Bug Blog
Global Burden of Dengue
Don't ever underestimate the threat of dengue. The mosquito-borne viral disease known as “breakbone fever,” is three times more prevalent than originally thought, according to...
Professor Thomas Scott, a worldwide expert on dengue, is pictured in Kenya.
Global dengue risk. Areas in red indicate high risk for dengue occurrence while green areas indicate low risk. (Map courtesy of Jane Messina)
The Scholar and the Walnut Twig Beetle
Most people have never seen the walnut twig beetle, a tiny insect that spreads a fungal pathogen that kills walnut trees. No wonder. The insect, measuring about 1.5 millimeters long, is much...
Kristina Tatiossian and the ceramic mosaic of a walnut twig beetle. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The poster that Kristina Tatiossian created. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Targeting Insect-Host Plant Research
It's exciting to see a promising career unfold. We first met UC Davis graduate student Alex Van Dam in 2010 when he received a $12,000 award from the University of California Institute for Mexico...
Alex Van Dam, photographed next to a giant cactus.
Exciting News from the Hammock Lab
We applaud the groundbreaking news this week from the Bruce Hammock laboratory at the University of California, Davis. In research led by postdoctoral researcher Zuodong Zhang, a...
UC Davis postdoctoral researcher Zuodong Zhang. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Aphid Reunion
The aphids know how to plan a family reunion. Grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, mom and pop, brothers and sisters, cousins and more cousins--they're all gathering to feed on the lush growth of...
Aphid reunion on a rose. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of aphids. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A gorged ladybug has just polished off a row of aphids. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)