Two people looking at microscope images on a computer.

Entomology News & Updates

Senior Lecturer Heather Grab interacts with bees in the lab in Comstock Hall.

News

Wild bumblebee queens lured and killed in commercial hives

A new study finds that nest boxes of commercial eastern common bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) lead to the deaths of wild queens who are attracted to the brightly colored hives.

  • Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station
  • Department of Entomology
  • School of Integrative Plant Science

News

Arthur Muka, economic entomologist, dies at 98

Arthur Allen Muka, M.S. ’52, Ph.D. ’54, whose work in applied economic entomology supported growers in New York and around the globe, died Dec. 7, 2022, in Ithaca.

  • Department of Entomology
  • Agriculture
  • Entomology
Sylvana Ross poses in a cornell sweatshirt holding a net over her shoulders.

News

Student Spotlight: Sylvana Ross
What is your area of research and why is it important? I am interested in understanding how organisms’ interactions within cities influence their ecology and evolution. I am aiming to study the genetic variation between urban and natural ant...
  • Department of Entomology
  • Evolution
  • Climate Change
Two older men, a young man, and a girl stand in a field.

News

Entomologist Tony Shelton receives lifetime achievement award
Shelton’s research and extension programs were based at Cornell AgriTech, formerly known as the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. There, he refined integrated pest management (IPM) tactics, including sampling and treatment...
  • Cornell AgriTech
  • New York State Integrated Pest Management
  • Department of Entomology
A hand holding up a grasshopper.

News

After two-year hiatus, Insectapalooza is ‘Glad to Bee Back’

Cornell entomology students and faculty are pulling out all the stops for the 17th annual festival, which returns after pandemic-related cancellations the last two years.

  • Lab of Ornithology
  • Department of Entomology
  • Entomology

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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