Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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A Piñata That Only Entomologists Could Love

October 31st, 2017
Have you ever hit a piata? Hit it and smashed it to smithereens? It was probably a Fiesta-ish piata--maybe a colorful unicorn, donkey, or pony, right? Bet it wasn't a fly. And bet it wasn't a fly from the genus Acrocera and family Acroceridae.
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Not a Good Time to Be a Monarch Caterpillar

October 30th, 2017
Migrating monarchs are fluttering daily into our yard in Vacaville, Calif., one by one, two by two, three by three, and four by four, for a little flight fuel. They're sipping nectar from the Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia, and tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica.
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If You're Addicted to Insect Images...

October 27th, 2017
If you're addicted to insects or insect photography, you'll want to see the international award-winning images on the Insect Salon website. Each year the Peoria (Ill.) Camera Club hosts the contest in conjunction with the Entomological Society of America (ESA).
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Happy National Squash Bee Day!

October 26th, 2017
In case you missed it, today was National Pumpkin Day. But it ought to be National Squash Bee Day, because the squash bee (my favorite species is Peponapis pruinosa) is an important pollinator of squash and pumpkins. A little bit about the squash bees: Squash bees are specialists; not generalists.
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Jackson Audley: A Case Study with the Walnut Twig Beetle

October 25th, 2017
So tiny and so destructive. It's about the size of a grain of rice but it's a killer. That's the walnut twig beetle, Pityophthorus juglandis, which in association with a newly described fungus, Geosmithia morbida, causes thousand cankers disease, wreaking havoc on native black walnut trees.
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