UC Davis undergraduate students seeking information on how to write their first research publication--or to learn more about research writing in general--are invited to register for a free workshop to take place Thursday, Feb. 13 in the UC Davis Student Community Center. 

The Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, will host an open house on Saturday, Jan. 11 from 1 to 4 p.m.

The event, free and open to the public, will be a general open house. “It is simply open hours, but on the weekend, when people don’t need to wrestle with parking apps, because parking is free,” said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.

The Bohart Museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. 

Postdoctoral scholar Angie Lenard of the University of Nevada, Reno, will speak on "Insects in Human-Modified Environments" at the next UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar, set for 4:10 p.m., Monday, Jan. 13 in Room 122 Briggs Hall. Her seminar also will be on Zoom. The link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.

The long-awaited update of the landmark UC Davis-authored book, Queen Bee Rearing and Bee Breeding by Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. (1907-2003), “the father of bee genetics,”  and his former doctoral research mentee Robert E.

Mark your calendar!

The 14th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day is set for Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, announced coordinator and co-founder Tabatha Yang, public education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum of Entomology. 

The 58 students in a fall quarter UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology class, ENT 010, not only learned “The Natural History of Insects” but they learned how to produce  “infomercials,” spotlighting such insects as honey bees,  stingless bees, fungus-growing ants, jewel wasps and blow flies.

The infomercials also include insect migration, insect sociality, and entomophagy (consumption of insects). They range in duration from two-to-five-minutes.

Microbial ecologist Danielle Rutkowski has just received a Royal Entomological Society Early Career Entomology Award, “Highly Commended,” for her research piece, “Bee-Associated Fungi Mediate Effects of Fungicides on Bumble Bees,” published in Ecological Entomology in February 2022.  

When UC Davis professor and agricultural entomologist Christian Nansen gives assignments to his students, he expects them to be thoughtful, insightful and creative.  Sometimes they submit written reports, sometimes videos, but one student recently took an assignment to a whole new level.

She wrote, rapped and produced a video that awed her professor, her classmates and her friends.

Research plant pathologist Inga Zasada of the USDA-ARS Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory, Corvallis, Ore., will speak on "How an Applied Nematologist Uses Genomic Tools to Address Plant-Parasitic Nematode Research" at a Monday, Dec. 2nd seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

Doctoral candidate Mia Lippey, mentored by UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus Jay Rosenheim and assistant professor Emily Meineke, won a coveted President's Prize for her graduate student presentation at the 2024 Entomological Society of America (ESA) meeting, held recently in Phoenix. 

"Nematodes as Bioindicators of Soil Health and Climate Resiliency."

That's the title of the next UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar, to be presented Monday, Nov. 25 by Christine Sprunger, associate professor of soil science at Michigan State University (MSU).

André Custodio Franco, assistant professor, Indiana University, Bloomington, will speak on "Deciphering the Soil Macrobiome: Belowground Communities Driving Ecosystem Responses to Global Change" at the next UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar.

The seminar is set for 4:10 p.m., Monday, Nov. 18 in Room 122 of Briggs Hall. 

Eleven members of the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA), UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (ENT), will present their research at the Entomological Society of America meeting,  set for Nov. 10-13 in the Phoenix Convention Center (PCC). The theme: "Empowering Tomorrow with Insect Science."

EGSA members delivering presentations include:

Eliza Litsey, a former graduate student in the honey bee lab of Elina Lastro Niño, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (ENT),  will present her exit seminar on "Investigating a Novel Queen Honey Bee Treatment" on Monday, Nov. 4.

Dragonflies and spiders!

The Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on Saturday, Nov. 2 will feature talks by UC Davis doctoral candidates Christofer Brothers, a dragonfly specialist, and Emma “Em” Jochim, a spider specialist.

The event, free and family friendly and the last open house of the year, takes place from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. Parking is also free.