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.

Who will find and photograph the first bumble bee of the year?

The sixth annual Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble Bee-of-the-Year Contest will begin at 12:01, Jan. 1, 2026. The first person to photograph or video a bumble bee in the two-county area of Solano and Yolo and send to the Bohart Museum of Entomology at [email protected] will win a coffee cup designed with the endangered Franklin's bumble bee, the bee that Thorp monitored on the California-Oregon border for decades.

The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology today published its 2025 "News in Review," with a message from the administration--Joanna Chiu, professor and department chair, and Rachel Vannette, professor and vice chair--and news featuring highlights of the year.

Marshall McMunn, coordinator of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminars for the 2025-26 academic year, has announced the list of speakers for the fall and spring quarters.

All seminars will take place at 12:10 p.m. on Wednesdays  in 122 Briggs Hall. They also will be on Zoom. The Zoom link: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672.

The California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP), based at UC Davis, and The HIVE Tasting Room and Kitchen in Woodland, have joined forces to present two January courses at The HIVE.

The first is The Science of Honey Tasting  from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., on Saturday, Jan. 24 and the second is The Science of Mead Tasting, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 25. The workshops celebrate bees, beekeeping, and the sensory sciences.