You can watch the science of entomology unfold at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on Saturday, Sept. 28.

The open house, free and family friendly, takes place from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. Parking is also free.

"The theme is Museum Fundamentals 101," said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. Activities will center around:  

• Catching bugs (nets, malaise, light and pitfall)
• How to make a kill jar
• Pinning
• Microscope work
• Labeling
• Identification of some of the major orders
• Celebration of noted UC Davis entomology professor Richard M. Bohart (2013-2007), founder of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, whose birthday anniversary was Sept. 28, the date of the open house.  Speaking will be UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, who directed the Bohart Museum for 34 years until she retired Feb. 1, 2024; and the new Bohart director, 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. 

Kimsey, who was Bohart's last graduate student, remembers him in the audio of a newly produced video by Walter Leal, UC Davis distinguished professor of molecular and cellular biology and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. Kimsey provides the narrative and images. Leal added excerpts from a 1996 Aggie Video production when Kimsey interviewed Bohart.  (See https://youtu.be/3YqnK-CpbJE)

Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Lepidoptera collection, will show pinning boards at various stages of completeness and "we will have a QR code linked to the video of him showing how to spread leps that we created over the pandemic," said Yang. "We will also highlight and link to his 'carpentry how-to for drawers' and spreading boards that (collections manager) Brennen Dyer has on his website, resourcefulentomology.com.

Carla-Cristina “CC” Melo Edwards of the laboratory of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will be discussing mosquitoes and ticks--and how she traps them. Her doctoral research focuses on investigating the physiological mechanisms underlying pyrethroid resistance in Aedes aegypti (the yellow fever mosquito). She was a McNair scholar at Baylor University, where she completed her undergraduate degree in cell and molecular biology in May 2021.

A family arts and crafts activity--making a collecting jar--is also planned.

The event will take place both inside the Bohart Museum and in the hallway. 

• inside
• Moth Collection (Jeff Smith and Greg Kareofelas)
• Collecting Equipment (Fran Keller)
• Pinning and Labeling (Oliver Smith and Allen Chew)
• Labeling, Identifying (Lynn Kimsey and Steve Heydon)
   
• Hallway
• Live Animals (handling and rearing) - (Oliver Blunt, Jason Ni and Nancy Lauerman)
• Educational microscopes  (Sam Amelia McCullough)
• Netting (Christofer Brothers)
• Finding/Tracking Mosquitoes and Ticks- Medical Entomology (CC Edwards)
• Craft: Make a collecting jar (while supplies last) (Julianna Campos)
• Free public snack - Birthday cake in honor of Richard Bohart

The Bohart Museum is the home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also houses a live petting zoo (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, tarantulas and more) and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters and jewelry, among other items.