Butterflies are good learners--just ask Martha Weiss.

Weiss, associate professor of biology at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., will discuss "Lepidopteran Learning and Memory: Caterpillars, Butterflies, and the Mysterious In-Between" at the UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Wednesday, Nov. 16 in 122 Briggs Hall.

Her lecture, from 12:10 to 1 p.m., will make you think.

"Despite a common perception to the contrary, lepidopterans are very good learners," says Weiss, who received her bachelor's degree in geological sciences from Harvard University in 1980 and her doctorate in botany from UC Berkeley in 1992. "Indeed, learning and memory are apparent across the entire lepidopteran life cycle. Caterpillars can associate tastes or odors with the presence of food, and can also learn to avoid cues associated with aversive stimuli."

"A capacity for rapid and flexible associative learning allows butterflies to adjust their foraging efforts in response to variable floral resources and to locate appropriate host plants for oviposition," she says. "Butterflies can associate colors, patterns, and even shapes with nectar rewards or oviposition cues, and can also learn to avoid aversive stimuli."

And the pupal stage? Can a caterpillar learn something that a butterfly or moth will remember?  "Perhaps surprisingly," Weiss says, "the answer is YES -- memory of larval experience can persist in the pupa over a month, and is clearly expressed in the emergent adults."

That's not all. "Lepidoptera provide terrific opportunities, well beyond the familiar painted lady life cycle, for hands-on elementary science education."

Her talk is scheduled to be recorded and then posted on UCTV.

So, the next time you see a butterfly, such as a Western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus), landing on a Tithonia or other blossom, just remember that "butterflies can associate colors, patterns and even shapes with nectar rewards or oviposition cues."

Butterflies are good learners!

"Where is the love for bugs?" science writer Rachel Nuwer asked in a recent article published in the New York Times.

Well, there is that "ick" factor.

"If you have a grizzly bear or a beautiful bird, many people are engaged right away," Mace Vaughan, director of the Pollinator Conservation Program of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation told Nuwer. The Xerces Society, headquartered in Portland, Ore., protects invertebrates, especially pollinators.

"People think all invertebrates have an ick factor,"  Vaughn commented, "but in fact almost all don't."

So true. 

People who don't like bugs sometimes run, stomp or scream--not necessarily in that order.

But at the Bohart Museum of Entomology on the UC Davis campus, there's a sense of awe and wonderment.  See, the Bohart Museum is home to a global collection of more than seven million insects but a popular attraction is the "live petting zoo," comprised of assorted Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and the like.

And children do "like."

Bob Dunning of Davis recently brought along three of his children, Molly, 9,  Emme, 8,  and Mick, 6, to enjoy a Bohart open house.

Emme, especially, was drawn to the Madagascar hissing cockroaches, aka hissers. She watched one crawl up her arm and around her neck. She didn't flinch. Right on cue, brother Mick let his hisser do the same. Molly? She preferred to watch.

Bohart volunteer Ralph Washington, who received his bachelor’s degree in entomology from UC Davis, told them that these cockroaches are native to Madagascar. The Madagascar hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa) is one of the largest cockroach species and can reach two to four inches in length.

“They’re like goodwill ambassadors to the Bohart and the cockroach family,” said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach director, who estimated the museum holds about 40 to 50 Madagascar hissing cockroaches at any given time.

“Some visitors think of them as big beetles, and when we tell them they’re cockroaches sometimes they get a little concerned," she said. "They’re thinking of the pest species.”

An added attraction is that Madagascar hissing cockroaches, aka “hissers,” make a noise—they hiss.

“They hiss for a variety of reasons,” Yang said. “The males hiss at each other over territory and they hiss to attract females. When we pick them up, they do an ‘alarm hiss’ so we will leave them alone and put them down.”

Sometimes they’re so used to being handled that they don’t readily hiss. That’s when the museum staffers raid the personal collection of entomology graduate student Emily Bzdyk, who keeps some in her Bohart office.

The Bohart Museum, located at 1124 Academic Surge on California Drive, is directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis. It's open for visits Monday through Thursday.  

To draw in folks who can't attend on weekdays, the Bohart Museum offers special weekend open houses.

The next weekend open house is Saturday, Nov. 19 from 1 to 4. The theme: “Thankful for Bugs.” Want to attend? It's free. And, you'll have a buggy good time.

But be sure to bring your camera. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a picture of a bug on a kid ought to be worth at least 10,000.

Lynn S. Kimsey is an entomologist, and has been one for most of her life.

So begins the National Science Foundation's recent LiveScience feature on the UC Davis entomologist.

It's an interesting piece. Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at UC Davis, traces her interest in entomology to age 5, when she received her first butterfly net.

"I've pretty much had a burning passion for insects ever since, except for a brief foray into marine biology as an undergraduate," she told LiveScience.

Kimsey recently drew international attention with her discovery of gigantic "warrior wasps" on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.(The male measures about two-and-a-half-inches long, Kimsey says. “Its jaws are so large that they wrap up either side of the head when closed. When the jaws are open they are actually longer than the male’s front legs.)

And what is "the most important characteristic a researcher must demonstrate in order to be an effective researcher?"

"A burning curiosity and the need to know."

Kimsey is also quick to point out the societal benefits of her research.  "Understanding insects, where they occur and the ecosystem services they provide, is critical for our how important insects are to us. They are our principal competitors — they feed on us and our animals, they make us sick and yet provide critical pollination, recycling and nutritional services."

We're glad to see LiveScience singling out scientists for a "behind-the-scenes" look. It humanizes the scientists who do such intriguing research.

We remember when apiculturist Marla Spivak, a 2010 MacArthur Foundation and Distinguished McKnight Professor and Extension entomologist with the University of Minnesota, shared some of her thoughts with LiveScience.

When asked "If you could only rescue one thing from your burning office or lab, what would it be?" Spivak answered "My students." Then, showing a trademark sense of humor, she added "If there were bees in the lab, I would grab them, too."

Kimsey, too, has a honed sense of humor. The Bohart Museum is the home of a global collection of seven million insect specimens and what she calls "the live petting zoo"--insects you can touch and handle. They include Madagascar hissing cockroaches, a rose-haired taranatula, and walking sticks.

We thought she might gleefully answer "walking sticks" when she was asked what she would RUN out of burning building with, but no.

Kimsey replied: "My external hard drive: My entire research life, my brain, is in that drive."

When  self-described "rock artist" Donna Billick of Davis created the morphologically correct honey bee sculpture for the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis, she expected it to be a focal point.

And it is.

The bee, which she cleverly named "Miss Bee Haven," anchors the half-acre bee friendly garden and it's the first thing visitors see when they stop by the site, located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, west of the central UC Davis campus.

"That's one big honey bee!" they say. Or, "that's one big worker bee!" 

Sometimes you see young children circling it or climbing on it. Most of the time you see people whipping out a cell phone to take a photo.

Last Wednesday it was "Occupy the Bee." An insect occupied the bee's left antenna: a consperse stink bug (Euschistus conspersus).

Why was the stink bug there? After all, this little critter sucks plant juices.

Me thinks the agricultural pest was just warming itself on "Miss Bee Haven"--before heading out to misbehave.