- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The audience, ranging from toddlers to teens to senior citizens, are inside the the Vacaville Public Library. Some sit on the carpet and others occupy the chairs circling the room.
Some are insect enthusiasts. Some are not. All come to listen to what Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, has to say about the critters that outnumber us on our planet.
Yang displays insect specimens and poses questions as the enthusiasm builds.
One youngster, about 5, announces he has insects in his bathroom. “I don't know what they are but I think we're infested,” he declares.
Other youngsters mention that they like ladybugs (lady beetles) butterflies, and dragonflies.
The excitement continues to build, especially when Yang announces they can hold the stick insects (“walking sticks”) and Madagascar hissing cockroaches ("hissers") from the Bohart's petting zoo. “You can hold them and show them to your neighbor,” she says. “But don't force the insects on them. Make sure it's okay with them. Always ask first.”
The stick insects that resemble green beans prove especially popular. “They are Great Thin Stick Insects (Ramulus nenatodes),” Yang said.
Following the program, Grace, 13, sprawls on the carpet, a Great Thin Stick Insect on her face. Eli, 5, joins her with the same species. It's pure delight. Future entomologists? Maybe.
“The Bohart is essentially a library of insects and so setting up a mini-Bohart at a library actually makes sense,” Yang commented. “These library events are special because they are all about the community. My favorite part is after I have explained the pinned specimens and shown people how to play with the live insects, the families, community members, librarians and I spend the rest of the time casually passing around the insects and swapping stories. I love seeing a diversity of people who don't know each other sharing and having a wonderful time together. We all learn from each other because everyone has some experience with insects. “
"The rest of the week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday), the Bohart is dedicated to university business, visiting researchers, pre-arranged programs and work that takes us away from the museum,” Yang said.
The Bohart Museum, directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, hosts open houses on specific weekends throughout the academic year. The last open house of the academic year is “A Night at the Museum,” (traditionally known as "Moth Night). It will take place from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, July 22 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus, and also outdoors. Scientists plan to set up an ultraviolet (UV) or blacklighting display to collect moths and other night-flying insects. A special treat: hot chocolate and cookies will be served. Admission and parking are free.
"A Night at the Museum" will be dedicated to the late Jerry Powell, an international authority on moths, who died July 8 at his home in Berkeley at age 90. A longtime director of the Essig Museum of Entomology, UC Berkeley, he collaborated with the Bohart Museum for decades. (See news story)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Mark your calendar!
The next open house at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, themed "Night at the Museum" (Moth Night), is from 7 to 11 p.m. on Saturday, July 22. It's free and family friendly. Parking is also free.
The open house is in keeping with the observance of the 12th annual National Moth Week, July 22-30. According to the website: "National Moth Week celebrates the beauty, life cycles, and habitats of moths. “Moth-ers” of all ages and abilities are encouraged to learn about, observe, and document moths in their backyards, parks, and neighborhoods. National Moth Week (NMW) is being held, worldwide, during the last full week of July. NMW offers everyone, everywhere a unique opportunity to become a Citizen Scientist and contribute scientific data about moths. Through partnerships with major online biological data depositories, NMW participants can help map moth distribution and provide needed information on other life history aspects around the globe."
Attendees at the Bohart Museum open house will visit the museum and also head outside for the blacklighting display, comprised of a hanging white sheet illuminated by a generator-powered ultraviolet (UV light) to attract moths and other night-flying insects. Bohart associate "Moth Man" John De Benedictis, along with Steve Heydon (retired Bohart Museum senior scientist) and naturalist Greg Kareofelas, traditionally set up the display.
Previous night visitors have included:
Family Tineidae:
Opogona omoscopa (Opogona crown borer)
Family Tortricidae:
Clepsis peritana
Platynota stultana (omnivorous leafroller)
Cydia latiferreana (filbertworm)
Family Pyralidae:
Achyra rantalis (garden webworm)
Ephestiodes gilvescentella (dusky raisin moth)
Cadra figuliella
Family Geometridae:
Digrammia muscariata
Family Noctuidae:
Spodoptera exigua (beet armyworm)
Spodoptera praefica (western yellow-striped armyworm)
Parabagrotis formais
The Bohart Museum, directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also maintains a live "petting zoo" (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, tarantulas and more) and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, posters, books, pens and collecting equipment.
The Bohart Museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. The Bohart will be open to the public (walk-ins) only on Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m., this summer, now effective. This is due to the high number of outreach programs, summer camps, scheduled tours and unavailability of staff. More information is available on the website or by emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
You pick up a maggot with a forceps, dip it into a non-toxic, water-based paint, drop it (gently) on a white paper, and let it crawl around, or guide it. Voila! Maggot Art!
It's a conversation piece. It's suitable for framing. And, it could make a good gift card--or at least a temporary spot on your refrigerator door.
The Bohart Museum of Entomology's recent open house featured Maggot Art as the family arts-and-crafts activity. The open house, themed "Forensics and Insects," spotlighted UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert "Bob" Kimsey of the Department of Entomology and Nematology. (See Bug Squad blog)
Maggot Art began on the UC Davis campus, at Briggs Hall, in the early 2000s as part of the annual UC Davis Picnic Day celebration. The Entomology Graduate Student Association and the Department of Entomology and Nematology coordinate the entomological activities.
Rebecca O'Flaherty, a former graduate student of UC Davis forensic entomologist Kimsey's, coined the educational teaching curriculum, "Maggot Art," back in 2001 when she was studying at the University of Hawaii. She was rearing blowflies for her forensic research and wanted an activity to draw the interest of elementary school students. She also wanted to generate interest and respect for forensic entomology.
In Maggot Art, who is the artist? Do the maggots, Calliphora vacinia, own the copyright, or do the two-legged participants?
Maybe both? The artist picks the colors and guides the maggots.
Want to do Maggot Art? Mark your calendar for the next UC Davis Picnic Day. It's Saturday, April 20. Entomological activities are in Briggs Hall and the Bohart Museum; Maggot Art is only at Briggs. If you access the Picnic Day website, you'll learn the days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining until the much-anticipated event.
The next open house at the Bohart Museum is "Night at the Museum" (Moth Night) from 7 to 11 p.m. on Saturday, July 22. All open houses are free and family friendly, and parking, too, is free.
The Bohart Museum, directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also maintains a live "petting zoo" (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, tarantulas and more) and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, posters, books, pens and collecting equipment.
The Bohart Museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. The insect museum is open to the public (walk-ins) only on Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m., this summer, now effective. This is due to the high number of outreach programs, summer camps, scheduled tours and unavailability of staff. More information is available on the website or by emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
He told the villagers to line up in town square with their sickles. When they did, he immediately fingered the killer. The killer confessed.
How did Song Ci know? Because minute traces of blood left on the "cleaned" sickle drew a swarm of blow flies.
That was one of the stories that UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert "Bob" Kimsey of the Department of Entomology and Nematology recounted in his 45-minute talk during the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on "Forensics and Insects."
Song Ci, also a judge, physician, anthropologist and writer, went on to author the book, Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified, containing the oldest known cases of forensic entomology.
In his presentation, Kimsey discussed the life cycle and development of blow flies and other insects. He is frequently called as a expert court witness at murder trials.
"Correct species identification is all important," said Kimsey, aka "Dr. Bob," in noting that different species have different development rates. He compared the life cycle of four species--Cochliomyia macellaria (secondary screwworm), Chrysoma rufifacies (a blow fly species), Phomia regina (a black blow fly), and Lucilia sericata (a common green bottle fly)--developing at a temperature of 27 Celsius. C. macellaria is the fastest and P. regina is the slowest, he said.
Kimsey also showed a chart illustrating the approximate age of a blow fly developing during a temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Another chart included information on the succession of arthropod taxa on carrion.
Following his talk, held in the nearby Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology lecture room, Kimsey fielded questions in his "Dr. Death booth" in the Bohart Museum. He annually portrays Dr. Death at Briggs Hall during the annual campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day every April.
At the open house, the Bohart Museum displayed a number of species involved in forensic entomology, including
- Acalyptrate flies, numerous and diverse families, scavenging maggots
- Bluebottle flies, family Calliphoridae, scavenging maggots
- Green bottle flies, family Calliphoridae, scavenging maggots
- Large carrion, or burying beetles, family Silphidae
- Flesh flies, family Sarchophagidae, scavenging maggots
- Coffin flies, family Phoridae, scavenging maggots
- Clown or hister beetles, family Histeridae, predaceous beetles
- Red-legged ham beetle, family Cleridae, omnivorous predators that also scavenge
- Sap beetles, family Nitidulidae, "indirect" scavenge beetles
- Cockroaches, order Blattodea, scavenging larvae and adults
- Rove beetles, family Staphylinidae, predaceous beetles and their larvae
- Termites, infraorder Isoptera, scavengers for nitrogen
- Ants, family Formicidae, predators and scavengers
Ants: "Ants are a nightmare for the forensic entomologist! They are of little use as evidence as yet, but they can easily confound the development of vital evidence by establishing residency and defending the decedent from other scavengers, and further delay development of vital evidence by carrying off fly eggs and small maggots. Thus, they can delay progress of insect-mediated decomposition and feed vital evidence to their developing larval ants: the first, thus oldest and most important maggot cohorts (to the forensic entomologist)! They also ambush, kill and dismember female flies coming to the decedent to lay eggs."
Green Bottle Flies: "Green bottle flies are iridescent green in color. They belong to the genus Lucilia and comprise some of the most common flies with maggots that feed on carrion. A number of species, including the green bottle fly, Lucilia sericata, and the bronze bottle fly, Lucilia cuprina, have been introduced worldwide by human commerce, and the later, also known as the Australian sheep blow fly, commonly infests living sheep in Australia, causing enormous economic damage."
Termites: "In other parts of the world, insects exotic to what we in the temperate zones consider to be the standard groups associated with carrion, assist in the decomposition process. Termites in Central America exemplify such 'exotics' to decomposition, building mud casings over and defending carrion against all comers in an effort to garner nitrogenous materials to supplement their extremely nitrogen-poor diet."
Clown or Hister Beetles: "Distinctively shiny black and resembling a pill, these small to very small beetles feed on a great diversity of small arthropods found in carrion, including the smallest stages of maggots, fly eggs and scavenger or predaceous mites. Active at night, the numerous carrion-associated species appear in nearly all stages of decomposition, often specializing on prey found only in a particular stage.
Flesh Flies: "This very large family consists of large robust scavenger species and small species that parasitize other insects. The scavengers, Sarchophaga and Blaesozipha, frequently do not usually lay eggs but frequently deposit a small number of first-stage maggots on carrion, which puts their maggots at a distinct advantage over maggots of egg-laying species."
Cockroaches: "A number of cockroach species found around the house (peridomestic) will gnaw on the skin of decedents indoors during the early fresh stage of decomposition. They are well known to chew on the calluses, clean debris from under the fingernails and around the toes of sleeping sailors on ancient sailing ships right through to the current day. This kind of depredation occurs in circumstances of overwhelming cockroach infestations. In similar circumstances, they are also responsible for chewing on the ears and eyelashes of newborn infants in cases of child neglect."
The family art-and-crafts activity involved maggot-inspired art. Participants dipped maggots in non-toxic, water-based paint and guided them on white paper to create their masterpieces, suitable for framing or at least as conversation pieces. (Photos to appear in June 9th Bug Squad blog)
The next open house at the Bohart Museum is "Night at the Museum" (Moth Night) from 7 to 11 p.m. on Saturday, July 22. All open houses are free and family friendly, and parking, too, is free.
The Bohart Museum, directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also maintains a live "petting zoo" (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, tarantulas and more) and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, posters, books, pens and collecting equipment.
The Bohart Museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. The Bohart will be open to the public (walk-ins) only on Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m., this summer, starting June 13. This is due to the high number of outreach programs, summer camps, scheduled tours and unavailability of staff. More information is available on the website or by emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Don't miss the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on "Insects and Forensics," featuring UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert “Bob” Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The open house, free and family friendly, is set for 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, June 3 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. “He will give a brief introduction to the field at the start of the event in the wildlife classroom (next door) and then we will move into our regular one-on-one, question-and-answer format,” announced Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.
Kimsey, who received his bachelor's degree and doctorate from UC Davis, focuses his research on public health entomology, arthropods of medical importance, and zoonotic disease, as well as the biology and ecology of tick-borne pathogens, and tick feeding behavior and biochemistry.
Kimsey staffs the annual “Dr. Death” booth at Briggs Hall during the campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day. He pin-mounts and identifies flies from various cases and research efforts, and displays studies on the sequence of development of individual maggots, calling attention to the development and sequence of communities of insect maggots. "By these means, approximations about how long a person has been dead can be made," he told the crowd. He also discussed recently adjudicated cases.
Kimsey wears a number of hats. He's the master advisor of the Animal Biology major; an assistant adjunct professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; and the faculty chair of the department's Picnic Day. He's also the advisor to the UC Davis Entomology Club and that includes guiding students to such venues as Alcatraz Island to see the flies and other insects. He's also known as "The Fly Man of Alcatraz" for his fly research.
Known as an outstanding teacher, advisor and mentor, Kimsey won the 2020 top faculty academic advising award from the international NACADA, the “global community for academic advising.”
Kimsey is also a 2019 winner of a faculty advising award from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the Eleanor and Harry Walker Advising Awards. He previously won the UC Davis Outstanding Faculty Advising Award, and the Distinction in Student Mentoring Award from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America.
The Bohart Museum, directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey (wife of Bob Kimsey), is the home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live "petting zoo" (including Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and tarantulas) and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with T-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, posters, books, pens and collecting equipment.