April 18, 2012
DAVIS--What's Mother's Day without moths and caterpillars?
Moth specimens and a fun caterpillar craft will highlight a pre-“Moth’er's Day” open house at the Bohart Museum of Entomology from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, May 12.
The museum is located in Room 1124 of Academic Surge on California Drive, University of California, Davis campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Entomologist and museum associate Jeff Smith will show visitors a “behind-the-scenes” look at the Bohart’s moth collection.
Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator, said youngsters and adults alike can make caterpillars from colorful “scrunched-up paper” and chopsticks. "They're a lot of fun," she said.
The Bohart Museum also features a year-around live “petting zoo” with such permanent residents as walking sticks, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and a rose-haired tarantula.
In addition, the gift shop will be open so visitors can buy Mom such gifts as jewelry, T-shirts, sweatshirts, coffe mugs, posters, insect candy and insect nets.
The Bohart Museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis, houses a global collection of more than seven million insect specimens, the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and is also the home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity. Noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) founded the museum in 1946.
The May 12 event is the second to the last weekend open house for the academic year. The remaining open house is Sunday, June 3 when the museum will open its doors from 1 to 4 p.m. for “Bug Light, Bug Bright…First Bug I See Tonight.”
Bohart officials annually schedule weekend open houses so that families and others who cannot attend on the weekdays can do so on the weekends. The Bohart’s regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. It is closed on Fridays and on major holidays. Admission is free.
More information is available on the Bohart website or by contacting Tabatha Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0493. Due to limited space, group tours will not be booked during the weekend hours.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894