Aug. 4, 2011
DAVIS--The Bohart Museum of Entomology is displaying bee and butterfly specimens at a “Meet Your Pollinators” exhibit at the Solano County Fair, Vallejo, which opened Wednesday Aug. 3 and runs through Sunday, Aug. 7.
Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart Museum, arranged the display at McCormack Hall. It includes “oh-my” drawers of local bees and bee mimics; a native bee collection by UC Davis entomology graduate student Emily Bzdyk; and a display of California butterflies.
The "oh-my" drawers are so named "because people say 'oh my!' when they see them," Yang said.
The display also includes bee posters from the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility and a California dogface butterfly poster, the design of entomology doctoral candidate Fran Keller. Davis naturalist-photographer Greg Kareofelas scanned the butterfly images.
The fair, located at 900 Fairgrounds Drive, Vallejo, is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily; buildings close at 10 p.m. General admission is $8; children ages 6 to 12, $4; seniors, ages 60 and over, $4; children 5 and under, free. Parking is $7.
The R. M. Bohart Museum of Entomology, founded in 1946 by noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart, is dedicated to teaching, research and service. The museum houses the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and is also the home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity.
The collection includes more than seven million insect specimens, including a "petting zoo" of live insects, including Madagascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks.
The museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is open for tours from 8:30 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. It is closed for tours on Fridays and on major holidays. Admission is free.
(Editor's Note: Entomology faculty, staff and students who want to help staff the booth at the Solano County Fair may contact Tabatha Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-9464. She will provide tickets and parking passes for the volunteers.)
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894