Entomological ABCs: Ants, Bees and Caterpillars

Urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is coordinating the department's seminars for the 2022-23 academic year and she's just announced the speakers for the spring quarter. 

Want to learn about ants? Check. Bees? Check. Caterpillars? Check. And more? Check.

The spring seminars begin Wednesday, April 5 and will continue on Wednesdays through June 7. All in-person seminars will be in Room 122 of Briggs Hall, starting at 4:10 p.m.  The seminars also will be virtual. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672

Here's what's on tap:

Wednesday, April 5
Terry McGlynn
Professor, California State University, Dominguez Hills
Title: “Lessons About Thermal Ecology from Rainforest Ants”

Wednesday, April 12
Christopher Mayack
Research entomologist, USDA-ARS 
Title: “Chemical Biomarkers and the Physiological Underpinning of Honey Bee Health Decline” 

Wednesday, April 19
No seminar

Wednesday, April 26 (Zoom only) 
Sam Jaffe 
Founder and director of The Caterpillar Lab
Title: “Using Native Caterpillars, Their Ecological Connections, and Novel Outreach Tools to Showcase the Importance of Biodiversity”

Wednesday, May 3
John Hargrove 
Senior research fellow and professor emeritus of mathematical sciences
Stellenbosch University, Western Cape, South Africa
Title: “Tsetse, Trypanosomiasis and Climate Change: What Can We Learn from Field Data Collected in the Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe?” 

Wednesday, May 10 
Irene Newton
Professor of biology, Indiana University, Bloomington
Title: “Friends with Benefits: Protective Microbial Symbioses in the Honey Bee”

Wednesday, May 17 (Zoom only)
Paulo Vieira 
Molecular biologist USDA-ARS
Title: “Beech Leaf Disease: an Emergent Threat to Beech Forest Ecosystems in North America” 

Wednesday, May 24
Katie Thompson-Peer 
Assistant professor, School of Biological Sciences, UC Irvine
Title: “Cellular Mechanisms of Dendrite Regeneration after Neuron Injury”

Wednesday, May 31
No seminar

Wednesday, June 7
Jill Oberski 
Doctoral candidate, Phil Ward lab, UC Davis
Exit seminar: “Phylogenetics and Biogeography of the Pyramid Ants”

For more information, including any technical issues with Zoom, Meineke may be reached at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu.