The Pick Lab contributed to a new paper published on October 10th in the New England Journal of Medicine (link below), specifically to disease testing in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Contributing authors from Pick Lab: Leslie Pick (professor & Chair), Alys Jarvela (postdoc ENTM) & Bijal Kikani (Undergraduate Biological Sciences Major). The paper was covered by the New York Times.

Publication: "Effect of Genetic Diagnosis on Patients with Previously Undiagnosed Disease"

​Fall Armyworms are spreading fast across Africa, devastating crops. The U.S. Mission to the UN Agencies for Food & Agriculture is looking for ways to help control the pest. This Sept, they invited Dr. Galen Dively to share his expertise in pest management. After traveling to observe the spread of the Fall Armyworm in Malawi & Ghana, Dively shared his recommendations at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. 

Read the full USUN news release here. 

Written by: Maggie Lewis. Maggie is a second year PhD student in the Hamby lab who is currently studying the interactions between spotted wing drosophila and yeast and fungal microbes. 

In agriculture, understanding an insect’s biology is a crucial aspect for developing and improving sustainable agricultural pest management programs. Knowledge of basic aspects of an insect’s life history, including its phenology, its behavioral ecology, and its interactions with the environment, provide clues that can help growers identify and exploit that pest’s weakness. Dr. Anne Nielsen, an associate professor in the Department of Entomology at Rutgers University, is currently studying how we can use this biologically based approach to improve management of Halyomorpha halys, more commonly known as the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB).

Congratulations to Brett Kent on his latest publication, “The Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology of Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, USA”, published on Sept. 25th in Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology.

Over 100 years have passed since the last comprehensive review of fossils from Calvert Cliffs was published.  This new publication updates us on the new discoveries found among the cliffs.  Within this multi-authored volume, “Bretton W. Kent describes the cartilaginous fish fauna, consisting of 54 species—3 ratfishes, 39 sharks, and 12 skates and rays—a fauna rich in large predatory sharks and large neritic rays. In an addendum to Kent’s chapter, he and David J. Ward describe a new species of giant thresher shark with serrated teeth.”
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Read the full release here.

With West Nile numbers up, WTOP asks Professor Mike Raupp, mosquito season-when will it end?
https://wtop.com/health-fitness/2018/09/west-nile-virus-up-dramatically-mosquito-season-still-not-over/​

Written by: Lisa Kuder, PhD student, vanEngelsdorp Lab & Kelly Kulhanek, PhD student, vanEngelsdorp Lab
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Swarming, biting insects that shroud their victims in a seemingly inescapable cloud can certainly put a damper on outdoor activities. This is a common scenario in parts of the Mid-Atlantic Region situated near fast-moving rivers like the Potomac. In 2013, the public and economic impacts of biting insects moved residents from Washington County, Maryland to seek help from their state delegate and from UMD’s aquatic insect lab. The main culprit that locals tend to call “gnats” turned out to be black flies, Simulium jenningsi (Order: Diptera). In response to complaints about the nuisance fly, Becca Wilson-Ounekeo, a PhD candidate in UMD’s Entomology Department, set out to learn more about the biology, distribution, and public impact of the black fly. She soon embarked on research that would incorporate citizen-science and intensive field work. 

Written by Elizabeth Brandt. Elizabeth Brandt is a M.S. student in Dr. David Hawthorne’s lab studying the detoxification gene pathways of the honey bee.

​On an extremely wet Saturday in Annapolis, the UMD Entomology department gathered at the downtown offices of SESYNC for their annual Department Retreat. The retreat is designed for all members of the department to come together at the beginning of a new academic year to discuss the past year’s developments and accomplishments, and to synthesize a strategic plan for the coming year. Part of the retreat’s agenda includes a series of short research talks given by graduate students, postdocs, and faculty. For the 2018 retreat, the department welcomed two new faculty members, Dr. Karin Burghardt and Dr. Anahí Espíndola. Each gave a short talk about their research interests. 

UMD Scientists, Heather H. Disque, Kelly A. Hamby , Aditi Dubey , Christopher Taylor and Galen P. Dively, assessed the effects of clothianidin‐treated seed on arthropod communities. Read their findings in their recent paper, "Effects of clothianidin‐treated seed on the arthropod community in a mid‐Atlantic no‐till corn agroecosystem", published in Pest Management Science.
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Paula Shrewsbury, an associate professor and extension specialist will receive the Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension during the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (ESA). This annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to extension entomology.

Read full announcement here: https://www.entsoc.org/esa-names-winners-2018-professional-and-student-awards

Check out our Summer 2018 ​Entomology Department newsletter to see what we've been up to! Content includes news on publications, awards, defenses and much more. 

​Is there something you'd like to see in the Fall 2018 edition? Let us know by sending an e-mail to umdentomology@umd.edu. 

​Enjoy!

Kelly Kulhanek, Ph.D. student & Nathalie Steinhauer, Postdoc, work with NASA to look at pollinator health from space!  NASA uses satellite data to reveal the environmental factors that affect honeybee populations.  "This large-scale satellite data that NASA developed is really going to enable us to make large-scale correlations about the factors we’re seeing in honeybees and the physical interactions they are having with their landscape." , said  Kulhanek. NASA summarizes the project: 

​Congratulations to UMD graduate student Veronica Johnson who successfully defended her thesis, "Understanding the effects of post-harvest litter management practices on the degradation of Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) proteins in genetically modified field corn debris"

The Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland, invites applications for a Post Doctoral Associate in Community Ecology of Forest Arthropods.

The incumbent will work with Dr. Daniel Gruner on several projects with theoretical and applied foci:
(1) Community-level biological control by natural enemies of the emerald ash borer in mid-Atlantic states, and
(2) Spatio-temporal drivers of arthropod diversity on a chronosequence of forested sites in the Hawaiian Islands.

​The interdisciplinary nature of this research will provide opportunities for the postdoc to work with collaborators from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, the US Forest Service, and the University of California-Berkeley, among others.

Click here for the complete Job Announcement. 

​Congratulations to Brian Lovett (ENTM PhD student, St. Leger Lab) for winning a student presentation award at the European Congress of Entomology in Naples, Italy. Brian’s award-winning talk: Transgenic fungi prevent mosquitoes from transmitting malaria parasites. 

Congratulations to Maile C. Neel, whose paper, “Predictability of demographic rates based on phylogeny and biological similarity” was recently published in Conservation Biology.

​This study examines the efficacy of using data from biologically similar or closely related species to inform conservation status assessments.
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Check out the full article at ​https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13135

​We are excited to announce the launch of UMD Entomology's latest website- Insect Drawings! Most illustrations are by Dr. Francis Eugene (Gene) Wood and Dr. John A. Davidson. Additional images were contributed by Dr. Michael J. Raupp, colleagues Elaine R. Hodges and Arthur D. Cushman (SEL, ARS, USDA), and by students Amy K. Bartlett, Manya B. Stoetzel, and Warren E. Steiner, Jr.

Visit http://insectdrawings.umd.edu/ to start viewing these amazing drawings.
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​Entomology faculty member Dennis vanEngelsdorp has been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure effective August 2018!
 
Since joining the UMD Department of Entomology in 2014, Dr. vanEngelsdorp has developed a nationally and internationally recognized research program focusing broadly on pollinator health. His epidemiological approach includes both broad-based field assessments and laboratory investigations of mechanisms underlying declines in pollinator health. Dennis has received numerous competitive research grants from USDA-NIFA, among other agencies to fund this important work.
 
His extension program - also nationally and internationally recognized - has at its heart the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP), which allows beekeepers and other stakeholders to interact with millions of data points related to honey bee health, making it the largest such database in the world. Dr. vanEngelsdorp’s research and extension work has resulted in dozens of publications in research and extension journals, and it has brought the state of honey bee health to the public through radio, TV, and print media.
 
In addition to research and extension, Dennis has made significant contributions to teaching through his “Insects” and highly popular “Introductory Beekeeping” courses, and through advising numerous undergraduate research, graduate students, and postdoctoral associates.
 
In recognition of these and many other achievements, Dr. vanEngelsdorp received the 2017 CMNS Board of Visitors Junior Faculty Award, which you can read more about here.
 
Congratulations on reaching this important, well-deserved milestone!
 
Learn more about the vanEngelsdorp Lab’s work here.   

Congratulations to ENSP student Max O'Grady and BSCI students Megan Wickless and Lily Durkee who successfully presented their entomology honors theses.

Max O'Grady, "Factors that Influence Wax Production in Honey Bees",  van Englesdorp/Hamby Labs

Lily Durkee, "Does goose exclusion impact the benthic macroinvertebrate community of a restored freshwater marsh?",  Gruner Lab

Meg Wickless, "Time and Dosage Effects of Fluvalinate on Apis mellifera Olfactory Associative Learning",  van Englesdorp/Hamby Labs​