2025-02-12
- The 42nd Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF) will be held on Saturday, February 22, 2025, at Foellinger Auditorium, on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Hosted by the Entomology Graduate Students Association in the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, this year's theme is Tarantulas: Hairy, Scary Spiders...
2025-01-31 - At this year’s Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology (SICB) Conference, Entomology Assistant Professor Marianne Alleyne and graduate student Yutao Chen showcased their research on the unique properties of insect wings. Their work, part of Yutao's graduate studies, explores how microscopic...
2024-12-23 - The Royal Entomological Society (RES) shared its journal award winners from the 2021-2023 publication years. These awards are dedicated to the best articles led by early career entomologists. Amongst the winners is the Entomology Department’s Assistant...
2024-11-06 - CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – I like to encourage people of all ages to help pollinators, the insects, birds and mammals that help flowering plants reproduce. People are more willing to help if they have a chance to get to know their local pollinators. To that end, I like to invite people to visit the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ...
2024-10-24 - URBANA, Ill. – It’s a blazingly sunny September Saturday afternoon at Riggs Beer Company, a family-friendly brewery located on the edge of Urbana. It’s not surprising to see crowds of families basking in the dog days of summer with their food truck lunches and locally brewed pints of beer. Unexpected, however, are the patrons donning medieval and fantasy garb, accompanied by young children,...
2024-09-24 - CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign tackled a thorny problem: How do nutritional stress, viral infections and exposure to pesticides together influence honey bee survival? By looking at all three stressors together, the scientists found that good nutrition enhances honey bee resilience against the other threats. Their findings are...
2024-08-29 - CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — I can barely hear Esther Ngumbi over the roar of greenhouse fans as she shows me around her rooftop laboratory in Morrill Hall. The benches are full of tomato plants, and the tomatoes don’t look good. Half of the plants are submerged in bins of water. Their leaves are yellow and withering. Some of the dying tomatoes have flowered. I see one or two baby tomatoes on a couple...
2024-06-05 - Calling all community scientists to join us on Saturday, June 22nd, for the 10th annual BeeBlitz! Meet us at the Pollinatarium and Meadowbrook Park in Urbana, IL or go bee spotting in a forest, prairie, or backyard near you! Grab your camera or phone and be ready to snap photos of honey & bumble bees to upload your findings and contribute to BeeSpotter's database of Midwestern bee spottings...
2024-05-23 - The past attempts of honey bee researchers to inventory the fungal diversity in honey bee colonies revealed that Aspergillus flavus is frequently found in hives. In a new study, researchers have discovered that this fungus is uniquely adapted to survive in bee colonies. The western honey bee, Apis mellifera, stores large quantities of food in the form of bee...
2024-04-01 - Have you ever wondered how plants protect themselves from predators? This is a question Erinn Dady addresses in her research as a graduate student in the Department of Entomology. Dady grew up in Champaign-Urbana. Prior to becoming a plant researcher she worked for several years in local restaurants, including as the head pastry...
2024-03-01 - From deep-dish pizza to towering skyscrapers, Chicago is a city like no other. Nearly 3 million people call it home, making it a hub of economic development, culture, and groundbreaking research. And for decades, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has played a meaningful role there. Here’s a snapshot of some of the LAS research and engagement initiatives currently unfolding in the City...
2024-02-06 - The College of LAS has selected 14 professors, graduate students, lecturers, and an advisor as the recipients of the 2024 teaching and advising awards. “We are proud to have such an impressive group of people advancing our vital teaching and advising goals,” said Venetria K. Patton, the Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of LAS. “We received exceptional feedback from students and alumni about...
2024-02-06 - Siti Fauziyah has not stopped thinking about research since 2013. Her 10-year journey across four countries has led her to the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology to pursue her Ph.D. in entomology. She collaborates with Marianne Alleyne, an assistant professor of entomology; ...
2024-02-01 - The 41st Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF) will be held on Saturday, February 24, 2024, at Foellinger Auditorium, on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Hosted by the Entomology Graduate Students Association in the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign, this year’s theme is Ant-Men—movies featuring...
2024-02-01 - Plants produce a range of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds that influence their interactions with the world around them. In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign investigated how the type and amount of these VOCs change based on different features of tomato plants. The smell of cut grass is one of the defining fragrances of summer. Smells like...