Department of
Entomology

Department of Entomology - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Bee gold: Honey as a superfood

From pesticide detox to increased longevity, the benefits of the sweet stuff go well beyond simply nourishing the hardworking insects in the hive. May Berenabaum answers questions for Knowable Magazine about honey and its health benefits.

New book celebrates Illinois couple’s turning back time in their own backyard

Wildflowers peek their heads through the grass. An eastern tailed-blue butterfly flits among the tall, swaying blades as a red-winged blackbird flies overhead.

When Fred Delcomyn looks outside, this is what he might see.

In 2001, when he and his wife, Nancy, moved to their home outside of Urbana, Illinois, it looked a lot different.

Adam Dolezal wins Insects 2022 Young Investigator Award

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Insects 2022 Young Investigator Award is Dr. Adam G. Dolezal, Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States.

Insect Fear Film Festival Celebrates 40 Years of entertaining and educating

The Insect Fear Film Festival celebrates 40 years of entertaining and educating people about insects and their close relatives at this year’s March 4 event at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It will be the first in-person festival since 2020. Living Fossils.

Grad Student Visionary: Elizabeth Bello

This edition of Beckman's Grad Student Visionaries series features Elizabeth Bello, a graduate student studying entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She takes advantage of Beckman’s Microscopy Suite to further her research in the Alleyne Bioinspiration Co-LAB-orative, or ABCLab.

This Q&A is a spin-off of our Student Researcher Spotlight that highlights the state-of-the-art equipment housed in Beckman's Microscopy Suite and Visualization Laboratory and the graduate students who use it.

Honey bees prosper with quality, not quantity, of food in novel laboratory setup

Honey bee workers collect pollen and nectar from a variety of flowering plants to use as a food source. Honey bees typically forage from up to 1-2 miles away from the hive, though sometimes they travel even further, including up to 10 miles away. However, much of the modern landscape consists of agricultural fields, which limits the foraging options for honey bees in these areas.

Featured Photo

Invasive paper wasps warily observe the photographer.
Polistes dominulus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)
Photo: James Whitfield