A Jerusalem cricket, aka potato bug, graces the Bohart Museum screen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, is gearing up for the new year.

Open houses or special events planned from January through May include:

Saturday, Jan. 11:
General Open House
1 to 4 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 8
14th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, a Super Science Day on campus
Various times (schedule pending; at least nine museums are expected to participate)

Sunday, March 2
Venomous vs. Poisonous
1 to 4 p.m.

Saturday, April 12
111th annual UC Davis Picnic Day
Bohart Pop-Up Tent at Briggs Hall
Times pending  

Sunday, May 18
Open House: Insects, Life Stages
1 to 4 p.m.

The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live petting zoo (featuring Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas) and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with books, posters, jewelry, T-shirts, hoodies, insect-collecting equipment and more. 

The public is invited to visit the Bohart Museum on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 1 to 4:30 p.m. Note that admission is always free at the Bohart Museum. 

Bohart Museum director  is Professor Jason Bond, who is the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

The Bohart Museum was founded in 1946 by noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007), professor and chair emeritus of the Department of Entomology. His former doctoral student, Lynn Kimsey, served as the director of the Bohart Museum for 34 years, retiring on Feb. 1, 2024 as a UC Davis distinguished professor emerita. She continues her research and her work as the executive director of the Bohart Museum Society.

More information is available from the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu/pr  by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.