They are legends.

Two of those attending the four-day international Lepidopterists' Society conference held recently at the University of California, Davis, are as celebrated in Lepidoptera circles as the butterflies they study.

Robert Michael Pyle, a septuagenarian, and Paul Opler, an octogenarian, are international authorities on the insect order and share a love of science, teaching, and writing. 

The two were among those who gathered at the Bohart Museum of Entomology during the Lepidopterists' Society conference. Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a UC Davis professor of entomology, hosted two visits with several other Davis-based society members: retired research entomologist John De Benedictus; entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Bohart Museum's Lepidoptera collection; Bohart senior museum scientist Steve Heydon, and Bohart associate and naturalist Greg Kareofelas.

"This was our 68th annual meeting," said society president Brian Scholtens, a professor at the College of Charleston, South Carolina. "We have more than 1000 members worldwide."

This year's meeting, headquartered in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Hall in downtown Davis, included two scientific gatherings at the Bohart Museum of Entomology.

The conference focused on the theme, "Insects in a Changing World Climate." "Attendees came from as far away as Finland to hear student and member speakers and to meet with their fellow Lepidopterists," said Smith. Marianne Horak of the Australian National Insect Collection received the prestigious Karl Jordan Medal, in absentia, at a banquet on the closing night.

The conference t-shirt and name tags depicted the California state insect, the dogface butterfly, Zerene eurydice.

Robert Michael Pyle
Robert Michael Pyle, a Yale-trained ecologist and a Guggenheim fellow,  is the founder of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. He has authored 23 publications, including the comprehensive National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies, a go-to reference source. Among his other insect-related books: Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage, which chronicles his 9,000-mile journey to discover the secrets of the monarchs' annual migration. For his book,  Mariposa Road: The First Butterfly Big Year, Pyle sought to track, firsthand, the 800 species of butterflies known in the United States. The book is a result of his 88,000 mile journey.

Pyle, now a resident of Grays River, Washington, recently published Magdalena Mountain: A Novel, about three Magdalenas:

• Mary, a woman on an uncertain journey;
• Magdalena Mountain, "shrouded in mystery and menace" and
• The Magdalena alpine butterfly, an all-black alpine butterfly, considered "the most elusive of several rare and beautiful species found on the mountain."

While at the Bohart Museum, Pyle delighted in examining the Magdalena specimens.

Paul Opler
Professor Paul Opler, attending with his wife, naturalist/writer/nature photographer Evi Buckner-Opler, is a special appointment professor at Colorado State University. He is best known for his research on insect host relationships of Lepidoptera and tropical ecology and his service as first editor of American Entomologist, published by the Entomological Society of America (ESA). A fellow of ESA and a prolific writer, he authored field guides to both eastern and western butterflies. He is also known for his contribution to Moths of Western North America, and his role as scientific editor of "Status and Trends of Our Nation's Biological Resources."

UC Berkeley Reunion
Three entomologists, trained directly or indirectly by Professor (now emeritus) Jerry Powell of UC Berkeley reunited at the Bohart gathering:   Dan Rubinoff, professor of entomology and director of the University of Hawaii Insect Museum, Honolulu; "Moth Man" John De Benedictus, retired UC Davis research entomologist; and Paul Opler, who retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the first entomologist in the Endangered Species Program and then accepted a special appointment professor in the Department of Bioagricultural Sciences at Colorado State University. 

All three received degrees in entomology from UC Berkeley.  Opler (Ph.D) and De Benedictus (Masters) studied with Powell, while Rubinoff (Ph.D) studied with Powell's successor, Felix Sperling.

At the Bohart gathering, director Lynn Kimsey gifted the attendees with a copy of the museum's innovative calendar featuring humorous sentences she collected from students in her classroom. UC Davis entomology student/artist Karissa Merritt illustrated the calendar.

The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, is the home of nearly eight million insect specimens and the California Insect Survey. They're used as an "insect library" or references during identifications. They're also a permanent record of insect species' distribution in time and space.

In addition, the Bohart Museum houses a gift shop and a live "petting zoo," comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and tarantulas.

More information is available on the website or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or (530) 753-0493.

Oh, what a (Moth) Night!

It was a family night in more ways than one.

Families who attended the Bohart Museum of Entomology's annual Moth Night last Saturday, Aug. 3, not only saw  specimens from scores of insect families inside the UC Davis insect museum, but outside as well.

The blacklighting display drew at least 11 different species from five moth families: Tineidae, Tortricidae, Pyralidae, Geometridae, and Noctuidae, according to Bohart associate and "Moth Man"  John De Benedictis.

De Benedictis, along with senior museum scientist Steve Heydon and Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas, set up the blacklighting display, comprised of a hanging white sheet illuminated by a generator-powered ultraviolet (UV light).

Moths that visited the blacklighting display from around 9:15 to 11 p.m. 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

In comparison, De Benedictis found 14 species in his backyard the following night, while Karofelas found nine in his yard. Both live in Davis.

"At this time of year, I get 15 to 20 species most nights," said De Benedictis, an entomologist who started blacklighting in his backyard in 1998 and at Cold Canyon in 1989. "On the best nights, I'll get about 30 species in my yard and more than 100 at Cold Canyon. In recent years (since 2012), I've run my backyard light as many as 260 nights a year and have been getting 140 to 170 species each year."

Since 1998, he has recorded more than 350 species at night from his yard (including an occasional butterfly or skipper), "but there are at least 25 more that I have not identified, so I estimate I've collected 400 plus species in my yard in 21 years when diurnal (day-flying) species are included in the count."

If you attended Moth Night and you cultivate citrus, strawberries, pomegranates or cucumbers, you may have recognized some of the moths on the blacklighting display or seen the larval pests. For example, the omnivorous leafroller is a pest of citrus. The filbertworm is a pest of pomegranate. The Opogona crown borer is commonly found in bird of paradise plants, but also attacks strawberries, according to the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM). The Spodoptera exigua (beet armyworm) and Spodoptera praefica (western yellow-striped armyworm) are pests of cucurbits (cucumber family).

Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) collection at the Bohart, spent the evening, 8 to 11, describing moths, showing specimens, and answering questions. "Moths can be distinguished from butterflies by their antennae, which always taper out to a fine point at the end, while butterflies' antennae end with an enlarged club," he said. "Very few butterflies can be labeled as pests, while a great many species of moths are pests, often extremely damaging kinds such as the gypsy moth, corn earworm, tent caterpillars, and California oak moth."

Smith estimates the Bohart's global moth collection at 300,000 to 350,000 specimens of moths.  "A recent donation from a local collector likely added another 25,000 specimens of moths alone."

"A great many of the colorful moths are diurnal, including hummingbird moths that mimic bumble bees, clearwing moths that mimic wasps, and Arctiid moths that mimic toxic and distasteful butterflies such as Heliconians and Glassywings from South America," Smith said.

In size, visitors saw the biggest (Atlas) to the smallest moth.  "Our smallest moth is one from Africa that was overlooked in the alcohol in which it was captured because of its tiny size," Smith pointed out. "Finally, a student separating the insects in the alcohol found it, and it is nearly microscopic."  Visitors also marveled at the hummingbird moth which has a proboscis (tongue) that 12 inches long.

Bohart associate Emma Cluff curated the silkworm moths and silks display. She gathered silkworm moths from the Bohart Museum collection, and textiles from a donation by Richard Peigler, a moth expert and biology professor at the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas.

The family craft activity involved coloring and stringing white cocoons (donated by Peigler) to make necklaces or bracelets. Cluff and fellow entomologist enthusiast Keely Davies created a huge luna moth in the hallway. Some 200 visitors participated in the free and family friendly event.

The moth exhibit is currently on display at the Bohart Museum.

Founded in 1946 by Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007), and directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis professor of entomology, the Bohart Museum houses a global collection of nearly eight million insect speicments. It is s also the home of the seventh largest insect collection in North America; the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity; a live "petting zoo" and a gift shop.

The Bohart Museum's regular hours have changed for the summer season. As of July 3, the insect museum is hosting 30-minute tours starting at 2:30 and 3:30 pm. No reservations are required and all ages are welcome. Admission is free, but donations are always welcomed. The Bohart is open to walk-in visitors Monday through Thursday from 1 to 5 p.m. It is closed from 9 a.m. to noon to walk-in visits (the insect museum conducts many tours and outreach programs during those times). More information on the Bohart Museum is available on the website or by contacting (530) 752-0493 or email bmuseum@ucdavis.edu. 

Yes, there are day-flying moths.

And some of them are quite attractive.

Take the Stiriini moth, Annaphila astrologa.

We saw our first-ever last March in our pollinator garden.  Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology, and naturalist Greg Kareofelas, an associate at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, identified it as a Annaphila astrologa, a small Noctuid.

"It's a medium-sized genus of attractive day-flying moths,” Shapiro said.

It's a species of owlet moth in the family Noctuidae, first described by William Barnes and James Halliday Mcunnough in 1918.  A host plant is whispering bells, Emmenanthe penduliflora, a grassland wildflower native to California, according to calscape.org.

Moths and butterflies share the same order, Lepidoptera, but they don't share much else. Moths usually fly at night, not during the day, and moths are generally dull in coloring, compared to butterflies.  Moths also outnumber butterflies. Scientists estimate there are some 160,000 described species of moths in the world, as compared to about 17,500 species of butterflies.

Want to learn more about moths? Attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology's Moth Night, set from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3. It's all free and family friendly. You can:

• View the moths (and butterflies) in the collection curated by entomologist Jeff Smith.
• Talk to the scientists, including senior museum scientist Steve Heydon of the Bohart Museum; Jeff Smith, curator of the the moth and butterfly specimens; and Bohart associates "Moth Man" John DeBenedictis and Greg Kareofelas.
• Check out the display of silkworm moths and silks curated by Emma Cluff. The silkworm moths are from the Bohart Museum collection and the textiles were donated by Richard Peigler, a biology professor at the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas
• Engage in a family craft activity; "kids will be able to color and string white cocoons and make necklaces or bracelets with them," Cluff says.
• Watch the insects that touch down on the blacklighting display, which involves a hanging white sheet illuminated by a generator-powered ultraviolet (UV) light. This won't occur until darkness falls, usually starting around 9 or 9:30.
• Enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and a cookie. (Carafs from Common Grounds Coffee)
• Hold and photograph Madagascar hissing cockroaches and a stick insects (walking sticks), and get up close to the  tarantulas, all in the live "petting zoo." There may even be caterpillars on display, according to Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.  They are 3rd instar Antheraea polyphemus larvae, feeding on oak, from West Sacramento. These Polyphemus moths are members of the family Saturniidae, the giant silk moths.

 The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of nearly eight million specimens. Founded in 1946 by Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007), and directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis professor of entomology, it is also the home of the seventh largest insect collection in North America; the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity; a live "petting zoo" and a gift shop.

The Bohart Museum's regular hours have changed for the summer season. As of July 3, the insect museum is hosting 30-minute tours starting at 2:30 and 3:30 pm. No reservations are required and all ages are welcome. Admission is free, but donations are always welcomed. The Bohart is open to walk-in visitors Monday through Thursday from 1 to 5 p.m. It is closed from 9 a.m. to noon to walk-in visits (the insect museum conducts many tours and outreach programs during those times). More information on the Bohart Museum is available on the website or by contacting (530) 752-0493 or email bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.

Related Link:

• Moths, Smithsonian Institution

It's always a good day when you encounter a dragonfly on Main Street USA.

Such was the case on Wednesday, July 17 when seemingly out of nowhere, a shiny Tramea lacerata "black saddlebags" appeared in front of me on the sidewalk fronting the Vacaville Chamber of Commerce. 

Its habitat is near ponds, lakes, ditches, slow streams,  or other bodies of water, but there it was.

"It is a freshly emerged female, probably on its maiden flight," said naturalist Greg Kareofelas of Davis, an associate with the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis. "This is its most vulnerable time. If it gets through the next day or so, off to fast flying it will go and you will never get close to it again."

I gingerly picked it up and photographed it on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). Half an hour later, I witnessed it fly over our fish pond, never to be seen again. At least by me!

This species, found throughout North America, is included in a Bohart Museum's poster, "Dragonflies of California." Designed by Fran Keller (then a doctoral student in entomology at UC Davis and now an assistant professor at Folsom Lake College), with images by Kareofelas, the poster is available in the Bohart Museum's gift shop in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus.

The black saddlebags dragonfly belongs to the Order Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), suborder Anisoptera (dragonflies) family Libellulidae (skimmers), genus Tramea (saddlebags) and species lacerata (black saddlebags). "It flies constantly, often gliding, perches infrequently," according to BugGuide.net. The University of Michigan biokids website yields more information.

It's easily distinguishable. Says Wikipedia: "It has distinctive wings with characteristic black blotches" at its proximal ends, "which make the dragonfly look as though it is wearing saddlebags. The black saddlebags is a relatively large dragonfly at about 5 centimeters in length. The body is thin and black, and the female may have lighter spotting or mottling dorsally. The head is much wider than the rest of the body and is dark brown in color...Some populations of this dragonfly undertake migrations. Both the larvae and adult forms are efficient predators of mosquitoes so they are a helpful insect to have in wet areas where mosquito infestations occur." A wonderful predator...

Of predators, sidewalks and black saddlebags...