- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology's annual Moth Night celebration, affiliated with National Moth Week, you'll meet John De Benedictis, better known as “The Moth Man.”
The indoor-outdoor event, free and open to the public, is set from 7 to 11 p.m., Saturday, July 20 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane.
De Benedictis and his colleagues annually set up a blacklighting display, using UV lighting to attract moths and other night-flying insects. He has blacklighted for 37 years.
His moth collection of some 600 species from the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve and 300 species from his backyard in Davis is housed in the Bohart Museum.
"Jerry Powell (the late UC Berkeley professor and director of the Essig Museum of Entomology) once estimated that there are about 17,000 North American butterflies and moths," De Benedictus commented. "I would not be surprised if it's closer to 20,000."
'Expertise in Moth Identification Is Invaluable'
"John has been great volunteer and supporter of the Bohart Museum," said UC Davis distinguished emerita professor Lynn Kimsey, former director of the Bohart Museum. "His expertise in moth identification is invaluable and now that Jerry Powell is gone, there's really no one else who can identify moths, particularly little brown moths (LBMs) of California."
De Benedictis, a research associate at the Bohart Museum, is closely linked to UC Berkeley, his alma mater, and UC Davis, where he retired. He holds a bachelor's degree in biology, with an emphasis in entomology (1979), and a master's degree in entomology (1998) from UC Berkeley. "Jerry was my major professor and also recruited me as an undergraduate to work in his lab."
A UC Davis retiree since 2001, De Benedictis worked as a staff research assistant from 1995 to 2001 in the laboratory of medical entomologist Tom Scott, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"I came to Davis in 1989 for a two-month job to key out aphids for Beth Grafton-Cardwell, who at that time was a postdoc of (Professor) Jeffrey Granett. During that time, the rootstock that was being used to protect wine grapevines from grape phylloxera began to fail in Napa and Sonoma counties, so I was able to prolong my stay at Davis through a series of grants to address that problem. While working for Beth and Jeffrey, I got a mini-grant from the former Institute of Ecology to study moths at the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve where I collected from 1989 until the last major fire in 2020."
“I began a similar inventory of the species in my backyard after I purchased my home in 1998," De Benedictis said. "It continues to this day, and a synoptic collection of the 300 or so species that I've collected in my yard is housed alongside the Cold Canyon collection in the Bohart Museum.” Grace Horne of the lab of urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke, Department of Entomology and Nematology, is analyzing the data from these studies as part of her doctoral research.
When Children Were 'Free-Range'
John traces his interest in entomology to his childhood. Born in Oakland in 1945, the second of six children on Aldo and Eleanor De Benedictis, he grew up in Berkeley.
“I am grateful that I had parents who not merely tolerated but encouraged our activities and to have grown up in an era when chickens were confined and children were free-range rather than the reverse as is the case today.”
“I attended Berkeley public schools and later UC Berkeley, except for my last year of junior high school which was in Mt. Vernon, N. Y., while my dad was temporarily transferred,” De Benedictis said. “My older brother Paul was keenly interested in natural history, which switched from subject to subject whenever a new Golden Nature Guide came out. We spent much of our free time poking around in the East Bay Regional Parks and in Strawberry Canyon behind Berkeley's Central Campus.” (Paul went on to obtain a doctorate in ecology in Michigan.)
While in the fourth grade, John began “collecting butterflies, a few flashy moths, and other insects with my older brother and a couple of classmates. A highlight of my youth was the return trip from New York by car where we chased butterflies that we never saw in New York or in California as often as we could complain long and loud enough to make my dad stop the station wagon.”
When John was attending junior high in the late 1950s, he found a Polyphemus moth under a streetlight on the UC Berkeley campus. “It was a highly prized find. At UC Berkeley, we collected on spring field trips with the systematics professors and students and we---whoever was participating--ran lights on during our spruce budworm field trips. I ran a sheet a few times on San Bruno Mountain on my own and was surprised to find that very few of the moths that I had reared from caterpillars flew to my light. While in grad school and afterwards, I went on a few of Jerry Powell's trips to the California Channel Islands to assist him in his inventory of the islands' Lepidoptera species. There we ran lights and set out light traps when it wasn't too cold and windy.”
Species Named for Him
De Benedictis recalled that he and Dave Wagner, now a professor at the University of Connecticut, started graduate studies with Powell at UC Berkeley at the same time. "Jerry had a long-term project studying larval host plants of caterpillars, and Dave and I were among the succession of students who took care of his larval rearing lots on the Berkeley campus. Dave went on to become the current authority on the caterpillars of large moths. I was more interested in smaller moths and prolonged my graduate years by collecting caterpillars on San Bruno Mountain by the San Francisco Airport.” There De Benedictis discovered a handful of new species, one of which Powell named Gnorimoschema debenedictisi.
“The Mid-Winter Gathering is a legacy of Jerry Powell,” said De Benedictus, who spent more time in the field with Powell than any other UC Berkeley graduate student. "I was privileged to be Jerry's student and lucky to have him become my friend."I
In a tribute to Powell, the Essig Museum wrote: "Jerry's rearing program was the most extensive in the history of the study of New World Microlepidoptera. For over 50 years he and his students processed more than 15,000 collections of larval or live adult Lepidoptera. Resulting data encompass more than 1,000 species of moths, through rearing either field-collected larvae or those emerging from eggs deposited by females in confinement. This total includes more than 60% of an estimated 1,500 species of Microlepidoptera occurring in California."
Powell and Paul Opler, two Lepidoptera legends, co-authored Moths of Western North America.
![These three entomologists were trained directly or indirectly by Jerry Powell (1933-2023) of UC Berkeley. From left are Dan Rubinoff, John De Benedictus and Paul Opler (1938-2023) at a gathering of lepidopterists in 2019 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Powell and Paul Opler (1938-2023) co-authored Moths of Western America, published in 2009. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) These three entomologists were trained directly or indirectly by Jerry Powell (1933-2023) of UC Berkeley. From left are Dan Rubinoff, John De Benedictus and Paul Opler (1938-2023) at a gathering of lepidopterists in 2019 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Powell and Paul Opler (1938-2023) co-authored Moths of Western America, published in 2009. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/107749.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The event, "A Night at the Museum," is free and family friendly. It takes place in several places: (1) inside the insect museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus; (2) in the hallway of the Academic Surge Building; (3) directly outside the building for the blacklighting display; and (4) in the nearby Wildlife Classroom (Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology) for a insect drawing demonstration.
The focus is on moths as this is National Moth Week. Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Lepidopterist collection, will be in "the moth aisle" with Bohart associate and naturalist Greg Kareofelas to show specimens and answer questions.
At the Bohart table, inside the museum, fly experts from around the world--including dipterists at the California Department of Food and Agriculture--will answer your questions and show specimens. They were in Reno to participate in the 10th International Dipterology Congress, held July 16-21.
The hallway will be a plethora of exhibits and activities.
- There will be a memorial to the late international moth authority, Jerry Powell, former director of the Essig Museum of Entomology, UC Berkeley, who died July 8 at age 90. "Jerry's rearing program was the most extensive in the history of the study of New World Microlepidoptera," according to an Essig post. "For over 50 years he and his students processed more than 15,000 collections of larval or live adult Lepidoptera. Resulting data encompass more than 1,000 species of moths, through rearing either field-collected larvae or those emerging from eggs deposited by females in confinement. This total includes more than 60% of an estimated 1,500 species of Microlepidoptera occurring in California."
- Visitors can hold the tenants of the live insect petting zoo, including Madagascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks and take selfies.
- Science educator and entomologist Nazzy Pakpour, who holds a bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Davis, and a doctorate in microbiology, virology, and parasitology from the University of Pennsylvania and did postdoctoral research at UC Davis, will be showcasing her new children's book, "Please Don't Bite Me! Insects That Buzz, Bite and Sting. The book is illustrated by Owen Davy. "All proceeds of book sales will go to the Bohart Museum, thanks to Nazzy's generosity," said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. (See Pakpour's biography on One Aggie Network). Pakpour was a member of a collaborative team who worked on a malaria-proof mosquito that made Time Magazine's "50 Best Inventions of 2010." See Bug Squad post: "Malaria-Proof Mosquito Takes the Spotlight."Nazzy Pakpour
- Microscopes also will be set up in the hallway for visitors to view insect specimens.
Wildlife Classroom: Multiple insect drawing demonstrations, "How to Draw Bugs," will be given Professor Miguel Angel Miranda of the University of the Balearic Islands (UBI), Spain, who just returned from the International Dipterology Congress. He is a zoologist, entomologist and noted insect illustrator.
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
Also outdoors, sidewalk chalking will take place. Free hot chocolate and cookies will be served.
The museum, directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, houses a global collection of eight million insects; an insect petting zoo; and a year-around insect-themed gift shop.
![A youth checks out the moth displays during a recent Bohart Museum of Entomology Moth Night. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A youth checks out the moth displays during a recent Bohart Museum of Entomology Moth Night. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/100871.jpg)
![Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum, answers questions from the crowd at a recent Bohart Museum Moth Night open house. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum, answers questions from the crowd at a recent Bohart Museum Moth Night open house. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/100872.jpg)
![Moths and other night-flying insects are drawn to a white sheet illuminated by an ultraviolet light. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Moths and other night-flying insects are drawn to a white sheet illuminated by an ultraviolet light. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/100874.jpg)
- 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.
![Scene from a recent Bohart Museum of Entomology Moth Night. The portrait is of UC Davis entomologist Richard Bohart, for whom the Bohart Museum is named. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Scene from a recent Bohart Museum of Entomology Moth Night. The portrait is of UC Davis entomologist Richard Bohart, for whom the Bohart Museum is named. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/100019.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
You gotta love those wooly bear caterpillars.
Richard "Rick" Karban, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, studies them. The rest of us admire them.
We usually see them in the spring along the cliffs of Bodega Head on the Sonoma coast. They're reddish brown in the center and black on both ends.
Some folks say they're winter weather predictors. Not! We do, however, see them curl into a bristly ball when they sense danger.
The National Weather Service (NWS) says: "According to folklore, the amount of black on the wooly bear in autumn varies proportionately with the severity of the coming winter in the locality where the caterpillar is found. The longer the wooly bear's black bands, the longer, colder, snowier, and more severe the winter will be. Similarly, the wider the middle brown band is associated with a milder upcoming winter. The position of the longest dark bands supposedly indicates which part of winter will be coldest or hardest. If the head end of the caterpillar is dark, the beginning of winter will be severe. If the tail end is dark, the end of winter will be cold. In addition, the wooly bear caterpillar has 13 segments to its body, which traditional forecasters say correspond to the 13 weeks of winter."
"As with most folklore, there are 2 other versions to this story," NWS acknowledges. "The first one says that the wooly bear caterpillar's coat will indicate the upcoming winter's severity. So, if its coat is very wooly, it will be a cold winter. The final version deals with the woolly bear caterpillar's direction of travel of the worms. It is said that wooly bear's crawling in a southerly direction are trying to escape the cold winter conditions of the north. On the other hand, wooly bear's crawling on a northward path would indicate a mild winter."
If you attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology Moth Night at UC Davis, you'll see specimens of the adults--the tiger moths, Arctia virginalis. They're sometimes called the "Ranchman's Tiger Moth." They are boldly marked, like a tiger. (Who says moths are drab-looking?)
The Bohart is celebrating National Moth Night from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, July 30: both (1) indoors in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus, and (2) outdoors, by the blacklighting display, within a short walking distance.
Indoors you'll see the Bohart's global collection of moths, and outside, you'll see moths and other insects hanging on a white sheet in the blacklighting display. They are drawn there by an ultraviolet (UV) light.
The open house is free, family friendly and open to the public. A craft activity is planned and refreshments (hot cocoa and cookies) will be served, says Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946 and directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, houses a worldwide collection of eight million insects. It also houses a live "petting zoo" (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas) and an insect-themed gift shop.
![A wooly bear caterpillar investigating an ice plant on Bodega Head, Sonoma County, in April 2022.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A wooly bear caterpillar investigating an ice plant on Bodega Head, Sonoma County, in April 2022.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/93012.jpg)
![The wooly bear caterpillar becomes a tiger moth, Arctia virginalis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) The wooly bear caterpillar becomes a tiger moth, Arctia virginalis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/93013.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis is celebrating National Moth Night on Saturday, July 30 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. and you're invited. The insect museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane.
Indoors you'll see the Bohart Museum's global collection of moths, and outside, within a short walking distance, you'll see moths and other insects hanging on a white sheet in the blacklighting display. They are drawn there by an ultraviolet (UV) light.
The open house is free, family friendly and open to the public. Folks are invited to bring photos or moth specimens from their house, yard or neighborhood that they would like help in identifying, said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. There also will be a craft activity, cookies, and "hot cocoa for anyone who needs help staying up past their bedtime," Yang quipped.
Back in 2019, before the COVID pandemic, 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.
What can visitors expect to see? "We will highlight the amazing moths in our collection and in particular some of the larger and more dramatic ones, such as the Atlas Moths, the White Witch, the Urania moths, and the many kinds of Sphinx (or hummingbird) moths. But, we'll also introduce people to the beautiful Tiger Moths and some of the tiniest moths that may have a wingspan of less than a quarter of an inch!"
How many moths now in the collection? (and how many butterflies). "I believe the total number of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) in the Bohart Museum must be somewhere near 1/2 million specimens. We have two full compactor aisles of just butterflies and three aisles of just moths, and since the species of moths in the world (160,000) outnumber butterflies (17,500), we likely have about that ratio in our research collection. Since butterflies tend to be more colorful than moths they are more often collected, so we are much heavier on the number of specimens of butterflies.
Do you have a favorite moth? And why? "It's difficult to pin down a single species as a favorite, but one group I particularly love is the Arctiinae, generally called Tiger Moths. Within this group are many medium-sized species that strongly resemble wasps, and they are particularly abundant in the Neo-Tropics. I fell in love with them on my first ever trip to tropical America in Costa Rica, where dozens of different species came to the lights at night. Their amazing mimicry of stinging insects serves to protect them, and they can be a wonderful lesson on ecology in our rainforests."
Smith, who donates his time, talents and expertise to the museum, received a 2015 “Friend of the College” award from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences for his work. (See news story)
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946 and directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, houses a worldwide collection of eight million insects. It also houses a live "petting zoo" (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas) and a insect-themed gift shop.
![Entomologist Jeff Smith (second from left), curator of the Bohart Museum's Lepidoptera collection, talks to visitors at a recent Moth Night. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Entomologist Jeff Smith (second from left), curator of the Bohart Museum's Lepidoptera collection, talks to visitors at a recent Moth Night. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/92928.jpg)
![Youngsters delight in the blacklighting display as they watch moths land on the UV-illuminated white hanging sheet. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Youngsters delight in the blacklighting display as they watch moths land on the UV-illuminated white hanging sheet. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/92929.jpg)
![The Bohart Museum's blacklighting display is an opportunity for folks to learn about moths. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) The Bohart Museum's blacklighting display is an opportunity for folks to learn about moths. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/92932.jpg)