Gwen Erdosh at night holding a small brown snake, wearing a headlamp — UC Davis alumna Gwen Erdosh, author of an Instagram account, @Gwentomologist, with 204,000 followers, is shown here in Brazil with a blunt-headed tree snake, Imantodes cenchoa. Now a graduate student in entomology, she is teaching an Online Entomology Course (OEC) and accepting enrollees. Erdosh received her entomology degree in 2023 from UC Davis, where she was a scholar in the campuswide Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology and a member of the Louie Yang lab. (Photo by Dustin Kurtz)

UC Davis Alumna Gwen Erdosh Launches 'Online Entomology Course'

Her Instagram Account Draws 204,000 Followers

by Kathy Keatley Garvey
September 11, 2026

This graphic shows entomologist Gwen Erdosh with a net. (Graphic courtesy of Gwen Erdosh) — Graphic of entomologist Gwen Erdosh with a butterfly in her net. (Graphic by Allen Chew and Gwen Erdosh)

UC Davis alumna Gwendolyn "Gwen" Erdosh, a globe-traveling entomologist, researcher, photographer and graduate student who shares her passion and knowledge of entomology with 204,000 followers on her Instagram account, @Gwentomologist, is now teaching a global 10-week course, "Online Entomology Course (OEC)."

“After the success of the online entomology course this summer, I am teaching it again,” Erdosh writes on her Instagram account. “Enrollment is open so you can still sign up! Everything is recorded and you can go at your own pace.”

To date, the popular, interactive course has drawn more than 300 enrollees.

“There’s no deadline to enroll since everything is recorded,” Erdosh said. “I will also have another one starting early January.”

Engaging, Educational and Entertaining

Her course is engaging, educational and entertaining. “Do you want to learn about the study of insects and become a bug expert?" she asks. "Online beginners’ entomology course. Fun quizzes and optional assignments. Open to anyone!”

This is a rare grasshopper, a male Chaparral Shieldback, Cyrtophyllicus chlorum, that Gwen Erdosh found and photographed in Winters. She posted this on her Instagram account.

In her second lecture, “Identification and Taxonomy,” she asks “Which is the most diverse group of insects?

flies
butterflies
beetles
wasps

Her students chose beetles. “Oh, my goodness. You guys are too smart.. Wow, great job!”

Erdosh went on to explain taxonomy, the classification of living things. “What’s the lowest taxonomic level we share with insects? Answer is kingdom.”

She assigned them to make flash cards of the 28 orders of insects (but all assignments are optional.)

Entomology course graphic with insect photos, monarch diagram, and Hymenoptera chart — Collage of some of the slides in Gwen Erdosh's second lecture, "Identification and Taxonomy."

Erdosh delivers her weekly lectures live on Zoom on Mondays and Saturdays: Monday at 3 p.m., and Saturday at 9 a.m., Pacific Standard Time. “All lectures are recorded and accessible," she says. "Different topics each week, fun quizzes and Kahoot contests, iNaturalist challenges, and optional assignments." The cost of the 10-week course? $42.50.

A Life-Changing Experience

“Teaching this course has truly been a life-changing experience for me,” said Erdosh. Her current research involves describing several treehopper species, genus Heteronotus. A scientific paper is pending.

Since launching her popular Instagram account in 2014, it has become one of the world’s most-followed, entomology-focused social media accounts. She is known for creating accessible, scientifically accurate content that promotes public interest in insects and natural history.

Erdosh has also:

Led research teams at Manu Biostation in the Peruvian Amazon,
Led successful eco-tourism insect tours in Brazil and Costa Rica,
Served as an Arizona state park ranger for the summer at Tonto Natural Bridge State Park

Her resume reads: "Field biologist and entomologist with hands-on research experience spanning tropical rainforests, North American deserts, and academic laboratory settings. Skilled in insect collection, specimen preparation, and taxonomic identification across multiple orders. Demonstrated ability to design and execute independent research projects, contribute to peer-reviewed publications, and thrive in remote field environments with multilingual teams. Fluent in Spanish. Brings additional reach as one of the world’s most-followed entomology communicators."

Plans to Obtain Doctorate

Erdosh, who received her bachelor’s degree in entomology from UC Davis in 2023, anticipates receiving her master’s degree in entomology next year, and then obtaining her doctorate. “I want to study taxonomy and phylogeny,” she said.

At UC Davis, Erdosh was selected a scholar in the campuswide Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology (RSPIB), and worked as an undergraduate researcher in the lab of community ecologist and professor Louie Yang, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

Erdosh served as president of the UC Davis Entomology Club; won a Provost's Undergraduate Fellowship research award; and received the inaugural Dr. Stephen Garczynski Undergraduate Research Scholarship from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America, which covers 11 Western states, U.S. territories and parts of Canada and Mexico.

At UC Davis, she also volunteered at the Bohart Museum of Entomology and served a year as an undergraduate researcher in the lab of Professor Jason Bond, where she designed an independent project characterizing the mating behaviors of the California tarantula.

In the Yang Lab

As an RSPIB scholar in the Yang lab, Erdosh

Independently designed and executed the experiment “Effects of Wildfire Smoke on Drosophila melanogaster Olfaction,” contributing to data collection and R-based statistical analysis.
Co-authored a peer-reviewed publication in Ecology (2025) examining how day- and night-warming affect caterpillar growth, survivorship, and behavior in the field.
Assisted graduate student research in ecology and entomology, including host plant phenology surveys, insect culture rearing, and trap-nest sample analysis.
Contributed to grant writing and research proposal development.

"I actually first met Gwen when she was still in high school (she is a 2018 graduate of Los Gatos High School, Santa Clara County),” Professor Yang said in an earlier interview. “She was doing a research project with monarch butterflies and emailed me with a few questions. Even then, I was impressed with her knowledge, focus and determination, and was glad to hear when she came to UC Davis. She applied to the Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology early on, and was a stand-out student in my ENT 105 Insect Ecology class in 2020. It has been great to have Gwen in our lab, and to see her continuing to develop as a scientist.”

Two smiling scientists beside a blue glass insect sculpture with orange antennae. — Gwen Erdosh with Bohart Museum of Entomology associate Greg Kareofelas at an open house. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Gwen traces her interest in entomology to her childhood, when she began collecting caterpillars.

“Ever since I can remember, I have always loved caterpillars,” Gwen said. “As a little kid, I would collect any caterpillar I saw and raise it to adulthood.” Amazed that a caterpillar could "magically change” into a moth or butterfly, she decided “to make a book matching every caterpillar to its adult. I did my own research online and in books I had, and soon was quite knowledgeable about Lepidoptera."

Young woman in lush green rainforest holding a white insect net, smiling. — Gwen Erdosh, photographed in Peru where she was living and working at the Manu Bio Station.

Bio Boot Camp

"The summer before 9th grade, I attended Bio Boot Camp, the summer camp for kids led by the Bohart Museum and Tabatha Yang (education and outreach coordinator)," Gwen related. “This was the experience that led me to choose entomology as a career. During this camp, I learned everything about entomology and had a chance to meet real entomologists at UC Davis, and do field work. I fell in love with it and kept coming back each summer for the camp.”

At age 16, she served an entomology internship at Cornell University, where her work included identifying microlepidoptra in the family Tortricidae; sampling monarch butterflies for Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) spores; catching and tagging the gray petaltail dragonfly (Petalurid) at a local state park; and collecting, identifying and presenting moths for a Moth Night program at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History.

At age 17, Gwen gained experience at a five-week internship in the summer of 2018 at the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens in Costa Rica, where she studied insects, conducted tours, and cared for the arthropods in the insectarium.

Gwen Erdosh, with a Harlequin beetle, one of her favorite beetle species. This image was taken in Peru.

"Gwen is one of those students who instantly shows you her enthusiasm and enjoyment of entomology and it is just this kind of person who we hope will continue in this important field of science," said entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Bohart Museum's Lepidoptera collection. "For those of us looking ahead at the oncoming 'golden years' we need to ensure that there will be competent young scientists who will continue the research and who will discover so many more fascinating things about the world of ‘bugs.' Gwen clearly will be one of these, and I am proud to be associated with her.”

To register for her "Online Entomology Course (OEC)" course, access her Instagram account at @Gwentomologist. For more information, she may be reached at [email protected].

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