- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
When the Bohart Museum of Entomology hosted an open house, "An Evening at the Museum," on Saturday, July 22, showcasing moths and flies, the moth experts were there to celebrate National Moth Week, July 22-30 and the fly experts had just attended the 10th International Dipterology Congress, held July 16-21, in Reno.
But just as the Bohart Museum houses a global collection of 8 million insect specimens, international scientists were there representing a number of countries, including Greece, Ukraine, Iran and Spain, as well as the United States.
Among the fly experts participating in the Bohart Museum's open house was tephritid fruit fly expert Nikos Papadopoulos of Greece, professor of applied entomology, who directs the laboratory of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology at the University of Thessaly. He shared a video ontephritid flies and answered questions. Professor Papadopoulos obtained his PhD in 1999 (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), and did postdoctoral work (2001-2003) at UC Davis, before joining the University of Thessaly. He collaborates with UC Davis distinguished professor James R. Carey. (See his biosketch)
Postdoctoral researcher Severyn Korneyev, a Ukrainian entomologist who studies flies, showed specimens and fielded questions. He holds a joint postdoc position with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. A member of the Ukrainian Entomological Society and the Entomological Society of America, Korneyev specializes in the systematics and taxonomy of the true fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). His expertise includes morphological and molecular diagnostics, collection management, and the field collecting of insects. (See Bug Squad blog)
Professor Miguel Angel Miranda of the University of the Balearic Islands (UBI), Spain, showed specimens and led insect-drawing workshops. A zoologist, entomologist and noted insect illustrator, he currently teaches zoology, parasitology, and biotechnology applied for pest control. He is a member of UBI's Applied Zoology and Animal Conservation Research Group or ZAP. See Bug Squad blog)
Iranian-American scientist Nazzy Pakpour, who received her bachelor's degree in entomology from UC Davis and her doctorate in microbiology, virology, and parasitology from the University of Pennsylvania, read from her newly published children's book, Please Don't Bite Me. Her UC Davis connections including serving as a postdoctoral scholar in the mosquito research lab of Professor Shirley Luckhart, now with the University of Idaho.
The Bohart Museum, established in 1946 by noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart of UC Davis, is directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey. It is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. The insect museum is open to the public for summer hours from 2 to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays. It also maintains a live insect petting zoo (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insect and tarantulas) and an insect-themed gift shop.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They came to learn about wasps--"The Weird and Wonderful Wasps"--at the recent open house hosted by the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
They learned about such wasps as the Asian giant hornet (aka "murder hornets"), pteromalids, and fig wasps. But they also learned about other insects, including butterflies, moths, beetles, cockroaches, and Jerusalem crickets, while chatting one-on-one with scientists.
Among the scientists participating was postdoctoral researcher Severyn Korneyev, a Ukrainian entomologist who studies flies. At his station, a series of insects flashed on the screen as he shared information and fielded questions.
Korneyev, a researcher with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Department of General and Applied Entomology, Kyiv, Ukraine, accepted a joint postdoctoral position with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in September 2020. He joined the laboratory of Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, and the laboratory of Stephen Gaimari, Pest Diagnostics Branch, California Department of Food and Agriculture.
A member of the Ukrainian Entomological Society and the Entomological Society of America, Korneyev specializes in the systematics and taxonomy of the true fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). His expertise includes morphological and molecular diagnostics, collection management, and the field collecting of insects. Korneyev is the lead author of "Phylogeny of the Genus Tephritis Latreille, 1804 (Diptera: Tephritidae)," published in May 2020 in Arthropod Systematics and Phylogeny. Gaimari is one of the co-authors.
Korneyev holds a doctorate in entomology (2016) from the I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He received both his bachelor's degree and his master's degree in zoology, with honors, from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Korneyev served as a 2017-2018 Fulbright scholar with the Research and Development Program. Michigan State University, East Lansing. He speaks his native tongue, Ukrainian, as well as English and Russian.
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also is home to a live “petting zoo,” comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas; and an insect-themed gift shop, which includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, jewelry, books, posters and other items. The gift shop is open all year-around and is also online.
The insect museum is open to the public Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., except holidays. (See schedule). More information is available on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
The next Bohart open house, themed "Insects, Art and Culture," will take place from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 15. This event is part of Spirit Week (Oct. 10-16) for Aggie students, parents and alumni, but all are welcome. (See list of other fall special events on the Bohart website or on the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology website.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“Severyn asked if he could create the fly display case in the Ukrainian colors of blue and gold,” said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. "Of course!" she told him.
Korneyev, a researcher with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Department of General and Applied Entomology, Kyiv, Ukraine, accepted a joint postdoctoral position with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in September 2020. He joined the Kimsey lab and the Stephen Gaimari (CDFA) lab.
His fly diversity display was one of three newly created traveling display cases that the Bohart Museum showcased at its open house on April 23 during the 108th annual UC Davis Picnic Day. (Emma Jochim, a graduate student in the Jason Bond lab, and Megan Ma, an undergraduate student in the Bond lab, crafted a display on California spiders. Marissa Sandoval and Regina Fairbanks, both graduate students in Population Biology, focused on "Ants as Farmers.")
"Flies is one of the major insect orders with considerable ecological and human importance," he wrote. "Flies are important pollinators. Fruit flies are used as model organisms in research and have significant impact on agriculture. Flies and mosquitoes are vectors for diseases: malaria, dengue, yellow fever, human sleeping sickness and animal trypanosomiasis."
A member of the Ukrainian Entomological Society and the Entomological Society of America, Korneyev specializes in the systematics and taxonomy of the true fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). His expertise includes morphological and molecular diagnostics, collection management, and the field collecting of insects.
Korneyev is the lead author of "Phylogeny of the Genus Tephritis Latreille, 1804 (Diptera: Tephritidae)," published in May 2020 in Arthropod Systematics and Phylogeny. Gaimari is one of the co-authors.
Korneyev holds a doctorate in entomology (2016) from the I.I.Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He received both his bachelor's degree and his master's degree in zoology, with honors, from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
Korneyev served as a 2017-2018 Fulbright scholar with the Research and Development Program. Michigan State University, East Lansing. He speaks his native tongue, Ukrainian, as well as English and Russian.
Korneyev said today that "my family members in Ukraine are Ok, and my parents are in Germany. His parents had been trapped in Kyiv. "They were hiding in the metro. Later I convinced them to move out of the city."
The war is horrendous, he said. "Mariupol is almost like Sacramento and it was turned to dust."
"There is an official website to help the Ukrainian military," he said, adding that it is at:
https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/