Bug Squad

Bumble bee on bull thistle at Bodega Bay
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Wei Xu, of chemical ecologist Walter Leal's lab, gets drenched. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Friday Lite: Bruce's Big Balloon Battle at Briggs

August 22nd, 2008
Friday lite. That's what it was. But it was more than that, too. Every year, Bruce Hammock, distinguished professor of entomology at UC Davis, wages a water balloon battle for faculty, researchers, graduate students, staff, family and friends.
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We found this dazzling butterfly last weekend in the Berkeley marina parking lot. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Beauty Isn't Skin Deep

August 21st, 2008
Beauty isn't skin deep. It's wing deep. The Anise Swallowtail butterfly dazzles you with its yellow stripes and blue dots. If it were a painting, it would be a Michelangelo. If it were music, it would be Vivaldi's "Spring." If it were a car, it would be a sleek Lamborghini.
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Hillary Thomas is studying the saltcedar beetle (Diorhabda elongata): a good bug on a bad weed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Good Bug, Bad Weed

August 20th, 2008
Hillary Thomas' biological control research on a leaf-eating beetle that targets saltcedar has scored a bullseye. Thomas, a doctoral candidate in entomology at UC Davis, has received a $15,000 Robert and Peggy van den Bosch Memorial Scholarship to support her research.
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Svastra obliqua expurgata (Cockerell) leaves the flower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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Carrying a Lot of 'Baggage'

August 19th, 2008
If she were boarding an airline, she'd be charged double for baggage. But she didn't and she wasn't. She's a pollen-packed sunflower bee enjoying our sunflower. Not a honey bee but a sunflower bee. A native bee.
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Culex quinquefasciatus, the Southern house mosquito, finishes feeding on non-DEET treated skin. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
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The Secret's Out

August 18th, 2008
We know it works, but how? Just how does DEET work? Does it jam the senses of a mosquito? Does it mask the smell of the host? You spray the chemical repellent on your arm and thankfully, those darn skeeters leave you alone.
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