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.

UC Davis doctoral alumnus and Cornell University emeritus professor Michael Hoffmann, a noted entomologist and climate change educator, warned of the worldwide disastrous effects of climate change when he delivered the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Award Seminar recently in the Putah Creek Lodge.

“The goal of climate change now is simply, let’s not make it worse,” he said. “Our goal is to stabilize it…we need to confront climate change, meet it head on…. As they say, there's no Planet B.”

Entomologist-artist Allen Chew, an associate with the Bohart Museum of Entomology outdid himself with his kraken sculpture of an octopus.

It’s made of cicada molts collected last spring from emergences in the midwest and southeast regions of the United States.

Specifically, they're from Broods XIII and XIX, which are two of the 15 broods of periodical cicadas, Magicicada spp.