The 58 students in a fall quarter UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology class, ENT 010, not only learned “The Natural History of Insects” but they learned how to produce  “infomercials,” spotlighting such insects as honey bees,  stingless bees, fungus-growing ants, jewel wasps and blow flies.

The infomercials also include insect migration, insect sociality, and entomophagy (consumption of insects). They range in duration from two-to-five-minutes.

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.  

Microbes found in the immature stages of a solitary bee that nests in sand cliffs along Pacific Coast beaches may be helping the bee defend itself from pathogens and protect it from cold stress, according to newly published research led by microbiologist Shawn Christensen of the Rachel Vannette Lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

UC Davis doctoral candidate Danielle Rutkowski, who studies with community ecologists Rachel Vannette, associate professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and distinguished professor Rick Karban, will present her exit seminar on "Identity and Functions of Symbiotic Fungi Associated with Social Bees" on

UC Davis doctoral candidate Shawn Christensen, who studies ecology and evolution through a microbial lens in the laboratory of community ecologist Rachel Vannette, is the 2024 recipient of the Merton Love Ecology and Dissertation Award, an annual award that celebrates the university’s most outstanding doctoral dissertation in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology.

Community ecologist Rachel Vannette, associate professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology--and a newly selected Chancellor’s Fellow--will discuss “Bees in the Tahoe Basin: Pollination Ecology and Conservation” at a Thursday, April 25th seminar hosted by the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (UC Davis TERC).