Two people looking at microscope images on a computer.

Entomology News & Updates

Cargo ships docked at San Juan on the Ucayali River, Peru.

News

Dengue-transmitting mosquitos spread from cities to villages in Amazon

The mosquito that transmits dengue virus in the Peruvian Amazon appears to be moving from urban areas to rural communities that lack health care.

  • Department of Entomology
  • Entomology
  • Health + Nutrition
Students walk on the Ag Quad

Field Note

Five fall 2025 CALS courses sure to inspire
Why do cats purr when they are happy? Can I still eat that pizza I left out overnight? What is the carbon footprint of a football game? CALS courses are designed to help you seek answers to your everyday questions, leading you to build knowledge...
  • Animal Science
  • Department of Entomology
  • Microbiology
Brent Sinclair Headshot

Spotlight

Meet our faculty: Brent Sinclair
Academic focus: Insect environmental physiology Research summary: I study how insects survive and thrive in harsh environments. Although we center our research on the insect, we follow mechanisms all the way to molecular biology and consequences...
  • Department of Entomology
  • Entomology
  • Physiology
Beatriz Willink Headshot

Spotlight

Meet our faculty: Beatriz Willink
Academic focus: Trait evolution, genomics and phylogenetics Research summary: I study why and how phenotypic traits evolve in insects. I focus on traits that often differ between the sexes, such as color patterns, and try to understand how...
  • Department of Entomology
  • Entomology
  • Genomics
Melissa Guzman Headshot

Spotlight

Meet our faculty: Melissa Guzman
Academic focus: Biodiversity big data and insect conservation Research summary: The goal of my research is to help improve insect conservation by developing statistical methods that better use all available data. While the distribution of some...
  • Department of Entomology
  • Entomology
  • Pollinators

Department Updates

2022

2021

  • This is the oldest fossil evidence of spider moms taking care of their young
    A 99-million-year-old spider trapped in amber sheds light on ancient arachnid parenting
  • Dr. Harrington's Vector Bio e-Cornell course
    Interested in learning about the biology & behavior of mosquitoes, ticks, and other arthropods that affect human health? Enroll in a new certificate course from @ecornell_online! Next offering starts Sept 1. Enroll by August 31 with code INTRO50 to save.
  • Ten Entomologists Honored as 2021 Fellows of the Entomological Society of America
    The Governing Board of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) has elected 10 new Fellows of the Society for 2021. Election as a Fellow of ESA acknowledges outstanding contributions to entomology in research, teaching, extension and outreach, administration, or the military. See more details on criteria for Fellow selection, as well as a full list of ESA Fellows.
  • Australian huntsman spiders: your friendly neighbourhood insect control
    From their habitat and ecology to their unique social behaviour, this is everything you need to know about Australia’s huntsman spiders.
  • Gypsy moth caterpillars are ravaging upstate NY trees, raining down feces: 'It's biblical'
    The historic infestation of gypsy moth caterpillars has now spread across large swaths of the Finger Lakes and North Country regions of New York, munching leaves and leaving behind countless acres of unseasonably barren trees.
  • Two new beetles from summit forests in the Lesser Antilles
    Two newly discovered species of beetles from the mountaintops of St. Kitts and Nevis have been named for a famous Nevisian scientist and a recently departed Kittitian civil servant.

    DuPorte’s Ground Beetle (Platynus duportei Liebherr and Ivie) and Racquel’s Ground Beetle (Platynus racquelae Liebherr and Ivie) were named to honor the McGill University (Montreal, Canada) insect morphologist Professor Ernest Melville DuPorte (1891–1981), born in Nevis, and Racquel Williams-Ezquea (1983–2018), recently of The Government of the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis’ Forestry Unit.

    Professors James Liebherr of Cornell University and Michael Ivie of Montana State University described the new species in the March, 2021, issue of the international journal Coleopterists Bulletin. The two species occupy the northernmost geographic limit of a species group of Carabidae that is distributed throughout the Lesser Antillean island chain, with their relatives in South America. They are both restricted to the uppermost remnant montane forests on their respective islands, and enhance our biological knowledge of this critically endangered habitat.
  • That Night 46 Million Grasshoppers Went to Vegas
    In a new study, ecologists document the impact that the world’s brightest city has on the insect population.
  • Ecology and Me: What Are Spider Webs Made Out Of‪?‬
    What are spider webs made out of? Why don’t spiders get stuck in their own webs? How similar are spiders to Spiderman, really?
  • Moths: What we don’t know and what you can do about it
    What we don’t know can hurt us, and in this talk we will look at some of the biggest gaps in our knowledge of moths and why it is important to fill these gaps.

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