DANBURY, CONN. — Entomologist Dr. Gale Ridge will discuss “Demystifying the Human Bed Bug” at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013, in Room 125 of the Science Building on the Western Connecticut State University Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. The discussion will be part of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences’ Research Seminar series. The event will be free and open to the public.

Ridge is a systemist for the Department of Entomology for the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. According to the department’s website, her expertise is in phylogenetics, evolution, morphology, behavior and the ecology of insects within her primary research in the internal morphology and phylogeny of Heteroptera, a specific group of insect species. She oversees the daily activities of the insect inquiry office, which receives thousands of inquiries each year.

Ridge has several research findings published on carpenter ants, carpenter bees, cluster flies, the Japanese beetle, yellow jackets and pepper maggots. She also is an accomplished natural science illustrator specializing in pen and ink illustration and has illustrations in the published work “Identification Guide to the Mosquitoes of Connecticut.”

Ridge received a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Trinity College of Music for piano performance and teaching in 1980. She received a master’s degree in biology in 1998 from Southern Connecticut State University and a Ph.D. in ecology and evolution from the University of Connecticut in 2008.

For more information, call the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.