Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Aedes aeypti, also known as the dengue mosquito. (CDC Photo)
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Fighting Dengue

January 4, 2013
The dengue research news coming out of medical entomologist Thomas Scott's lab at the University of California, Davis, is certainly exciting. And compelling.
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Pollination ecologist Neal Williams of UC Davis with native bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Importance of Pollinators

January 3, 2013
It's a brief appearance but the message is important. Pollination ecologist Neal Williams, assistant professor of entomology at UC Davis, appears briefly in a segment on native pollinators produced by America's Heartland. The show is now airing throughout the country.
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A queen black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, heading for manzanita blossoms. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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A New Year and a First Bumble Bee

January 2, 2013
What an unexpected find! It was the first day of 2013 and what did we see: a queen bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, aka black-tailed bumble bee. Like scores of others, we decided to take a walk on Jan. 1 in the Benicia State Recreation Area.
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Close-up of cabbage white butterfly in mid-2012. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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He Nabbed It on New Year's Day

January 1, 2013
Art Shapiro knows where to find the cabbage white butterflies (Pieris rapae). No sooner had he announced his annual "Beer-for-a-Butterfly" Contest, then he found one. Actually, two.
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beecopy 3692
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Bye, Bye 2012

December 31, 2012
The last honey bee of 2012. Despite the cold weather at Bodega Bay last Friday, we managed to see a few honey bees nectaring a New Zealand tea tree, aka Leptospermum scoparium.
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