Bug Squad

It's quite an honor to be elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). And it's a double honor when two persons from the same department at the same university receive the honor the very same year. That's what happened today.

What a treasure! Have you seen the Xerces Society's new online Pollinator Conservation Resource Center? This is something that's long been needed. It's a wealth of information--that's why it's a treasure. As Matthew Shepherd of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation says: "...

Meet Kelly Liebman and Wei Xu. They're graduate students and mosquito researchers in the Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, who just received the 2009 William Hazeltine Memorial Research Fellowship Awards.

The cold, blustery storm that swept over Northern California over the last two weeks wiped out the rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora) and with it the "meeting place" of assorted insects: honey bees, leafcutter bees, ladybugs, bumble bees, potter wasps, et al.

The Mafia has its Good Fellas. The Entomological Society of America (ESA) has its Fellows, too. And they're not just "good"--they're excellent.