Swing That Net!
Bug Squad Blog
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Swing that net! Catch that butterfly!
The Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis encouraged people of all ages to show their skills at netting a butterfly replica on the Briggs Hall lawn last Saturday during the 111th annual campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day.
The Bohart Museum scientists erected a pop-up tent on the grounds of Briggs Hall, home of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (ENT) to showcase insect specimens and stick insects (walking sticks) from the live petting zoo.
At the onset, ENT Professor Jason Bond, director of the Bohart Museum and the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair (his roles also include associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and president-elect of the American Archnological Society) and his lab member Kaitai Liu, a senior entomology major, served as the "throwers."
Doctoral student and medical entomologist Carla-Cristina "CC" Edwards of the lab of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo showed how it's done, easly swinging the net and catching the whirly target.
Then Sunaina Pandey, 9, of Davis, whose father Pramod Pandey, a member of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine faculty, stepped right up and easily caught it, too.
Sunaina, a future Lepidopterist?
The winners received a Bohart Museum dragonfly poster.
The Bohart Museum, home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens, a live petting zoo, and an insect-themed gift shop, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus.
Bond recently received the Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity Award from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA), and Liu received the Dr. Stephen Garczynski Undergraduate Research Scholarship from PBESA at its recent meeting in Salt Lake City. Liu is active in the campuswide Research Scholars Program in Insect Biology (RSPIB), which accepts 6 to 10 academically strong and highly motivated undergraduates a year in its program. Following his graduation, Liu will be studying with Bond for his doctorate.
Interested in learning how to net an insect? You can do so by watching the ENT project, "How to Make an Insect Collection," on YouTube. UC Davis distingished professor (now emeritus) James R. Carey led the project. Wielding the net in the video is Ralph Washington Jr., now a UC Davis entomology alumnus.
