Bug Blog
Down on the Farm...
Down on the farm...the Loma Vista Farm.... When the Loma Vista Farm--part of the Vallejo City Unified School District--recently hosted its annual Spring Festival, scores of folks came to see the...
A farmer's hand and a very beneficial insect, the lady beetle, aka ladybug. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A beneficial insect, the lady beetle (far left), and a pest, the spotted cucumber beetle, share a leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, forages on a butterfly bush at the Loma Vista Farm, Vallejo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A colony of yellow-faced bumble bees, Bombus vosnesenskii, works throughout the Loma Vista Farm's Spring Festival. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The caterpillar of an anise swallowtail, Papilio zelicaon, munches on fennel or anise, the host plant. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What's That Bug?
It's exciting, entertaining and educational to watch the Entomological Society of America's Linnaean Games. Teams of graduate or undergraduate students challenge one another in a college bowl-like...
The championship Linnaean Team, Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America: (from left) Jéssica Gillung, Brendon Boudinot, and Ralph Washington Jr. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Linnaean Games question asked of the UC Davis team: What caste of honey bee has the greatest number of ommatidia? The answer is the drone, the male honey bee. Ommatidia are the subunits of a compound eye. This photo shows a worker bee or female (left) and a drone (right). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
'The Astonishing Ant Man' Jack Longino to Speak at UC Davis
John "Jack" Longino knows his ants. "We share the planet with millions of species, and many of them are insects," says Longino, professor and associate chair of biology at the University...
A side view of the new ant species Eurhopalothrix zipacna that Jack Longino discovered in Central America. (Photo by Jack Longino)
Wasp Love!
"Wasp love." You don't hear those two words often, but you'll hear them often from Amy Toth, who's hoping that the hashtag, #wasplove, will draw attention to the wonderful world of wasps. Toth,...
A European paper wasp, Polistes dominula, foraging for food. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of a European paper wasp. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Amy Toth with a favorite wasp. (Photo courtesy of Iowa State University)
The Wonderful World of Bugs
Forget about “fun and games.” Think “fun and names.” The open house at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, last Sunday...
UC Davis entomology graduate student Jéssica Gillung engages Griffin Shepherd, 7, of Winters, as she talks about a rose-haired tarantula. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Martin Hauser, senior insect biosystematist, California Department of Food and Agriculture, introduces Lucy Anderson, 9 of Davis to a walking stick. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Natasha Pineiro and Lucy and Liam Anderson, all of Davis, check out a display. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Griffin Shepherd, 7, and his sister, Savannah, 10, of Winters examine some of the specimen drawers. In the background is entomologist and Bohart Museum associate Jeff Smith talking to Alanna Vorous of Sacramento. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)