If you're interested in joining the Pacific Coast Entomological Society (PCES), the first meeting of the year will be Saturday, Jan. 24 at 1 p.m. in Room 122 of Briggs Hall, University of California, Davis.
Following the meeting, the group will gather at the Bohart Museum of Entomology to learn about insects collected in Belize, said president Fran Keller, professor and chair of the Department of Biology at Folsom Lake College and an entomology lecturer and research affiliate, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
A UC Davis alumna, Keller holds a master's degree (2007) and doctorate (2014) in entomology. For her dissertation, she studied darkling beetles with her major professor, UC Davis Distinguished Professor (now emerita) Lynn Kimsey, the Bohart Museum director for 34 years until her retirement in 2024.
Keller is also a Bohart Museum research associate and an associate in the lab of Professor Jason Bond, who serves as the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in the Department of Entomology and Nematology, director of the Bohart Museum, and executive associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The PCES business meeting begins at 1. "Then at 1:30 p.m., the regular meeting will begin with preliminary information on our field trip in May," Keller said, "and I will do a demonstration of new digital microscopes that can be projected when viewing insects used in Entomology courses." PCES members are invited to share information on equipment that they use in the field or in the lab.
Keller has led or co-led numerous insect-collecting trips to Belize.
The PCES meeting also will be on Zoom. For more information, contact Keller at kellerm@flc.losrios.edu
Cover image: Professor Fran Keller interacting with visitors at the Bohart Museum of Entomology.