- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
So much to see and do, and so many moth experts will be on hand to answer your questions.
It's all in keeping with National Moth Week.
The event, free and family friendly, will take place inside and outside the Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis, as well as in the hallway of Academic Surge,and outside.
Moth'ers Peter Coggan, a doctoral student in the laboratory of Santiago Ramirez, UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology, and his father, Peter Coggan of northern Minnesota, and active in the Minnesota chapter of National Dark Skies, will staff a moth sensory booth.
Together they can address such topics as moth sensory biology, husbandry, trapping, and light pollution.
The younger Coggan, a member of the UC Davis Population Biology Graduate Group, was born and raised in Boulder, Colo., where he developed a love for biodiversity in the surrounding mountains. He is broadly interested in how sensory processing shapes memory formation and other cognitive traits. He is currently investigating "how hover flies decide which flowers to visit based on innate color preference and learned odors." He began conducting research in high school and has participated in projects from cancer diagnostics to waste water management. He received a bachelor of science in biology from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. As an undergraduate, he worked with Dr. Mark Willis and studied how moths perceive smell while moving through a complex environment. Coggan anticipates a career in academia and "to continue to raise awareness about invertebrates."
Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection, and Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas will show moth specimens and answer questions. The Bohart Museum's global collection of 8 million insects includes some 825,454 specimens of moths and butterflies, incluing 618,750 moths, ranging in size from the huge Atlas moths (10-inch wingspan) to the extremely tiny (4 mm wingspan) leafminer moths.”
Moth'er Volkmar Heinrich, UC Davis associate professor of biomedical engineering, will be displaying his images of moths and answering questions.Silks of the world also will be displayed, announced Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.
In the hallway, visitors can view wing scales and antennae through microscopes at a table staffed by Iris Quayle, doctoral student in the lab of Professor Jason Bond, director of the Bohart Museum, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, Agricultural Sciences, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The petting zoo, featuring Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects, also is scheduled to include Polyphemus caterpillars, "if they haven't all pupated," Yang said. The caterpillars will turn into silk moths. Staffing the petting zoo are UC Davis undergraduate student Kaitai Liu and doctoral candidate Emma Jochim of the Bond lab.
The family craft activity will involve making caterpillar stress balls in a cocoon bag, donned with leaves on the outside.
A free public snack of hot chocolate and cookies will be offered, Yang said.
Outside on the grounds, Bohart research associate John "Moth Man" De Benedictus and his colleagues will set up a blacklighting display (a white sheet and a UV light to attract moths and other night-flying insects). De Benedictis has amassed a moth collection of some 600 species from the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve and 300 species from his backyard in Davis. He received a grant from the former Institute of Ecology to study moths at the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve where he collected from 1989 until the last major fire in 2020.
“I began a similar inventory of the species in my backyard after I purchased my home in 1998," De Benedictis said. "It continues to this day, and a synoptic collection of the 300 or so species that I've collected in my yard is housed alongside the Cold Canyon collection in the Bohart Museum.” Graduate student Grace Horne of the lab of urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke, Department of Entomology and Nematology, is analyzing the data from these studies as part of her doctoral research.
DeBenedictus retired in 2001 from the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, where he worked as a staff research assistant from 1995 to 2001 in the laboratory of medical entomologist Tom Scott. De Benedictis, who holds a master's degree in entomology from UC Berkeley, studied with noted professor Jerry Powell (1933-2023), emeritus director of the Essig Museum of Entomology.
Worldwide, scientists have described about 18,000 species of butterflies and 180,000 species of moths, "and hundreds of newly named species are added every year," Smith said. "It's also believed that we may know of no more than 10-15 percent of the species actually out there, with the small 'micro-Lepidoptera' likely with over 90 percent of the species in the world still unknown. This emphasizes the importance of preserving natural environments so things don't go extinct before we can ever recognize their importance to the Earth and their relationships in their habitats."
![UC Davis doctoral student Peter Coggan (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) UC Davis doctoral student Peter Coggan (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107903.jpg)
![Peter Coggan of northern Minnesota is a moth'er and a member of the board of the Minnesota chapter of National Dark Skies. His son, Peter, also a moth'er, is a UC Davis doctoral student. Peter Coggan of northern Minnesota is a moth'er and a member of the board of the Minnesota chapter of National Dark Skies. His son, Peter, also a moth'er, is a UC Davis doctoral student.](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107904.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The set-up? It's basically a white sheet lit by an ultraviolet (UV) light, which attracts night-flying critters.
What a treasure to see this beautiful moth!
The large tannish-colored moth (wingspan 4 to 6 inches) is known for the striking eyespots on its hind wings--which probably distract, startle or confuse predators. In fact, the name originates from the cyclops Polyphemus in Greek mythology.
Karofelas, a longtime naturalist and avid photographer, decided to rear the species and photograph the life cycle. He credited UC Davis entomology student and researcher Gwen Erdosh (who goes by "Gwentomologist" on Instagram) with showing him "how to keep it alive in a critter cage.”
The Polyphemus silk moth laid flat, light-brown eggs, and the eggs hatched into larvae or caterpillars. They fed on the leaves of a host plant, the Valley oak. Kareofelas said he reared and released a total of nine moths. They emerged as adults on June 21. The entire process, from egg to larva to cocoon to adult, took less than two months.
In celebration of National Moth Week, July 17-25, Karoefelas created a video of the process, now posted on YouTube at https://youtu.be/Ppsa7P7wr8M.
This Polyphemus moth is thought to be the same species that Alice of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" encountered, Kareofelas related.
Excerpts from the book:
The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence....
'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I — I hardly know, sir, just at present — at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.'
'What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar sternly. 'Explain yourself!'
'I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir' said Alice, 'because I'm not myself, you see.'
'I don't see,' said the Caterpillar.
'I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, 'for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.”
This moth is just one of some 250 different species of moths that Kareofelas has recorded in his backyard. Blacklighting is something anyone can do, he says.
"Polyphemus moths are our most widely distributed large silk moths," according to Wikipedia. "They are found from southern Canada down into Mexico and in all of the lower 48 states except for Arizona and Nevada."
"Polyphemus caterpillars gain protection from predators by their cryptic green coloration. When threatened they often rear the front part of the body in a 'Sphinx' pose--possibly to make them less caterpillar-like to a predator. If attacked, polyphemus caterpillars as well as those of many other bombycoid moths make a clicking noise with the mandibles-- sometimes as a prelude to or accompanied by defensive regurgitation of distasteful fluids. Brown et al. (2007) found that ants and mice were deterred by the regurgitant of the polyphemus caterpillars and suggested that the clicking is a warning of the impending regurgitation."
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus, is temporarily closed to the public due to COVID-19 pandemic precautions. COVID, however, hasn't stopped the Bohart scientists from publicly celebrating National Moth Week via videos posted on their home page (more to come).
The Bohart is the home of nearly 8 million insect specimens, plus an gift shop (now online) and a live "petting zoo" (think Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and tarantulas.) The insect museum is directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished entomology professor, Department of Entomology and Nematology. Entomologist Jeff Smith curates the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) collection.
![This image, taken May 2, shows the larva of the Polyphemus silk moth, Antheraea polyphemus. (Photo by Greg Kareofelas) This image, taken May 2, shows the larva of the Polyphemus silk moth, Antheraea polyphemus. (Photo by Greg Kareofelas)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/84035.jpg)
![On May 9, the caterpillar of the Polyphemus silk moth, Antheraea polyphemus, looked like this. (Photo by Greg Kareofelas) On May 9, the caterpillar of the Polyphemus silk moth, Antheraea polyphemus, looked like this. (Photo by Greg Kareofelas)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/84036.jpg)
![A beautiful Polyphemus silk moth, Antheraea polyphemus, eclosed on June 20. (Photo by Greg Kareofelas) A beautiful Polyphemus silk moth, Antheraea polyphemus, eclosed on June 20. (Photo by Greg Kareofelas)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/84037.jpg)