May R. Berenbaum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor of entomology and head of the department, will discuss plants, chemicals and insects in a lecture titled "Chemical Co-Evolution: Plant Poisons, P-450s & Papilionids" at the Boyce Thompson Institute Auditorium, Wednesday, March 26, at 3 p.m. on the Cornell University campus.

The lecture, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research Inc.

Berenbaum, who earned a Ph.D. in 1980 at Cornell, is the originator and one of the organizers of the University of Illinois' annual Insect Fear Film Festival, a popular annual event that helps to educate the public about insects. Among her books is Ninety-Nine Gnats, Nits and Nibblers (1989), a layman's guide to the insect world, and she has made numerous television and radio appearances.

An insect advocate, Berenbaum has for several years provided weekly entomological commentary on "Those Amazing Insects," on WEFT-FM in Champaign County, Ill. The regular insect feature became so popular, it led to her providing insect advocacy in other media as well. Some of her current research is on the evolution of host specialization in swallowtail butterflies (Papilionidae).