Suds for a bug?

The annual “Beer for a Butterfly” contest, launched in 1972 by butterfly guru Art Shapiro, now a UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus, gets underway Jan. 1.

The person who finds the first live  cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, of the year in the three-county area of Sacramento, Yolo and Solano, will receive a pitcher of beer or its equivalent.

What are you doing on New Year's Day?

Weather permitting, you can begin searching for the first bumble bee of the year in the two-county area of Yolo and Solano. If you photograph or video it, and you are judged the winner, a prize awaits you--in addition to bragging rights.

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.

If gift-giving decisions bug you, you’re in luck.

If friends tick you off, you’re in luck. 

If you’re ready to put a bee into the cowboy expression of “yee haw,” you’re in luck.

The UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) and the Bohart Museum of Entomology are ready to assist you with lots of gift choices.

Ticked off? The Bohart Museum gift shop has keychains with stuffed toy animals such as ticks and fruit flies.

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).

Consuming too much added sugar can increase the risk of chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, high blood pressure, and some cancers, according to scientific research.

Now newly published research shows that a key regulatory enzyme inhibitor discovered in the laboratory of UC Davis distinguished professor Bruce Hammock can alleviate inflammation linked to health issues that are caused by a high-sugar diet.

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.