Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
Primary Image
Santa greets a monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. This one is a male. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Chrysalis

December 24th, 2021
It's beginning to look a lot like...chrysalis. It didn't "look at all like chrysalis" this year in our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif. We spotted only one monarch--repeat, only one monarch--and it fluttered around and finally oviposited on our milkweed. The eggs vanished.
View Article
Primary Image
A beewolf photographed by Gwen Erdosh, aka Gwentomologit, and posted on her Instagram account.
Article

The Amazing World of 'Gwentomologist' Gwen Erdosh

December 23rd, 2021
"It's wasp time! This is a beewolf! Have you ever heard of beewolves? Well, neither had I until I discovered a bunch of them nectaring on Queen Anne's Lace flowers near my apartment complex! Have you noticed a pattern in the insects I post? A lot of them prey on bees.
View Article
Primary Image
In this award-winning image, a cuckoo bee, Nomada sp.(left), and an Anthophora bee share honey on a twig. The work of Ian Wright, it was selected as a September (inset) image in the ESA's World of Insects calendar. (Copyrighted Photo by Ian Wright)
Article

Image by UC Davis Alumnus Ian Wright Appears in ESA World Calendar

December 22nd, 2021
The 2022 Entomological Society of America's World of Insects Calendar is filled with amazing images and one of them is by UC Davis alumnus Ian Wright of Riverside, a field biologist and research specialist with the UC Riverside Department of Entomology. His work shows a cuckoo bee (Nomada sp.
View Article
Primary Image
A queen bee and worker bees. "On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 12 deathwatch beetles drumming, 11 queen bees piping, 10 locusts leaping, 9 mayflies dancing, 8 ants a'milking aphids, 7 boatmen swimming, 6 lice a'laying, 5 golden bees, 4 calling cicadas, 3 French flies, 2 tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Article

The 13 Bugs of Christmas, Revisited

December 21st, 2021
It's time to revisit the "Thirteen Bugs of Christmas!" Back in 2010, Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen (now emeritus) and yours truly of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology decided that "The 12 Days of Christmas" ought to be replaced with insects.
View Article