Bugs, Bugs & Bugs

Mar 29, 2010

andrealucky
andrealucky
If spring has sprung--and it has--it's also time to spring forward the next batch of noonhour seminars at the UC Davis Department of Entomology.

The spring lectures are held every Wednesday, March 31 through May 26, from 12:10 to 1 p.m., in 122 Briggs Hall, Kleiber Drive.

There you can learn about ants, butterflies, moths, scarabs, wasps, and walnut twig beetles, among other topics.

Some, but not all, of the seminars will be Webcast live (check the entomology home page each week for the status). You can also  access the archived Webcasts, dating back to Feb. 18, 2009.

Pollination ecologist Neal Williams, coordinator of the department’s spring seminars, has announced the list of speakers. Included will be doctoral candidate Andrea Lucky (above right), of the Phil Ward lab. You'll want to check out her newly created Web site on ant phylogenetics and biogeography.

The list of lecturers:

March 31: Julien Pelletier, postdoctoral scholar in the Walter Leal chemical ecology lab, speaking on “Mining the Genome for Olfactory Proteins.” Host:  Professor Walter Leal.

April 7: Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology, speaking on “An International Perspective on Sustainability in Protected Cropping Systems with an Emphasis on Biological Control.”

April 14: Dan Potter, professor of urban landscape, University of Kentucky, Lexington, speaking on “Host Location by Plant-Feeding Scarabs.” Host: Michael Parrella, professor and department chair.

April 21: Tim Coulson, professor of population biology, Imperial College, London, currently at Stanford, speaking on “The Joint Dynamics of Populations, Life Histories and Heritable Characters in Free-Living Populations.” Host: Professor James Carey.

April 28: Michal Segoli, postdoctoral scholar, Center for Population Biology,  Jay Rosenheim lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology, speaking on “Joint Parent-Offspring Control of Brood Size in a Polyembryonic Wasp.”  Host: Professor Jay Rosenheim.

May 5: To be announced

May 12: Andrea Lucky, doctoral candidate in the Phil Ward lab, speaking on (exit seminar) “Systematics, Biogeography and Conservation of Ants in Australasia and the Pacific.”  Host: Professor Phil Ward.

May 19: Steven J. Seybold, Chemical Ecology of Forest Insects, USDA Forest Service, and Department of Entomology affiliate, speaking on “Walnut Twig Beetle and Thousand Cankers Disease:  Characterizing an Emergent Threat to Forest and Agroecosystems in North America.” Host:  Mary Louise Flint, associate director, Integrated Pest Management Program.

May 26: Florian Altermatt, postdoctoral researcher, UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy, speaking on “Butterflies and Moths in Central Europe: Natural History, Climate Change and Voltinism.” Host: Professor Phil Ward.

Graduate students James Harwood and Amy Morice of the James Carey lab operate the Webcasting equipment.



By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Author - Communications specialist

Attached Images:

FIRST SPEAKER--Julien Pelletier, a postdoctoral scholar in the Walter Leal chemical ecology lab at UC Davis, is the first speaker in the UC Davis Department of Entomology spring seminar series. His topic:

Julien Pelletier