The Illinois Department of Public Health has awarded a $450,000 grant to the Medical Entomology Lab at the Illinois Natural History Survey to support a two-year statewide surveillance project focused on ticks, mosquitoes, and biting midges. The project includes collecting and testing arthropods for pathogens and insecticide resistance, helping track vector-borne disease risks across Illinois. […]
Dr. Arif Ciloglu, a member of INHS-MEL and visiting parasitologist from Erciyes University in Kayseri, Turkey, was recently featured in the Prairie Research Institute’s “People of PRI.” Check out the interview to learn more!
Hundreds of ticks cross Lance Jones’ desk each year, each one a small but important piece of Illinois’ public health puzzle. In this behind-the-scenes feature, Lance shares how detailed morphological work, DNA barcoding, and field surveillance come together to identify ticks submitted from across Illinois. With more than 1,000 ticks sent in by the public […]
Members of the Illinois Natural History Survey Medical Entomology Lab participated in the 71st Annual Meeting of the Illinois Mosquito and Vector Control Association (IMVCA), held in Champaign, Illinois, on November 20–21, 2025. Our team contributed presentations, participated in the student competition, and took on leadership roles within the association. Student Competition Recognition Graduate students […]
Featured image photo credit: The Entomological Society of America Members of the INHS Medical Entomology Lab attended the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon (November 9–12, 2025), where they showcased a wide range of research in vector biology, mosquito ecology, and pathogen transmission. We are proud to share the many contributions our […]
Dr. Arif Ciloglu delivered two seminars highlighting current research on avian vector-borne parasites and their ecological significance. The first seminar, titled “Tiny Hitchhikers, Big Impacts: Following Vector-Borne Parasites on the Wings of Birds,” was presented at the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) on September 30, 2025. A second talk, “A Bird’s-Eye View of Avian Haemosporidian […]
On Saturday, October 25, 2025, members of the INHS Medical Entomology Lab — Chris Stone, Gabriel Yan, Lance Jones, and Kylee Noel — spent the day at Pickerill-Pigott Forest Preserve in Yorkville, IL, leading hands-on learning activities for educators during the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) ENTICE workshop on Illinois Mosquitoes & Ticks. The […]
We’re excited to share that Chris Stone has been selected for the 2025–26 Emerging Research Leaders Academy (ERLA), a program run by the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute to support mid-career researchers as they grow into collaborative, campus-wide leaders. Each year, ERLA brings together a select group of researchers from across the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign […]
On July 1, 2025, Vinisha Singh Basnet successfully defended her Master’s thesis in Entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her thesis, titled “Evaluating Behavioral Avoidance and Horizontal Transmission of Beauveria bassiana in Bed Bugs (Cimex lectularius) Across Spatially Complex Environments”, investigates how bed bugs interact with fungal biopesticides in spatially complex arenas. Her work advances […]
Congratulations to Joseph Spina, who successfully defended his master’s thesis in Entomology titled “The Vector Competence and Vectorial Capacity of Aedes albopictus for Ross River Virus as a Function of Temperature” on June 13, 2025. In his work, Joe investigated how temperature influences the ability of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes to transmit Ross River virus—a critical […]