A picnic is not a picnic without bugs.
Bugs may be "univited guests" at your picnic, but at the campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day, they're celebrities.
Yes, celebrities.
The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology (ENT) again will host its fan-favorite roach races at at Briggs Hall on Saturday, April 12 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The roaches are home-grown from a UC Davis research lab. From their egg cartons to the starting gate, they will be named for friends, enemies and unsuspecting bystanders. Maybe even political figures! The roaches will scurry, zig zag, or run straight down the track as the crowd cheers.
And they're not the only cockroaches at the UC Davis Picnic Day.
One is on a newly designed T-shirt that the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) is selling in its Briggs Hall booth.
It's called "Scream" and it's the work of Abigail Lehner, doctoral candidate in the lab of pollination ecologist and ENT professor Neal Williams "The 'Entomology Gothic' shirt is very popular and so myself, Iris Quayle (doctoral student in the Jason Bond lab), and Lexie Martin (doctoral candidate in the Rachel Vannette lab) were discussing what other art-inspired entomology shirts would be fun to create," Lehner said. "We loved the idea of the Scream with an insect and then it clicked--why would an insect 'feel' the emotions (i.e. anxiety, fear, etc) elicited by the Scream? Because it was about to be squished! I had a lot of fun creating the scene in the style of the painting and I hope others can enjoy it too!" The insect: the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana.
Speaking of insect-themed T-shirts, the EGSA members are creative artists. The all-time best seller is The Beetles, a take-off of the cover of The Beetles' Abbey Road album. However, instead of the Beatles--John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Star-- crossing the road in a single file, four beetles (family names Phengogidae, Curculionidae, Cerambycidae and Scarabaeidae) do so. Other popular T-shirts include Entomo Gothic (a play on the American Gothic), Whip Scorpion, Bee Haw, and They See Me Rollin' (dung beetles). Last year the newly designed one was "Bugbie."
In addition to t-shirts, EGSA is selling stickers, such as "100 percent Beetle Juice" and "Carcinization VII," from the director of "Coleoptera Radiation."
The Briggs Hall entomological events also will include pollinators, such as native bees; "glowing bugs," where visitors can see various critters and plants fluoresce until a UV light; nematodes (round worms); and maggot art (dip a maggot in non-toxic, water-based paint and let it crawl--or guide it--on a sheet of white paper.)
Traditionally, the Picnic Day Committee is chaired by an EGSA member and a faculty member. This year's chairs are doctoral candidate Emma "Em" Jochim of the lab of professor and arachnologist Jason Bond, and Marshall McMunn, assistant professor of teaching. Doctoral candidate Veronica Casey of the lab of nematologist Shahid Siddique, associate professor, is the co-chair. Other committee members are EGSA members Iris Quayle, Curtis Carlson and Nicole Rodrigues.
Bugs rule.
(For complete list of entomological events at Briggs Hall, check out the ENT website.)