From Ohio State's premier entomologist, Herbert Osborn, to today's distinguished faculty, entomologists have epitomized the historic land-grant mission: teaching, research, and service; to the State of Ohio and to the world. In many ways, the history of entomology at Ohio State is intertwined with the advance of Ohio agriculture, which has been an ongoing battle with one crop pest after another, year after year, with entomologists as the frequently victorious warriors. It was to address crop pest problems that the state legislature established the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Research Station (OAES) in 1882 on the Ohio State campus. In 1926, OAES moved to Wooster and in 1965, was renamed the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC). Extensive facilities at Wooster, where researchers along with USDA personnel can interact, and 12 other field sites around the state, provide fertile ground for today's entomological experimentation.

Research is Basic While entomology has always had, and rightly so, a strong applied-research component, it has had an equally long and valuable history of basic research. Today, basic research in entomology is diverse and takes advantage of molecular biology. Researchers are taking advantage of genetic-engineering techniques in an effort to address some major problem areas. Wagons, Ho! The long and winding trail to Wooster, Ohio.

Insect Collection Director Norm Johnson (right) is -- what else? -- collecting.

Extension Entomology In 1918, Ohio State appointed the first extension entomologist in the United States, Thaddeus H. Parks, who set an exemplary standard of public service for nearly four decades. Today, extension entomologists continue that tradition and operate a dynamic, varied program that helps the public understand and manage insect problems.

The Insect Collection With 4 million specimens, including the world's definitive leafhopper collection, Ohio State's insect collection is among the country's top university collections. First full-time curator Josef N. Knull and collaborator Dorothy Johnson Knull were tireless collectors. Additionally, Knull acquired many outstanding private collections. Generations of faculty collectors included Frank W. Fisk, N. Wilson Britt, Charles Triplehorn, and leafhopper legend Dwight DeLong, who donated outstanding specimens. Today's students and curators, led by director Norm Johnson, continue collecting and cataloguing, while using new database technologies to study systematics and biodiversity.

Acarology Laboratory & Summer Program In 1961, George W. Wharton, who catapulted to acarology's forefront with his dust mite physiology research, became department chair. With him came the Acarology Laboratory and Summer Program he founded at Duke University in 1951. Acarology thrived at Ohio State, first under Wharton, then Donald E. Johnston, with the diverse expertise of Rodger Mitchell, Glen Needham, W. Calvin Welbourn, Dana L. Wrensch, and more recently, Hans Klompen. Researchers have amassed an outstanding worldwide collection of soil acari, accompanied by a comprehensive library. The Summer Program, in its 49th year, continues to attract students from around the world.

George W. Wharton, acarologist extraordinaire, showed the world what grew in its eyebrows

The Rothenbuhler Bee Lab Bee-lieve it! This outstanding, long-awaited modern facility was dedicated to internationally acclaimed honeybee genetics pioneer Walter C. Rothenbuhler in 1989. This lab, along with the applied bee center at Wooster, provides extensive opportunities for leading-edge honeybee research, both basic and applied.

At Long Last For most of their history, entomologists were grouped together with zoologists in the joint Department of Zoology and Entomology. In 1968, the Department of Entomology was finally created and entomologists finally, and literally, came into their own. D. Lyle Goleman was appointed the first chair of the newly created department, which rapidly rose in rankings to one of the top entomology departments in the country.

And Now for an Encore Twenty-first century entomologists will look back at an impressive past while continuing another century of achievement, and they will do it from modern laboratories in a new life-sciences research building erected on the site of the old greenhouses. (Right) Dave Denlinger's students look at DNA sequencing gel.

Ready, Set, Go! Ohio entomologists battle the bugs.

(Entomology Centennial Photos: Courtesy of Entomology Department, OARDC, University Archives, and University Marketing Communications Photographers.)