Entomology in the News

Two cool news items in the past couple of days-

The New York Times did a really interesting article called "Extravagant Results of Nature’s Arms Race" by Nicholas Wade.

And the blog Morbid Anatomy wrote about a visit to the "Cabinet of Curiosities" Paris, which is filled with preserved insects.

UPDATE: Cabinet magazine did a large feature on the entire cabinet and it's history here.

Ent. Club at the Garden Show!

The Entomology Club presence in the Kids Zone at the Seventh Annual Baton Rouge Spring Garden Show (March 21 and 22) was a great success! We had about 400 adults and children come by and talk to us on Saturday, and another 200 visited the booth on Sunday. Many thanks to Bob Danka for bringing a display bee hive, and Linda Hooper-Bui for giving us a swarm of lady beetles. I am grateful to Stephanie Gil, Anna Meszaros, Helen Petre, and Dawn Simms for volunteering to work the booth on both days, and extra thanks to Stephanie Gil for help with display set up and take down.

Award Photos from SEB.

MS Talk Winner: Kyle Fontenot and Branch President Alvin Simmons











Linnean Games Team Photo: Second Place SEB. L-R: Matthew Gimmel, Katherine Parys, Jennifer Gordon, Grant Aucoin, Branch President Alvin Simmons, Julien Beuzelin.


Thank you to Pan Luo for the Photos.

Garden Shows!

Entomology club will be at a variety of events in the next few weeks doing education and talking to people about insects.

Anna Meszaros and Katherine Parys were at the Spring Garden Day this past weekend at the AgCenter's Southeastern Research Station in Hammond and handing out information about the Asian Citrus Psyllid and Citrus Greening Disease.

We're still looking for volunteers for other events (garden shows and school educational events) please let us know if you're interested in helping out!

"How to Take a Litter Sample" by LSAM

For those of you that missed it being shown in a variety of other places, the LSAM made this video while field collecting in Ecuador.

LSU at the ESA Branch Meeting: Awards

Congratulations to the following awardees at the Entomological Society of America, Southeastern Branch meeting in Montgomery, AL Mar 8-10, 2009:

Dr. Gene Reagan, Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching

Dr. Gregg Henderson, Recognition Award in Insect Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology

Drs. Dale Pollet and Dennis Ring were included in the 2009 Friends of Southern IPM Bright Idea Award. The award recognized members of the Southern Region School IPM working Group that is implementing IPM for schools in Louisiana. This is the first Team Award conferred by the society.

These awards represented 3 of the 8 top professional awards conferred by the society.

Kyle Fontenot (M.S. student under Dr. Roger Leonard) won First Place in the Master’s Student Paper Competition.

The department’s Linnaean Team (Julien Beuzelin, Ph.D. student under Dr. Gene Reagan, Matt Gimmel, Ph.D. student under Dr. Chris Carlton, Jennifer Gordon, M.S. student under Dr. Jim Ottea, and Katherine Parys, Ph.D. student under Dr. Seth Johnson; alternate Grant Aucoin, M.S. student under Dr. Wayne Kramer), coached by Dr. Natalie Hummel and Dr. Jeremy Allison, was the runner-up out of 9 teams representing Southeastern Branch universities. This event is a College Bowl-style competition testing each team’s knowledge of entomological concepts, history, biographies, current advances and trivia. Our team won the extra initial round (vs. Georgia) to establish an 8-team pool and went on to defeat Clemson and Arkansas before losing to North Carolina State. Our team distinguished itself by having all four contestants receiving points for the team. Each Branch sends two teams to the national ESA competition, which will be held in December this year in Indianapolis, IN. Our team brought back a $600 check to help toward travel to the national meeting.

Additional awards were received for photos entered in the Photo Salon:

Anna Meszaros received a 2^nd place award in the Action category

Katherine Parys received a 3^rd place award in the Traditional Macro category

Dr. Claudia Husseneder received both 1^st and 2^nd place awards in the Artistic category.