Salk Institute plant molecular biologist and assistant professor Lena Müeller of the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, La Jolla, will speak on "Control of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Symbiosis by Peptide Hormones" at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar on Wednesday, Feb. 11.

Her seminar is at 12:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall and also will be on Zoom at https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.

A lepidopterist and a herpetologist walk into a bar. 

 A cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, goes, too.

That's exactly what happened on Wednesday, Feb. 4, when the co-winners of the 2026 Beer-for-a-Butterfly Contest celebrated with beer and conversation at a Davis bar.

The UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program is sponsoring a series of five hands-on screen-printing workshops taught by celebrated artist, muralist, printmaker and activist Jos Sances of Berkeley.

Sances, an internationally renowned artist, will teach the screen-printing workshops from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Feb. 28, March 1, March 7-8 and March 15 in the Labudio,  located in Rooms 126-142 of the Environmental Horticulture Building, UC Davis campus. (The word, "Labudio," is coined from laboratory and studio.)

UC Davis doctoral alumna Cindy Kron, North Coast Area Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Advisor, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR), will present a Feb. 4th seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology  on "Adventures of the North Coast Extension Entomologist."

Kron's seminar is at 12:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall and also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.

Entomologists in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and alumni are newly announced recipients of three major awards from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA).

Medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, associate professor, won the Distinguished Teaching Award. He now will be considered for the national award, sponsored by the Entomological Society of America (ESA).  

Professor Lark Coffey, a virologist in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, will speak on "Reemerging St. Louis Encephalitis Virus in the Western United States and Fitness Dynamics in California Culex" at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar on Wednesday, Jan. 28.

The 15th annual campuswide UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, a free and family friendly event set Saturday, Feb. 21 and encompassing 12  museums and collections,  needs financial donations.

“Anything helps,” said chair Tabatha Yang, the education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart Museum of Entomology.

Professor Louie Yang, a community ecologist in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will be the speaker at the Pacific Coast Entomological Society (PCES) meeting, set for 1 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 24 in Room 122 of Briggs Hall.

Yang, whose research encompasses monarchs and milkweed, will discuss  “Why I Study Insect Ecology in the Field."

Stacy Philpott, professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz, will speak on "Social, Local, and Landscape Drivers of Arthropod Diversity, Traits, and Networks in Urban Agroecosystems" at the next seminar hosted by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus Richard “Rick” Karban of the Department of Entomology and Nematology has studied the population dynamics of the wooly bear caterpillar at the University of California Bodega Marine Reserve for the past 40 years. 

Some years, the wooly bear caterpillars, Arctia virginalis, are everywhere; other years, they’re almost absent. Why? 

Amanda Hodson, assistant professor of soil ecology and pest management, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology,  will present a seminar on "Musings on the Subterranean Invertebrate Metropolis" at 12:10 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 14 in 122 Briggs Hall.

Her seminar also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.

Bumble bee enthusiast Lesley Hamamoto of Sacramento, a UC Davis alumna who remembers well the entomology class she took from UC Davis Distinguished Emeritus Professor Robbin Thorp in 1998, is the winner of the 2026 Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest, sponsored by the Bohart Museum of Entomology.

(Editor's Note: A celebration of life will take place Oct. 10, 2026, in California Hall, UC Davis campus. Among the speakers will be Chancellor Gary May. Pre-registration is underway at https://forms.gle/ST3ghkt15oUwewxD9)

Doctoral candidate Mia Lippey, an entomologist and ecologist who focuses on using "big data" to understand how global change affects agricultural arthropod communities, will present her exit seminar at  12:10 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 7 in 122 Briggs Hall.

Suds for a bug? A bug for some suds?

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 first person to collect the first live cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, of the year in the three-county area of Sacramento, Yolo and Solano--and is declared the winner---will receive a pitcher of beer or its equivalent.