Summer 2025 Newsletter

Ants

• Asian Needle Ants, Known for Powerful and Life-Threatening Sting, Spread Into Philadelphia
• Groundbreaking discovery rewrites over a century of insect and plant science

Bees

• What a bumble bee chooses to eat may not match ideal diet
• ‘Buzz me in:’ Bees wearing itty bitty QR codes reveal hive secrets

Cicadas

• The buzzing is back. What to know about 17-year cicadas in Centre County

Corn Earworm

• What are corn earworms? Penn State launches PestWatch webpage to track populations, inform growers

Graduate Students

• Eight graduate students receive U.S. National Science Foundation fellowships
• Huck student receives U.S. National Science Foundation fellowship

Mosquitoes

• Mosquito populations surging in Pennsylvania, experts advise to control breeding grounds
• Learn more about preventing disease spread by ticks and mosquitoes

Pollinators

• Gardening questions answered by Master Gardeners at Ag Progress Days

Soybeans

• Penn State's Soybean Sentinel Plot Project is Starting

Spotted Lanternfly

• Spotted lanternflies love grapevines, and that’s bad for Pennsylvania’s wine industry
• It’s Pa.’s spotted lanternfly season. Here’s what researchers know and want you to do
• Spotted Lanternflies Fare Poorly on Grape-Only Diet

World Food Prize Foundation's DialogueNEXT

• Grace Tiwari, Invited Panelist at DialogueNEXT

Tyler Seutter, Adam Scherr, Marie Muniz, Nina Devine and current Eastern Branch President Dr. Karly Regan

Once again Penn State Entomology is killin' it at the Entomology Games!

• The Nittany Antlions took 1st place in the Entomology games! Team members are Tyler Seutter, Adam Scherr, Marie Muniz, Nina Devine
• Nina Devine won 2nd place for the PhD ten minute papers competition for their work on chemical elicitors and squash arthropods
• Mia Esoldo placed 2nd in the M.S poster competition for their work on competition dynamics between native and invasive tick species

Graduate Students

• James Abendroth – 3rd place (Rose Zhu)
• Edward Amoah – 2nd place (Christina Grozinger)
• Malachi Brought – 3rd place (Mike Wolfin)
• Mahendra Pawar – 2nd place (Sara Hermann)
• Anju Poudel – 1st place (Jared Ali)
• Nicolas Recinos-Baltodano – 3rd place (Mike Wolfin)

Undergraduate Students

• Clara Vargas Fenili – 2nd place (Mike Wolfin)
• Zachary Yenser – 1st place (Sara Hermann)

INTAD Global Gallery

Afure Ejomah won best presentation at the 6th Annual INTAD Global Gallery

• Are carnivorous plants mixotrophic?, Qianshi Lin, Shuhan Sarah Yin, Martín Mata-Rosas, Enrique Ibarra-Laclette, Tanya Renner, New Phytologist, Volume 247, Issue 2, July 2025