Two people looking at microscope images on a computer.

Entomology News & Updates

Brown soil and green plants in a field

News

$1.6M supports land-grant research for NY farms, forests, communities

Fifty-four research projects addressing New York’s agriculture, environment and communities have collectively received $1.6 million from the USDA.

  • Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station
  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Ann Fraser, a consultant on the grant and retired biology professor from Kalamazoo College, hand pollinates an apple flower in Uttarkhand region, India. Photo by Kiran Cunningham.

News

NYS-Himalaya pollinator project receives $1.8M grant

The project will compare smallholder apple farms in the Western Himalayas and in Central New York to study how people might act collectively to promote wild pollinator health.

  • Cornell AgriTech
  • Department of Entomology
  • Natural Resources and the Environment
Microarthropod mites from three different taxonomic families. Photo by Hayden Bock.

News

Tiny soil critters play by their own rules in urban parks

The assortment of species of tiny soil animals – small enough to stand on the head of a pin – differ from one urban park to another, unlike plants and larger animals where a few species are often found across many parks.

  • Cornell AgriTech
  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Department of Entomology
Riesling grapes in mid-harvest along Keuka Lake in what looks to be an excellent year for New York state wineries.

News

Climate change brings challenges, and opportunities, to Finger Lakes wineries

In a wetter, hotter, more turbulent weather world, New York state wineries will endure new hardship, but they may be better off than most.

  • Cornell AgriTech
  • Department of Entomology
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
A bumblebee on campus

News

Bee antidote to deadly pesticides shows promise

An antidote to pesticide poisoning in bees shows promising early results in tests done with common eastern bumblebees.

  • Biological and Environmental Engineering
  • Department of Entomology
  • Agriculture

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.

Related links