- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The walking sticks, or stick insects, belong to the order Phasmatodea. The Phasmids, a word derived from "phantom" in ancient Greek, refers to their ghost-like ability to camouflage themselves as leaves or twigs.
They're found on all continents except Antarctica.
At the recent Bohart Museum open house, hands reigned supreme in the form of "guiding hands" and "hand-over-hand" as visitors cradled the 'sticks.
Definitely a "hands-on" activity!
The Bohart Museum, home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. It houses the seventh largest insect collection in North America. It is also the home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of insect biodiversity. Noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) founded the museum in 1946.
The Bohart Museum also maintains an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, books, posters and insect-collecting equipment.
In fact, the gift shop includes a t-shirt, "Know Your Sticks." It includes a stick person, a real stick or twig, a Vietnamese walking stick and an Australian spiny stick. Entomologist Fran Keller, then a doctoral student at UC Davis and now a professor at Folsom Lake College, came up with the idea, and Ivana Li, then an entomology student doubling as president of the Entomology Club--and now biology lab manager at UC Davis--drew the illustrations.
New hours! The Bohart Museum is open to walk-in-visitors on Tuesdays through Thursdays, from 9 a.m. to noon, and from 1 to 4:30 p.m.
The museum will be operational on Mondays and Fridays as well, but the focus will solely be on research those days. Director of the museum is Professor Jason Bond the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
For the campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 20, the Bohart Museum is planning a pop-up tent at Briggs Hall; the Academic Surge building will be closed. For more information on the Bohart Museum, access the website or email bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
![A walking stick switches to another hand during the recent Bohart Museum of Entomology open house. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A walking stick switches to another hand during the recent Bohart Museum of Entomology open house. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/105310.jpg)
![A walking stick heads down a youngster's sleeve. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A walking stick heads down a youngster's sleeve. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/105312.jpg)
![A walking stick descends a hand. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A walking stick descends a hand. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/105313.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Meet Chryseobacterium kimseyorum, named for UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum, and her husband, forensic entomologist Robert "Bob" Kimsey, both of the Department of Entomology and Nematology.
“We've had a few things named after us but never bacteria--that's a first,” said Lynn Kimsey.
The story begins more than a decade ago when then UC Davis doctoral student Matan Shelomi, now an associate professor of entomology at National Taiwan University, Taiwan, was studying the digestive physiology of the stick and leaf insects, Phasmatodea, for his Ph.D, under the guidance of his major professor, Lynn Kimsey. He isolated and cultured bacteria from the guts and cages of the stick insects. Some of the species seemed new to science, but Shelomi had neither the time nor the resources to prove it then.
He stored the microbes inside the deep freezers of the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, UC Davis Department of Food Science and Technology.
The years slipped by. So did the memory of isolating the bacteria. Then after becoming a professor himself, his graduate student, Chiao-Jung Han, discovered a new bacteria species inside a beetle. That prompted Shelomi to renew his interest in the microbes from the Bohart Museum.
"Thankfully, I kept all my notes from graduate school," says Shelomi, "so I was able to check and see which strains I had flagged as possibly new species. When I saw one of them was the same genus as the new microbe found in Taiwan, I realized this was an opportunity to describe them both together." So Shelomi emailed Kyria Boundy-Mills, curator of the Phaff Collection, “who had my old specimen revived and shipped across the Pacific.”
The abstract begins: “Two strains of Chryseobacterium identified from different experiments are proposed to represent new species. Strain WLa1L2M3T was isolated from the digestive tract of an Oryctes rhinoceros beetle larva. Strain 09-1422T was isolated from a cage housing the stick insect Eurycantha calcarata. Sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA and rpoB genes found both strains to be similar but not identical to other Chryseobacterium species. Whole-genome sequencing suggested the isolates represent new species, with average nucleotide identity values ranging from 74.6 to 80.5?%.”
Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart Museum, relayed the news to a tour group visiting the insect museum on April 20. “I just used this story today with a tour group,” she told Shelomi. “I mentioned how your student was denied her dog's name. I love how this ties the Bohart and the Phaff Yeast collection together and then California and Taiwan.”
As for the stick insect, “It's pretty aggressive for a walking stick,” Lynn Kimsey said, noting that Andy Engilis, curator of the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, told her about his work in Papua New Guinea. “These walking sticks would actually chase rodents out of their burrows and take over the burrows to rest in,” she related. “That's pretty tough for a walking stick.”
Meanwhile, the Kimseys are enjoying their new namesake. Lynn Kimsey already has seven other species named for her:
- Mystacagenia kimseyae Cambra & Wasbauer 2020 (spider wasp)
- Oligoaster kimseyae Soliman 2013 (tiphiid wasp)
- Exaerate kimseyae Oliviera 2011 (orchid bee)
- Spilomena kimseyae Antropov 1993 (solitary wasp)
- Manaos kimseyae Smith (argid sawfly)
- Spintharina kimseyae Bohart 1987 (cuckoo wasp)
- Neodryinus kimseyae Olmi 1987 (dryinid wasp)
Bob Kimsey has as at least two species named for him: Acordulacera kimseyi Smith, 2010 (sawfly) and Grandiella kimseyi Summers & Schuster (mite).
Shelomi, a Harvard University graduate who received his doctorate from UC Davis in 2014, served as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany for two years before accepting a faculty position in 2017 at National Taiwan University.
Shelomi returned to UC Davis in 2017 to present a seminar on "Revelations from Phasmatodea Digestive Track Transcriptomics,” to the department.
![Former UC Davis doctoral student Matan Shelomi described a new bacteria species from the gut of a Giant New Guinea Stick Insect, Eurycantha calcarata. This is a E. calcarata from the Bohart Museum. Shelomi named the bacteria after UC Davis faculty members Lynn and Bob Kimsey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Former UC Davis doctoral student Matan Shelomi described a new bacteria species from the gut of a Giant New Guinea Stick Insect, Eurycantha calcarata. This is a E. calcarata from the Bohart Museum. Shelomi named the bacteria after UC Davis faculty members Lynn and Bob Kimsey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/98995.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Honey bees weren't the only insects at the 2022 California Honey Festival, held Saturday, May 7 in downtown Woodland.
Walking sticks, aka stick insects, grabbed some of the attention, too.
Officials at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis, brought along display cases of bee specimens that showed the diversity of bees. They also brought along stick insects for visitors to hold and photograph.
UC Davis undergraduate students Lauren Spellman and Pichawi "Salee" Sangrawiakararat delighted in holding the Peruvian stick insects. Both are first-year students. Lauren is majoring in environmental sciences while Salee is undeclared. When someone suggested that Salee might consider majoring in entomology (science of insects), she smiled.
The Bohart Museum of Entomology, directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, houses a worldwide collection o 8 million insect specimens. It also includes a gift shop, stocked with insect-themed gifts such as hoodies, t-shirts, books, posters, and jewelry; and its popular live "petting zoo," comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas.
The Bohart, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, is newly opened to the public this spring after two years of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Groups must make reservations and everyone must follow the UC Davis visitor guidelines.
Upcoming weekend programs, free and open to the public:
- Saturday, May 28, 1 to 4 p.m.
"Bugs in Ag: What Is Eating Our Crops and What is Eating Them?" - Saturday, June 25, 1 to 4 p.m.
"8-legged Wonders" -
Saturday, July 16. 1 to 4 p.m.
"Celebrating 50 Years of the Dogface Butterfly: California's State Insect"
Local Spider Information (Essig Museum of Entomology)
![Tabatha Yang, the Bohart Museum of Entomology's education and outreach coordinator, Tabatha Yang, the Bohart Museum of Entomology's education and outreach coordinator,](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/90585.jpg)
![UC Davis undergraduate students Pichawi UC Davis undergraduate students Pichawi](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/90587.jpg)
![Smile! UC Davis students Pichawi Smile! UC Davis students Pichawi](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/90588.jpg)
![Close-up of a Peruvian walking stick (stick insect). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Close-up of a Peruvian walking stick (stick insect). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/90589.jpg)
![Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator and senior museum scientist Steve Heydon of the Bohart Museum of Entomology greet visitors at the California Honey Festival. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator and senior museum scientist Steve Heydon of the Bohart Museum of Entomology greet visitors at the California Honey Festival. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/90590.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation launched "Giving Tuesday" in 2012 in response to the troubling commercialization and consumerism in the post-Thanksgiving season (think Black Friday and Cyber Monday).
A very worthy benefactor on "Giving Tuesday" is the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on the UC Davis campus.
Directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis professor of entomology, the insect museum is named for its founder, noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007), a professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology). He founded the museum in 1946.
When you think of the Bohart Museum, you think of excellence: excellent scientists, staff and volunteers. The insect museum houses
- nearly eight million insect specimens collected worldwide
- the seventh largest insect collection in North America
- the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity
- a live "petting zoo," comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, tarantulas and praying mantids; and
- a year-around gift shop, which is stocked with T-shirts, sweatshirts, books, jewelry, posters, insect-collecting equipment and insect-themed candy
Another key part of the Bohart Museum outreach efforts: they host open houses at scheduled times on weekends throughout the academic year. On the campuswide Picnic Day, the Bohart draws as many as 4000 visitors. Thousands also attend the UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day. (See video on YouTube).
Scientists throughout the world study the insect collection.
What does the Bohart need?
"Support for our outreach programs," said Kimsey. "I would love to get another photograph like the Biss one we have in the hall."
That would be like the newly acquired 5x6-foot photographic image or "microsculpture" of a cuckoo or emerald wasp, the work of noted British photographer Levon Biss. The “cuckoo” name refers to the fact that the female lays her eggs in the nests of unsuspecting hosts, including the sand wasp. The larvae of the cuckoo wasp then consume the host eggs, larvae and the stored food. The wasp is found throughout Europe but not in the United States.
Biss's intricate work, titled "Ruby-Tailed Wasp" (Parnopes grandior), encompasses more than 8,000 separate images, Kimsey said. “We chose it partly to honor the work that ‘Doc' Bohart did." Bohart spent much of his career studying chrysidid wasps or parasitoid wasps.
Biss, based in London, works across many genres, including news, sports, portraiture and insects. He credits his son, Sebastian, for developing his interest in insects. Sebastian found a ground beetle in their backyard and Dad photographed it. That led to a collaboration with the Oxford Museum of Natural History, where Biss gained access to the museum's historical collection of insects, including some collected by Charles Darwin.
Biss now creates micro-scale images for what he calls his Microsculpture series. Over a two-year period, he photographed 37 insects from the Oxford collection. To create the final insect portraits, he composites thousands of images using multiple lighting setups. Biss says he photographed most of them in about 30 sections, “each section lit differently with strobe lights to accentuate the microsculpture of that particular area of the body.”
In October 2017, Biss drew rave reviews for his TED talk, Mind-Blowing Magnified Portraits of Insects. That led to a world gallery tour of his images; his show is now at the Houston (Texas) Museum of Natural Science, July 13, 2018 through Jan. 13, 2019.
Unlike many insect museums, the Bohart Museum is open to the general public four days a week: Mondays through Thursdays, from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., plus occasional, weekend open houses​. Admission is free.
Interested in helping out the Bohart Museum on #GivingTuesday? Checks may be made out to the "Bohart Museum Society" and mailed to:
Bohart Museum of Entomology
Room 1124, Academic Surge Building
University of California, Davis
Crocker Lane
Davis, Calif. 95616.
Further information is available on the Bohart Museum website at http://bohart.ucdavis.edu/ or contact (530) 753-0493 or bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
![A tarantula and a Madagascar hissing cockroach are favorites at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's live A tarantula and a Madagascar hissing cockroach are favorites at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's live](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/56653.jpg)
![Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the moth and butterfly section at the Bohart Museum, shows a visitor some of the butterfly collection. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the moth and butterfly section at the Bohart Museum, shows a visitor some of the butterfly collection. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/56654.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A new display, designed and coordinated by Bohart associate and UC Davis biological sciences graduate Emma Cluff, showcases stick insects and insect digestion. A research grant donated by Brian Johnson, associate professor of entomology, funded the project.
“I have always thought stick insects were pretty amazing,” said Cluff, who worked on the project over a six-month period. “I loved making the display visually catching as well as informative. I spent a lot of time reading papers and communicating with graduate students who worked with Brian Johnson, and I enjoyed figuring out how to translate their science into terms that the public would find accessible.” The Johnson lab studies the genetics, behavior, evolution, and health of honey bees and currently focuses on the evolution and genetic basis of social behavior using comparative and functional genomics.
Stick insects, most abundant in the tropics and subtropics, belong to the order Phasmatodea and are found on all continents except Antarctica. They derive their name from the ancient Greek “Phasma,” meaning an apparition or phantom, referring to their resemblance to sticks or leaves.
The finished project, mounted on a wall, includes a wood sculpture of a stick insect by Leo Huitt of Woodland, and illustrations by UC Davis entomology student Karissa Merritt, who drew the anterior midgut, Malpighian tubules, crop and hindgut. The display also includes stick insect facts, with lift off tabs.
“People seem surprised that we know so much about stick insect digestion,” Cluff commented. “Visitors have also commented on how incredible it is that a fairly complex digestive system can fit in such a slender organism.”
In her display, Cluff explains cellulose and why it is difficult to digest. She defines cellulose as “a molecule made of linked sugars. It is found in plants and forms plant cell walls. This moleculre provides the rigid structure in plants, like stems and wood (this means that wood is made mostly of sugar!)”
Why is it difficult to digest? “Cellulose has a very stable structure and forms strong fibrous strands. Because of this, animals need enzymes (proteins which enable chemical reactions) to break the cellulose apart into sugars.”
This was her first experience designing an exhibit. “It was a really wonderful experience,” she said.
“Emma is very talented and I would really like to see her continue doing science outreach,” said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor of entomology at UC Davis.
Cluff, from Turlock, plans to attend graduate school and become a marine biologist. “I love marine bio and I am also passionate about education so I would like to somehow combine the two. I always loved marine science as a kid, and taking a research course at Bodega Bay re-inspired me. I think marine science is so important for the future of our planet, and I also fell in love with research and the creativity of it.”
The Bohart Museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane. It is the home of nearly eight million insect specimens, plus a live “petting zoo” that includes stick insects, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, tarantulas and praying mantids; and a year-around gift shop.
Richard “Doc” Bohart (1913-2007), former professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology), founded the insect museum in 1946.
The Bohart Museum is open to the general public Mondays through Thursdays, from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., plus occasional, weekend open houses​. Admission is free. The next weekend open house is from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 18 and centers around urban entomology..
Further information is available on the Bohart Museum website at http://bohart.ucdavis.edu/ or contact (530) 753-0493 or bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
![Emma Cluff finishing her display of stick insect digestion, funded by a grant from associate professor Brian Johnson. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Emma Cluff finishing her display of stick insect digestion, funded by a grant from associate professor Brian Johnson. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/56215.jpg)
![Emma Cluff stands by her display of stick insect digestion at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Emma Cluff stands by her display of stick insect digestion at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/56216.jpg)