The Entomologist Who Almost Wasn’t: A Tale on the Importance of Inclusive K-12 Education

By Emily Sandall, Ph.D.

Editor’s Note: This is the next article in the “Standout ECPs” series contributed by the Entomological Society of America’s Early Career Professionals (ECP) Committee, highlighting outstanding ECPs that are doing great work in the profession. (An ECP is defined as anyone within the first five years of obtaining their terminal degree in their field.) Read past articles in the Standout ECPs series.

Abigail (Abbey) M. Hayes, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Alan Bergland, Ph.D., at the University of Virginia, where they started in 2023. Hayes is working to understand the phenotypic contributions of a chromosomal inversion that is under selection on seasonal and latitudinal scales in Drosophila flies. From 2021 to 2023, Hayes was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow in biology at the University of Connecticut in the lab of Elizabeth Jockusch, Ph.D. There, Hayes’ research used RNA interference (RNAi) and transcriptomic approaches to understand the evolution of wings in non-model systems. Hayes also co-instructed a four-semester experiential course for undergraduate students from historically excluded groups in STEM.

Hayes earned their Ph.D. in entomology at Washington State University, working with advisor Laura Lavine, Ph.D. Their doctoral work centered on understanding the evolution and development of a wing polyphenic cricket, Gryllus firmus. At WSU, Hayes was outreach coordinator for the department and founded and curated a bug zoo with over 30 species for use in outreach and teaching. Hayes earned a B.S. in biology at Saint Mary’s College of California, conducting research with Michael Marchetti, Ph.D., on the life history and food web ecology of two different populations of California newt, Taricha torosa. “My first research experience was during the January term I took my junior year, in which we traveled to Akumal, Mexico, to research sea turtle populations in Akumal Bay. Before this experience I had never considered doing research,” Hayes says. “I am so thankful to my liberal arts education for encouraging me to take a broad array of courses so that I could find my passion for research and arthropods.”

Hayes is also active in online communities—often under the moniker “Arthropod Abbey”—and serves as an administrator for the Facebook group “Insect Identification.”

Sandall: Can you tell us about yourself and your experiences in entomology?

Hayes: When I was in kindergarten and first grade, I spent recess by myself catching bugs on the playground—an activity that I am sure many entomologists enjoyed in their youth. However, for me, this behavior was much to the chagrin of my elementary school teachers. I was heavily discouraged by teachers who went so far as to talk to my parents about their “concern for my social development” and their desire for me to “play with the other girls” instead. Because of this discouragement, the message I received as a young person assigned female at birth was that insects were not meant for people who looked like me. Thus, I had never considered a career in entomology before I was well into my twenties—almost two decades after my initial discouragement.

I began doing undergraduate research on newt ecology involving insect identification. With the support of my undergraduate mentor, I was able to rediscover my love for insects and other arthropods. Because of this experience, I am very passionate about inclusive outreach and education, and I believe anyone should have the freedom to pursue entomology regardless of their personal identities. Now that I have been able to come into my identity as an openly non-binary entomologist, I participate in K-12 outreach to help others that may have been discouraged in their pasts. We all have a place in the field of entomology.

What career would you have pursued if you hadn’t become an entomologist?

Going to a small liberal arts school, I had no idea that I could get paid to do a graduate degree or that entomology was even a career option. I would have never ended up in entomology if not for my undergraduate mentor’s encouragement and explanations of graduate school. I had originally wanted to be an orthodontist but started becoming more interested in pursuing a graduate degree in science as I began to take upper division courses such as “California Flora and Communities.” This course was my favorite, and learning about the evolution of floral forms to attract pollinators is how I first became fascinated with the evolution of phenotype.

What are some of the best parts of your job? What is something that may surprise us about your job?

The best part of my job is any time I get to look at a bug! I am fascinated by the complex, and often bizarre, phenotypes that surround us in the arthropod world.

My favorite task in my current job is sorting our community science samples. People from around the country send us samples of flies collected from their compost piles, and I help identify them to species. Seeing the diversity of form even within one order of insects never gets old!

What excites you about the field of entomology? What do you see on the horizon?

For me, the most exciting areas in the field of entomology are all of the new tools and methods we are gaining access to in non-model arthropods. The ability to do things like RNAi or CRISPR, in situ hybridization chain reactions, building transcriptomes, and more in non-model systems has absolutely revolutionized our ability to address evolutionary and developmental questions in arthropods that have historically been difficult to work with.

As a newer transplant to the East Coast, Hayes has been able to participate in a variety of field work, which has led to several species being checked off their “bugket” list, including this gorgeous Luna moth (Actias luna). (Photo courtesy of Abigail M. Hayes, Ph.D.)

As part of their National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, Hayes performed microdissections of Leptogluons zonatus leaf-footed bugs and performed RNA extractions on the tissues of interest to look at gene expression via RNA sequencing. (Photo courtesy of Abigail M. Hayes, Ph.D.)

As part of their current work, Hayes is generating high-molecular-weight DNA samples from specific lineages of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, which involves freezing specimens with liquid nitrogen to preserve the DNA in a rapid and stable manner. (Photo courtesy of Abigail M. Hayes, Ph.D.)

What advice would you give to other early career professionals?

In the early career professional stage, it is really easy to get caught up in trying to maximize your CV. The pressure to do everything possible to be competitive for future jobs is undeniable. It is hard to resist those feelings, but maintaining boundaries and having identities external to work are imperative. Try to remember to form community, engage in activities that give you joy, and help those around you.

What is your favorite insect fact?

I hope you will forgive me for this being an arthropod (arachnid) fact rather than an insect-specific one, but it absolutely blew my mind when I learned that scorpions poop out of their “tails”! The end of the scorpion digestive tract is the end of the last “tail” segment, anterior to the telson (stinger).

Thank you, Abbey! Learn more about Abigail and their research via Google Scholar, X/Twitter, or their personal website.     

Emily Sandall, Ph.D., is a science analyst and advisor at the Foreign Agricultural Service, in Washington, DC, and SysEB Section representative to the ESA Early Career Professionals Committee. Email: sandall.emily@gmail.com.