebrating National Honey Bee Day

August 18, 2023

Hear that buzz? National Honey Bee Day is Saturday, Aug. 19 and you're invited to join this oh-so-sweet celebration! Launched in 2009, National Honey Bee Day takes place on the third Saturday of August. The event originated when a small group of beekeepers petitioned the U.S.

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A stilt bug descending an evening primrose. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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The Stilt Walkers

August 17, 2023

They look as if they belong in a circus or in a cartoon. Long dangly legs, elongated body, and long, four-segmented antennae topped with a small club. But there they were, stilt bugs, foraging on evening primrose at dawn in our "living laboratory"--a pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif.

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UC Davis alumna Nazzy Pakpour, who holds a doctorate microbiology, virology and parasitology from the University of Pennsylvania, reads from her children's book, "Please Don't Bite Me," at a recent Bohart Museum of Entomology open house. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Teach 'em When They're Young

August 16, 2023

Nazzy Pakpour has a way with kids. At a recent Bohart Museum of Entomology open house, she read passages from her newly published children's book, Please Don't Bite Me: Insects that Buzz, Bite and Sting, and then encouraged questions.

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UC Davis alumna Emily Bzdyk with the 15-million-year-old fossil skull of a dolphin she found at Chesapeake Bay, Calvert County, Maryland

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Emily Bzdyk: Entomologist, Biologist, Paleontologist

August 15, 2023

It's not every day you find a 15-million-year-old skull of a dolphin. Leave it to an eagle-eyed entomologist accustomed to searching for elusive bees to find it. Emily Bzdyk, who holds a master's degree in entomology from UC Davis, is making national headlines, but not about insects this time.

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A predator, a praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbatalimbata, waiting for prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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Three Key Dates to Add to Your Calendar

August 14, 2023

The Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, has announced the themes of its fall open houses: Sunday, Aug. 27: Praying Mantises Saturday, Sept. 23: Household Vampires Saturday, Nov. 4: Monarchs The open houses, free and family friendly, take place from 1 to 4 p.m.

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