Visitors attending the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house themed "Insects: Life Stages" on Sunday, May 18, will see everything from metamorphosis to maggot art.
The event, free and family friendly, takes place from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus.
They can view the metamorphosis--from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to adult--that takes place in butterflies. Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas will set up an automatic loop that will feature the life cycle of six butterflies--California Dogface, Monarch, Gulf Fritillary, California Spring White and California Sister--plus a Polyphemus moth. Kareofelas and Kathy Keatley Garvey are also providing images of "insect wedding photography."
Entomologist Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection (butterflies and moths), and Bohart associate and Kareofelas will staff "the Lep aisles" and discuss the specimens and answer uestions.
UC Davis doctoral candidate Christofer Brothers, who studies dragonflies, will be on hand with some live dragonfly nymphs
Live caterpillars of cabbage white butterflies and silk moths, plus larvae of lady beetles (aka ladybugs) will be showcased. Also expected: newly eclosed adult polyphemus moths.
The family arts and crafts activity will be maggot art, announced Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. Participants will dip a maggot into non-toxic, water-based paint and let it crawl around--or guide it--on a piece of paper. It's a conversation piece, and suitable for framing or refrigerator display art.
The UC Davis Entomology Club will be raising funds with carnivorous plants. This is not a sale, but donors to the club that day can obtain a plant, Yang said.
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946 by UC Davis professor Richard Bohart (1913-2007), houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also incluedes a live petting zoo (including walking sticks and Madagascar hissing cockroaches) and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters, pens, jewelry, "bug candy" and collecting equipment.
Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, directs the museum. He is the associate dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and president-elect of the American Arachnological Society. (Email the Bohart Museum at bmuseum@ucdavis.edu)
