Sunday, May 8 is Mother's Day.

Saturday, May 7 is Moth-er's Day.

Yes, that's Moth-er's Day, Lepidopteran style.

That's when the Bohart Museum of Entomology will showcase moths at a special weekend opening from 1 to 4 p.m. The museum, located at 1124 Academic Surge on California Drive, UC Davis, is home to more than seven million insect specimens, including moths that you wouldn't believe.

Visitors can check out such moths as Urania leilu, and Chrysiridia rhipheus—“two moths that that will challenge people's notions of what a moth is,” said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum. Admission is free.

“We will also have our new public microscope on display for people to use and to see the scales on the wings that define the order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies),” Yang said.

In addition, the Bohart Museum features a live “petting zoo” that includes Madagascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks; and a gift shop where visitors can purchase such items as t-shirts, sweat shirts, posters, jewelry and insect candy.

To accommodate families and other area residents who are unable to attend the regular visiting hours, Mondays through Thursdays, the Bohart began offering special weekend hours last year.

The last of the special weekend hours this season will be on Sunday, June 5, when the Bohart celebrates “June Bugs” from 1 to 4 p.m. The first weekend opening of the year was Jan. 23 and featured the theme, "Butterflies."

The Bohart Museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis, was founded in 1946 by noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart. Dedicated to teaching, research and service, it houses the seventh largest insect collection in North America.

The museum holds specimens collected worldwide and is the home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity of California’s deserts, mountains, coast and great central valley.

The museum’s regular hours are from 8:30 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) 752-9464.

It's easy to see why folks find insects fascinating. Among all those visitors,  I'm sure some will become entomologists.

And some, Lepidopterans.

Forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology is known as "The Fly Man of Alcatraz."

When he's not teaching classes, advising students and graduate students, or heading out on homicide cases, you can usually find him on "The Rock"--researching flies.

Kimsey will discuss "The Flies of Alcatraz" tomorrow (Thursday, May 5) at a meeting of the Northern California Entomology Society, to be held at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis. His talk starts at 1:15.

Kimsey has walked where Al “Scarface” Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, Robert “The Birdman of Alcatraz” Stroud and Arthur “Doc” Barker walked. He sleeps where "The Bird Man of Alcatraz" sleeps when his research involves overnight trips.

“One day when I was working on research until 4:30 a.m., I laid down in the cell, extremely tired,” Kimsey said. “I looked through the steel bars and saw the lights of San Francisco. I thought about how I’d feel if I had to spend a large chunk of my life in this cell.  I’d certainly be very angry with myself.”

Kimsey became involved in the fly project in July 2007 when he received a call about the annoying flies from entomologist Bruce Badzik, integrated pest management coordinator with the National Park Service, Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Complaints rose to a feverish pitch in late August, September and October. The flies seemed to land on people as if they were rotten meat.  Kimsey witnessed the incessant “shoo-fly” behavior on the docks and encountered it on a personal basis.

Kimsey identified the troubling fly as a “kelp fly” (Fucillia thinobia) or “cormorant fly” in the family Anthomyiidae. “But it’s not a kelp fly as such,” said Kimsey, who plans to publish his research in an entomological journal. “It has nothing to do with kelp. It lives in purge-soaked soil under dead cormorants found in rookeries all around the island. It does not exist in any other place.”

Since then, he and Badzik have identified 17 species of flies. They are the first to research the flies of Alcatraz.

Kimsey has also become friends with many of the National Park Service employees, the former inmates and the former guards.

“Federal prisoners were sent to Alcatraz not necessarily because of the nature of their crime but of their deportment or behavior toward others in jails elsewhere,” Kimsey said. “If they fought constantly, tried to kill the guards, or tried to escape, Alcatraz was the place to send them. They were not necessarily the worst of the worst, but the most difficult.”

County fairs are known for cotton candy, corn dogs and cool treats.

But some--such as the 136th annual Dixon May Fair in Solano County--have bugs!

When the fair opens Wednesday, May 4 at 655 S. First St., the Floriculture Building will house gorgeous flowers...and gorgeous bugs.

The Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is providing for public viewing: a bee observation hive; posters offering facts about honey bees and native bees; and macro photos of honey bees.

The bee observation hive is where you can see the queen bee laying eggs, the workers tending to the brood, and drones walking around, being fed by their sisters. If you're lucky, you'll see a retinue of workers surrounding the queen as they fulfill her every need.

Also in the Floriculture Building, the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis will be displaying mounted butterfly and other insect specimens.

The fair opens at 10 a.m. daily through Sunday, May 8, Mothers' Day.

Gotta love those solider beetles (family Cantharidae).

When an army of soldier beetles goes on patrol in your garden, just thank them. These "leatherwings" are there to mete out justice to the plant-sucking aphids and other undesirable critters. Aphids are high on their menu preferences. So are grasshopper eggs, caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects.

The Cantharids look almost comical as they scoot down limbs and leaves--and then suddenly run out of room. We watched this one (below) reach the end of a leaf. Its antennae twitching furiously,  it paused and looked around for another foothold.

No more leaf. Just air.  End of the line.