Spiders of the genus Steatoda, known as false black widows, have a resemblance to the black widow but are less harmful. However, around the world, there has been an increase of reports that this "less harmful" genus has been causing quite a debilitating bite. Heightened public concern has researchers, like grad student Mariom Adriana Carvajal (Shultz Lab), revisiting this genus. Mariom has been studying 1 of the 7 species found in Chile, taking a second look at its characteristics and its distribution. Today, Mariom and collegues published some of that work in Revista Chilena de Entomología, entitled, “A new record of Steatoda porteri in Chile.” Their findings show that although Steatoda porteri has extended its range, it remains outside urban areas for now. ​

Sorry DMV residents, mosquitoes are predicted to follow us well into the fall season. University of Maryland Prof Emeritus Mike Raupp shares why with the Washington Post.

Quote: Because they’re coldblooded, insect development is very closely tied to ambient temperature, so the warmer it is, the faster they develop,” Raupp said. “Our mosquitoes can have multiple generations every year. So as we move into a warming world — because it gets warm earlier, it stays warm later and it’s generally hotter — we simply have more generations of these mosquitoes every single year.

link to article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/25/mosquito-season-washington/

Congratulations to Dr. Margaret Palmer for being awarded Honorary Membership at the British Ecological Society. This award recognizes Margaret's exceptional contribution at the international level to the generation, communication and promotion of ecological knowledge and solutions. See BES's press release here>>  

The bold beautiful colors of a 1 inch long adult spotted lanternfly are pretty hard to miss. Their striking attributes allow for researchers to make many experimental observations about the insects, including discoveries about their feeding preferences as adults. However, at the earliest instars the spotted lanternflies are smaller and muted in color making feeding preferences much more difficult for researchers to track by observation alone. To overcome the difficulties of the observational approach, the Lamp Lab turns to DNA metabarcoding to get more insights about their diet. The results of their study were published earlier this summer in a special issue of Insects.
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Focusing exclusively on the first nymphal instars, the Lamp Lab used a novel approach, utilizing “bulk” DNA extracts for DNA metabarcoding of nymphal gut contents, to identify plants that the nymphs had ingested prior to being collected. Through this novel approach they were able to identify 13 novel host plants that have not been previously included in host plant lists for spotted lanternfly in the U.S. The Lamp Lab is hopeful that discoveries like these, on the diet of the spotted lanternfly across development stages, will lead to better management of this invasive species.

Share your colleagues work with your networks on facebook, twitter, the car ride with your friends who are always asking you about bugs b/c you work in Entomology.

Metarhizium is a common fungus that is found in soil and widely used in insect pest control today. It is known for its ability to kill a wide range of insects, protect surrounding plants and provide plants with much sought after nitrogen. St. Leger Lab has a new paper out in Current Opinion in Microbiology that looks into the current research on this fungi and its–plant–insect interactions. Although experimentation has led to detailed knowledge of how this fungus interacts with plants and insects, most of these studies have focused on highly controlled interactions between single species in the lab, leading to a knowledge gap when it comes to understanding Metarhizium plant–insect interactions in natural communities. The authors hope an increase in Metarhizium studies on natural ecosystems will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of this fungi’s plant protection ability.

Before concluding a shout out is needed. Congrats to Huiyu Sheng, this is her 1st first-authored paper, and to Raymond St. Leger her proud UMD mentor.
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Please share news with friends, colleagues & that one fungi you met while at your last conference: facebook and twitte

In honor of #NationalPollinatorMonth the U.S. Department of Agriculture highlights the amazing work of an incredible person, Dr. Anahi Espindola, Asst Prof at the University of Maryland. Anahi shares details on current NIFA projects, provides sage advice to up and comers & promotes DEI.

Read article her: https://go.umd.edu/cTJ

Share news about your awesome colleague with your friends and fam on facebook and twitter and whatever other platforms you use. 

writen by: Demian A. Nuñez and Darsy Smith 

​The end of the semester is here! For the last weekly seminar series, the Entomology Department welcomed Dr. Jason Rasgon to speak about his research and experience with new molecular tools for gene editing in arthropods. Dr. Rasgon completed his Ph.D. at the Entomology Department of the University of California, Davis. There he had the opportunity to conduct research on Wolbachia infection dynamics, a naturally occurring bacteria that lives within several insect taxa and is passed from one generation to the next through their eggs. Since early in his career, he has successfully answered research questions in various systems, which has given him the experience to lead projects across a wide range of biology-subdisciplines. Currently, he is a professor of Entomology and Disease Epidemiology at Pennsylvania State University, where he integrates population biology, ecology, molecular tools, and theory to answer both fundamental and applied questions in genetics. The main goal of Dr. Rasgon’s lab is the development of new methods that can be used to introduce transgenes into natural disease vector populations.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Karen Rane, Director of UMD’s Plant Diagnostic Lab, for being named recipient of the National Plant Diagnostic Network’s (NPDN) Lifetime Achievement Award.

Quote from NPDN announcement:
“Since the beginning, NPDN has benefited from Rane’s practical experience and advice, whether it was in developing training tools, setting priorities or mentoring new diagnosticians.”

Read the networks full press release here: https://www.nifa.usda.gov/about-nifa/blogs/national-plant-diagnostic-network-recognizes-outstanding-service-lifetim

written by: Mintong Nan and Lindsay Barranco
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​Let’s face it. Graduate school can be a wonderful experience, but there are stressors aplenty - from financial worry to time management, coping with expectations of yourself and others, all in a field of scientific research - where the nature of the work involves a high degree of uncertainty and uncharted territory1, 2. These cumulative pressures can all lead to a great deal of stress for the graduate student, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, skilled and caring professionals like Ms. Simone Warrick-Bell are there if needed. Ms. Warrick-Bell has been a graduate student academic counselor for the University of Maryland (UMD) Graduate School since early 2020, and prior to 2020 she was a care manager with the UMD counseling center. She holds a Master’s in Counseling Psychology and is a licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. Her works include individual consultation sessions and leading graduate student circle sessions, which were created solely to support UMD graduate students. The entomology department was happy to welcome Ms. Warrick-Bell to our Friday seminar series and to hear more about the services she provides through the Graduate School.

written by: Ebony Argaez and Minh Le
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The natural world is teeming with gorgeous and awe-inspiring biological structures, patterns, and colors that cannot be described via mere words alone. During the digital age, accurate and realistic imagery of these specimens can be obtained through the lens of a camera. However, the camera can only capture what is, not what could have been. Exquisite imagery requires the gentle and imaginative hand of an artist like Taina R. Litwak a scientific illustrator with the US Department of Agriculture’s Systematic Entomology Lab and the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History who joins this week’s entomology colloquium at the University of Maryland to talk about entomological art in the digital age. ​

written by: Eric Hartel

​Combining different schools of thought or discipline can lead to more meaningful discovery and understanding. The work of Dr. Chris Hamilton addresses this by studying Aphonopelma, a group of tarantulas that are found in the incredible and unique biome of sky islands in the southwestern United States and Mexico. This group of tarantulas are important as a marker for understanding the region, and hold a place of cultural significance in the San Carlos Apache creation story. What is a sky island you ask? They are made of mountain ranges that are surrounded by desert valleys. These mountains create interesting temperature and humidity gradients that play host to various stratified environments. These environments are similar to ocean islands because the deserts take the role of the impassable ocean, isolating organisms to specific islands if they can not cross the desert. The tarantulas in this area have no way to cross the large deserts and are partitioned into their niches across this area. The speciation and diversity of these tarantulas can shed light on the geologic history, evolution, and current state of this understudied diversity hot spot.