Department of Entomology

Our organizations consist of the Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) and the joint Undergraduate Entomology Club (UEC). The UW EGSA comprises all graduate students in the department as well as undergraduate students who have declared a major in entomology.  The EGSA provides a student voice for departmental affairs by holding elected seats on all departmental committees, promotes social interactions and serves the community by educating about the importance of insects and science through the Insect Ambassadors program.  The association hosts several departmental functions each year, including the Spring Picnic and the EGSA Thanksgiving Dinner.  The clubs also organize insect collecting field trips, bug trading nights and insect movie nights.  EGSA established and manages the Kinney Merit Award that provides support for graduate student enrichment, usually for costs associated with attending scientific meetings.  EGSA also coordinates a Linnaean Games team that competes in an exciting question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university student teams.  EGSA sells various entomology related items for fundraising like shirts and mugs. 

  Current Committe Members of EGSA

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Spring Picnic

This years spring picnic was held on the back patio and had great weather.  Thank you everyone for contributing dishes to share. 

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Thanksgiving Dinner

This year we deep fried one turkey and baked a second that turned out deliciously.  Thank you to Jesse and Charlie for cooking the turkeys, Rachel for organizing and everyone else for bringing dishes to flush out the meal.  This years raffle prizes included a bottle of wild turkey, a whole turkey,  T-shirts, a canvas bag, a mug, and coupons for the snack bar. 
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Field Trips

Insect field collecting trips are generally 2-4 day trips to nearby states to collect insects.   Often people camp out and collect at several locations throughout the trip.  Frequently people in the advanced taxonomy courses attend the field trips and are able to get many families needed for the collections. Past field trips have included Missouri, southern Illinois, and Louisiana.  This year we had a trip to Potosi in southern Wisconsin to hunt in vain for passalid beetles.  Fortunately we found passalid beetles in KY and TN in conjunction with the national ESA meeting.  Not exactly a collecting trip, but a group of entomologists went snow tubing this year at Cascade mountain and had a ton of fun!

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Movie Night

Movie night is generally dedicated to insect movies of all kinds from children’s animated movies like Ants to C horror movies like Mothra.  Students can enjoy some snacks and entertainment and possibly work on insect collections.
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Bug Trading Night

Bug trading night is a chance for students in the intro to entomology course 302 and other advanced taxonomy courses to collaborate in order to complete their required collections.  Advanced students are available to help answer questions and lead new students in the right direction.  Everyone brings snacks to share. 
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Kinney Merit Award

EGSA established and manages the Kinney Merit Award in memory of Karl Kinney that provides support for graduate student enrichment, usually for costs associated with attending scientific meetings. These costs may include registration fees, travel and lodging. The Kinney Award is administered by EGSA, which puts out a call for applications once per semester. The award cannot solve all financial problems and financial inequities for entomology students. Rather, the fund is to provide a limited number of annual merit awards to deserving students. The competitive nature of these awards is meant to encourage students to strive for excellence in their work. The EGSA Development Fund was created for and should be used for the following purposes:

1. To honor highly meritorious students.
2. To provide financial support for individual students to attend professional meetings and workshops or to travel to research locations.
3. To provide limited financial support for student publication costs.