- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Butterfly heaven!
Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the butterfly and moth collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis, is in butterfly heaven.
And even more so now--he just returned from a collecting trip to Belize with his colleagues and brought back some 700 to 800 Lepidoptera specimens.
Smith will be among those presenting at the Bohart Museum's open house on "Bug-Art@The Bohart" from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 21. The event, free and open to the public, will include art displays, sketching demonstrations; coloring of dragonfly images, and other insect-art interests, including an insect tattoo contest and an insect-themed attire contest.
How large is the Bohart's Lepidoptera collection? It has now reached about half a million, estimates Smith, a longtime volunteer honored with a UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences' "Friend of the College" award. "I believe I spread over 4,000 specimens from an August 2017 trip to Belize, and brought back maybe 700-800 more from this recent Belize trip, so the numbers continue to grow."
Specifically, what's on tap for the Bohart open house? UC Davis entomology major and artist Karissa Merritt will demonstrate how to sketch insects.
Other art featured will be that of the late Mary Foley Bensen, a former Smithsonian Institution scientific illustrator who moved to Davis and worked for UC Davis entomology faculty; Lynn Siri Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor of entomology; and Charlotte Herbert, Ph.D. student; and UC Davis entomology alumni/artists Ivana Li and Nicole Tam. An exhibit of "insect wedding photography" images by Bohart associates Greg Kareofelas and Kathy Keatley Garvey is also planned.
Visitors will be invited to sketch insects. If you're not artistically inclined, you can color the images of dragonflies from a coloring book by dragonfly expert/author Kathy Claypole Biggs and illustrator Tim Manolis.
The open house will definitely be interactive! Attendees are invited to wear insect-themed attire and jewelry. A contest will take place at 3 p.m. for the best insect-themed outfit, and for the best insect-themed tattoo (tattoo must be in a family friendly site).
Also on Jan. 21, insect/art enthusiasts are invited to view the unique exhibition, It's Bugged: Insects' Role in Design from 2 to 4 p.m. in Room 124 of Cruess Hall. The exhibit, which continues through April 22 (the event is free and open on weekdays from noon to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m.) features the work of faculty and graduate students from the Department of Design; specimens from the Bohart Museum; and insect photography by UC Davis alumnus Alex Wild, curator of entomology, University of Texas, Austin.
World-renowned for its global collection of nearly eight million specimens, the Bohart Museum also maintains a live “petting zoo,” featuring walking sticks, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, praying mantids, and tarantulas. A gift shop, open year around, offers T-shirts, sweatshirts, books, jewelry, posters, insect-collecting equipment and insect-themed candy. The Bohart's regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The museum is closed to the public on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and on major holidays. Admission is free. For more information, contact the bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or access the website or Facebook page.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Not environmental artist Ann Savageau; the retired UC Davis Department of Design professor creates art from hornet nest paper.
"I began using hornet nest paper back in Ann Arbor, Mich. in the early 1990s," said Savageau, who describes herself as "an environmental artist who creates mixed-media sculpture and installations."
"Hornet's nests are common in that area," she said. "I am attracted to the beautiful colors and patterns."
Her art will be among works displayed at the UC Davis Design Museum's exhibition, It's Bugged: Insects' Role in Design, set Jan. 8-April 22 in Room 124 of Cruess Hall. The show is open to the public from noon to 4 p.m. weekdays and from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is free.
The professor emerita, a member of the UC Davis faculty from 2003 to 2014 and now a full-time artist, says her work deals with the natural world, human culture, and their intersection. "My current interests include global warming and environmental destruction; consumer culture and wasteful consumption; and artistic transformations of waste." Her Stanford anthropological training, her interest in the natural world, and the many places she has lived are reflected in her art, which she has displayed in more than 80 exhibitions, both nationally and internationally.
For the UC Davis exhibition, Savageau created a trilogy of wall pieces made from hornets' nest paper, and a set of sculptures made of wood etched into striking patterns by bark beetle larvae.
Savageau said she collected only unoccupied hornet nests in the Ann Arbor area, which she found on tree branches or lower in bushes. She has never been stung. "I collected the nests in late fall or winter, after some hard frosts, when the nests were empty (no life inside)," she said. "The queen leaves the nest and hibernates, under a log or some other protected place."
The nests she's collected range in size from a basketball to 30 inches in diameter.
The artistic process? "The paper on the nest is many layers deep," Savageau related. "I peel the paper off the nest—it comes off in irregular sizes and shapes. Then I collage it onto foam core, matching the irregular pieces in such a way that they appear to be one large sheet. The pieces are usually no larger than four to six inches. It's similar to piecing together a jigsaw puzzle."
The artist, who holds a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and her master's degree in fine arts from Wayne State University, Detroit, taught at the University of Michigan Residential College, Ann Arbor, from 1978-2002 before joining the UC Davis faculty in 2003. (See more of her work at http://annsavageau.com/)
"The colors and patterns of a hornet's nest are indeed exquisite," said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at UC Davis. "We have several hornet nests as part of our museum's collection, and one is huge--larger than a basketball." The bald-faced hornet, Dolichoves pulamaculata, crafts the papery, egg-shaped nests by mixing wood fibers with saliva. The insect's name refers to the ivory-white markings on its face. Its thorax, legs and abdomen also have white markings.
The hornet nest closes down in late fall or winter, Kimsey said, and the queen leaves to hibernate for the winter in such protected places as in hollow trees and fence posts, or under logs, bark or rock piles. In the spring, the queen emerges to begin building a nest, which eventually may contain some 400 to 700 workers. The nests are mottled gray with layered hexagonal combs.
The bald-faced hornets are considered important to the ecosystem in that they pollinate plants and prey upon many insect pests. They are, however, known for their highly defensive behavior in protecting their nests.
A reception heralding the opening of the Design Museum exhibition is set from 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 11. Savageau will give a presentation on the exhibition at 6:30 p.m. in Room 256 of Cruess Hall.
(Visit the Design Museum for map and parking information.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Capture images of the bees, create sculptures from beetle galleries, and depict insect motifs on clothing...
Don't miss the unique exhibition, It's Bugged: Insects' Role in Design, set Jan. 8-April 22 at the UC Davis Design Museum in Room 124 of Cruess Hall, UC Davis campus.
Beginning at noon, Monday, Jan. 8, you can view the art-and-design installation that explores the connections between people and insects. The exhibition is free and open to the public. Hours are from noon to 4 p.m. weekdays, and from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sundays through April 22.
You'll see work by UC Davis Department of Design faculty and graduate students, as well as displays from the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
The Bohart Museum will showcase insect specimens from its collection, and images from celebrated insect photographer Alex Wild, curator of entomology at the University of Texas, Austin. Wild received his doctorate in entomology in from UC Davis in 2005, studying with major professor Phil Ward.
The Design Museum exhibition also ties in with the Bohart Museum's open house, “Bug Art @ the Bohart," from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 21 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane. This will overlap with the Design Museum's hours on Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m., so visitors can explore both museums, said Tabatha Yang, the Bohart Museum's education and outreach coordinator.
“The inspiration we draw from the natural world is endless,” said McGraw. “The challenge in the exhibit was focusing our story to the links between insects and textiles and forms. We selected key pieces from UC Davis' Joann C. Stabb Design Collection and works from collaborating artists, so the connection to insects could then be explored. Some of these relationships are centuries old, while other ways people are using insects and insect behavior is relatively new. What's exciting to me is to think about all the new products, designs, and technologies that are still to come as people continue to be inspired by insects. And what better place to encourage that than a university setting where so much creative work is already going on?”
The exhibition includes the work of several Department of Design faculty and graduate students, including professor emerita Ann Savageau and master-of-fine-art students Alicia Decker, Cory Wolffs and Lauren Kelly.
For the exhibition, Savageau created a trilogy of wall pieces made from hornet nest paper, and a set of sculptures made of wood etched into striking patterns by bark beetle larvae. The Bohart Museum open house on bark beetles featured her work last August.
Savageau describes herself as an environmental artist who creates mixed-media sculpture and installations. Her work deals with the natural world, human culture, and their intersection. Her current interests include global warming and environmental destruction; consumer culture and wasteful consumption; and artistic transformations of waste. Ann's Stanford anthropological training, her interest in the natural world, and the many places she has lived are reflected in her art.
Ann received her bachelor's degree from Stanford University, and her master of fine arts from Wayne State University. She taught at the University of Michigan Residential College from 1978-2002. She joined the faculty at UC Davis in 2003, retiring as a professor of design in 2014. She currently works as a full-time studio artist. Ann has exhibited her work in more than 80 exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. She has given numerous lectures and workshops and has juried many exhibitions. (See more of her work at http://annsavageau.com/)
Alex Wild describes himself as a "Texas-based biologist who started photographing insects in 2002 as an aesthetic complement to my scientific work on ant taxonomy and evolution." His photographs have appeared in numerous natural history museums, magazines, books, television programs, and other media, including the New York Times, Science, Nature, Washington Post, National Geographic and the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), among others. He and colleagues teach a BugShot Macro Photography Workshops. Wild shared some of his photography techniques when he presented a UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar in 2008. (See his seminar posted on UCTV and his images on his website.)
A reception heralding the opening of the Design Museum exhibition is set from 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 11. Savageau will give a presentation on the show at 6:30 p.m. in Room 256 of Cruess Hall.
(Visit the Design Museum for map and parking information.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
You're in luck. UC Davis has you covered.
Want to buy the Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel? Check.
Want to buy honey (wildflower, orange blossom, coriander)? Check.
Want insect/floral photography notecards? Check.
Want insect collecting equipment, books, jewelry, candy, posters and t-shirts? Check.
Want t-shirts designed by entomology graduate students? Check.
Want to take beekeeping classes? Check.
Just access these UC Davis pages: the Honey and Pollination Center, the Bohart Museum of Entomology, the Entomology Graduate Students' Association, and the UC Davis Bee lab of Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño.
Here's a sampling of what the Honey and Pollination Center is offering:
- Honey Flavor and Aroma Wheel: "Learn how to describe your honey tasting experience using the groundbreaking Honey Flavor Wheel, published by the Honey and Pollination Center," says Amina Harris, director. "The wheel gives a huge lexicon to the tastes and aromas we find when tasting honey. The wheel production follows six months of research and development."
- UC Davis Wildflower Honey: This is a natural, light and floral Northern California wildflower honey collected throughout the Sacramento Valley.
- UC Davis Orange Blossom Honey: "Orange Blossom Honey celebrates a long history in California," relates Harris. "The first trees were planted in Mexican Los Angeles in 1835 by William Wolfskill. A short while later, William and his brother John planted citrus and grapes just outside of Winters, Calif. at Rancho de los Putos, later renamed the Wolfskill Experimental Orchards. In 1934, 107 acres of the ranch were deeded to the University. Today, Wolfskill Ranch is home to the USDA National Germplasm Repository, a living library of fruit, and an integral part of UC Davis."
- UC Davis Coriander Honey: Harris describes this as "a unique savory-first honey with hints of spices from the east (cardamom, coriander) and a gentle undercurrent of chocolate." Coriander is also known as cilantro. (And if you see bees on the cilantro, check out the pink pollen!)
- Stunning Photography Notecards: These insect and floral note cards (package of eight) "make a wonderful gift," Harris says. The photography is by Kathy Keatley Garvey, who donated the photos for the cards. The photos include California buckeye butterfy on sedum; Western tiger swallowtail butterfly on Mexican sunflower; yellow-faced bumble bee on red buckwheat; monarch butterfly and honey bee on Mexican sunflower, honey bee visiting a tower of jewels (Echium wildpretii), hover fly (syrphid) on Galliardia, male green sweat bee on a seaside daisy, and afemale sweat bee on a purple coneflower.
- Insect-themed jewelry (lots of bee and butterfly earrings)
- Insect-themed candy (great stocking stuffers)
- Insect collecting equipment (try your hand at netting butterflies)
- Books, including such topics as bumble bees, bees, and the state insect--the California dogface butterfly (good reading!)
- Dragonfly and butterfly posters (suitable for framing)
- Stuffed animal toys (insects!)
- T-shirts, featuring dragonflies, butterflies and beetles (so colorful, too!)
And this is unique: you can also name an insect after you or for a loved one through the Bohart's biolegacy program.
The Entomology Graduate Students' Association (EGSA) features innovative, award-winning t-shirts and onesies. All designs are winners, in that they won an annual EGSA contest. The organization is run by and for graduate students who study insect systems. Their objectives are to connect students from across disciplines, inform students of and provide opportunities for academic success, and to serve as a bridge between the students and administration.
Among the design themes (access the website to order):
- Honey bees (our favorite insect!)
- Bug on a bicycle (that would be a wasp on a penny farthing or high wheel bicycle)
- Weevil (see no weevil, hear no weevil, speak no weevil)
- The Beetles (parody of The Beatles crossing Abbey Road)
- Wanna-bees (Hemaris diffinis or snowberry clearing moth masquerading as a bee)
The UC Davis Bee lab of Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño is offering a variety of beekeeping classes, from beginners through advanced. They offer gift certificates for all the classes, which begin Saturday, March 24 and continue through June 16.
All courses will take place at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis campus, beginning Saturday, March 24, with the last one ending June 16.
The schedule and capsule information (also listed on Bug Squad):
- Planning Ahead for Your First Hives:Saturday, March 24
- Working Your Colonies: Sunday, March 25
- Queen-Rearing Techniques Short Course: Saturday and Sunday, April 21-22 course; Saturday and Sunday, April 28-29 course
- Bee-Breeding Basics: Saturday, June 9
- Varroa Management Strategies: Saturday, June 16
The good news is the Honey and Pollination Center, Bohart Museum of Entomology, Entomology Graduate Students' Association offer gifts year-around; you don't have to wait for a holiday! The beekeeping classes are seasonal.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane on the UC Davis campus, is the home of nearly 8 million specimens collected worldwide. It also houses the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity.
Said Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology and director of the Bohart Museum: "We have big plans for the coming year and your support or continued support will make it possible for us to:
- Continue our K-12 outreach programs
- Train undergraduate and graduate students in educational outreach
- Keep our website up-to-date
- Educate the public about insects and spiders
- Develop new training programs
- Finance collecting expedition"
Over the past year, the Bohart has added new collections of beetles and butterflies and "we have two awesome imaging systems that have made it possible for us to provide scientists and digital visitors high-quality images of insects in our collections," Kimsey said.
The Bohart Museum offers the following categories of memberships: Individual: $25; Student: $15; Student Families: $25; Family: $40; and Patron: $100.
Donors can also contribute to the exhibits, biolegacy sponsorship (get an insect named for you or a loved one), and to the museum endowment.
Memberships and gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law. Checks may be made payable to the Bohart Museum Society and mailed to:
The Bohart Museum Society
Department of Entomology and Nematology
University of California
Davis, CA 95616
Or, donors may wish to pay online by accessing http://bohart.ucdavis.edu
The Bohart Museum is open to the public from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. It is closed to the public on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and on major holidays. Admission is free. The museum also hosts special open houses throughout the academic year.
Special attractions are a live "petting zoo" (think Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, tarantulas and praying mandids) and a year-around gift shop filled with insect-collecting equipment, books, T-shirts, sweatshirts, jewelry, posters, and insect-themed candy.
More information on the Bohart Museum is available by contacting (530) 752-0493 or emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or Tabatha Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu.