- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"A praying mantis on a stick?" you ask. 'Isn't the mantis the predator that grips its prey on its spiked forelegs? How do you get a mantis on a stick?"
Well, you cut a piece of paper to resemble a mantis head, draw its compound eyes, affix a popsicle stick to its mouth, add pipe cleaners for its antennae, and voila, there you have it, a "Mantis on a Stick."
That was the family arts-and-craft activity at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on "Praying Mantises," held last Sunday afternoon, Aug. 27.
While scientists discussed mantises and showed specimens to the guests, youngsters headed over to the arts-and-crafts table. (Later they would engage with the scientists.)
Bohart intern Melody Ruiz, a third-year entomology major at UC Davis, staffed the arts-and-crafts table. She invited children, youths and adults to create a mantis. They could change the compound eyes to smiling eyes, sorry eyes, frowning eyes, and other facial expressions.
Soraya Qaqunah, 4, of Davis, looked at the box of crayons, selected her choices, and began to color the eyes. Her brother Elias Qaqunah and his friend each chose to turn a mantis head into a tarantula head after admiring the nearby Mr. Curly, the Tarantula. Elias decided his tarantula should be yawning. "How to you draw a yawn?" he asked.
Meanwhile, Julietta Millsop, 3, of Davis, and Maya Lee, 4, of Woodland eagerly finished a Mantis on a Stick.
Ruiz, who coordinates the arts-and-crafts activities at the Bohart Museum open houses with Tabatha Yang, the Bohart's education and outreach coordinator, delights in helping others and sharing her knowledge of insects. "I've always had a curiosity for insects as they play such a big part of the world we share," Ruiz said. "I love being able to talk about the wonders of entomology with anyone who visits the museum; it makes me happy being able to be connected to a memory of learning something new. Studying entomology allows me to work in an environment where you truly learn something new every day."
The Bohart's next two fall open houses are from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23 and on Saturday, Nov. 4. The September open house is themed "Household Vampires." It will feature fleas, ticks and bed bugs. The November open house theme is "Monarchs." It will showcase monarchs, milkweed, scientists and research. All open houses are free and family friendly.
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live petting zoo and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters, jewelry, collecting equipment and more. Professor and renowned entomologist Richard Bohart (1913-2007), a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology) faculty for more than 50 years, founded the museum in 1946.






- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
While dragonfly experts fielded questions from guests, over at the arts-and-crafts table, children and their families eagerly colored pages from Kathy Claypole Biggs' dragonfly coloring book, and created decorative dragonfly candles.
Bohart volunteers Barbara Heinsch of Davis and high school student Kate Phillips of Da Vinci Charter Academy staffed the table.
The dragonfly candlemaking project came with instructions:
- Take a small, pea-sized amount of beeswax.
- Roll it out so it is long and skinny (about 3 cm)
- Divide it into 2 equal parts (about 1.5 cm each)
- Press a long one on the candle for the thorax/abdomen
- Roll the other half into a ball and press that on for the head/wings
- Take a pea-sized amount of beeswax
- Roll it out so it is long and skinny (about 4 cm)
- Divide it into 4 equal parts (about 1 cm each)
- Press these onto the candle as wings near the thorax.
Biggs' coloring book, Dragonflies of North America: A Color and Learn Book with Activities, with illustrations by Tim Manolis, showcases 37 common species of dragonflies and damselflies.
Biggs usually participates in the Bohart Museum dragonfly open houses, but was out of the country at the time. Her biography indicates that she worked as an educator in her hometown of Sebastopol in the Gravenstein Union School District for 18 years before becoming an author/publisher/dragonfly/wildlife pond spokesperson.
At the open house (see more information and images on Bug Squad), a sign, "Meet the Dragonfly Experts," greeted the more than 220 guests. The experts featured:
- Rosser Garrison, retired from the California Department of Food and Agriculture (Pest Diagnostics Branch of Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services)
- Christopher Beatty, a visiting scholar in the Program for Conservation Genomics at Stanford University
- Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas
- UC Davis doctoral student Christofer Brothers of the laboratory of Professor and Chancellor's Fellow Stacey Combes, Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences.
- Andy Rehn, stream ecologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and a UC Davis doctoral alumnus
Also sharing her expertise was senior biologist Sandra Hunt-von Arb of Pacific Northwestern Biological Resources Consultants, Inc.
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946 and named for UC Davis professor and noted entomologist Richard Bohart, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. Directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, it houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, as well as the live "petting zoo" and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, books, posters, jewelry, collecting equipment and more. It is open to the public from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 5 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays. For more information, access the website or contact bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.




