Worker bees are males, right?

Butterflies and moths can't fly if you rub the scales off their wings, right?

Earwigs crawl into your ears and then into your brain, right?  

Wrong. Those are some of the myths surrounding insects and ones that the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology will dispel at its open house from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 23, in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge building, Crocker Lane.

The Bohart also will dispel myths about spiders (arachnids), including

• Brown recluse spiders are found in California 
• Daddy long-leg spiders are very venomous, but their mouths are too small to bite us.
• We swallow/eat a significant amount of spiders/insects in our sleep. 

The open house, free and open to the public, is the second in a series of nine open houses during the 2014-2015 academic year.

The Bohart Museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis, houses a global collection of nearly eight million specimens. It is also the home of the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and  the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity. Noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) founded the museum.

Special attractions include a “live” petting zoo, featuring Madagascar hissing cockroaches,  walking sticks and tarantulas. Visitors are invited to hold the insects and photograph them. Facepainting will be among the family-oriented activities.

The museum's gift shop (on location and online) includes T-shirts, sweatshirts, books, jewelry, posters, insect-collecting equipment and insect-themed candy.

The Bohart Museum's regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The insect museum is closed to the public on Fridays and on major holidays. Admission is free. Open houses, focusing on specific themes, are held on weekends throughout the academic year. 

The remaining schedule of open houses:

• Saturday, Dec. 20: “Insects and Art,” 1 to 4 p.m.
• Sunday, Jan. 11: “Parasitoid Palooza,” 1 to 4 p.m.
• Sunday, Feb. 8: “Biodiversity Museum Day,” noon to 4 p.m.
• Saturday, March 14: “Pollination Nation,” 1 to 4 p.m.
• Saturday, April 18: UC Davis Picnic Day, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Sunday, May 17: “Name That Bug! How About Bob?” 1 to 4 p.m.
• Saturday, July 18: “Moth Night,” 8 to 11 p.m.

More information is available by contacting (530) 752-0493 or Tabatha Yang, education and public outreach coordinator at tabyang@ucdavis.edu

If people are bugging you about a list of holiday gifts, think bugs. 

The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology has plenty of insect-themed gifts. 

The Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, operates a year-around gift shop, filled with T-shirts, jewelry, posters, books, bug-collecting equipment and insect-themed candy, including chocolate-dipped scorpions, crunchy crickets, and protein-rich lollipops. 

Two of the latest books available in the gift shop are Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (Princeton University Press) and California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday), co-authored by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis. Thorp is an associate at the Bohart Museum and maintains an office in the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility.  

Another popular book, published in 2013, is a 35-page children's book, The Story of the Dogface Butterfly, authored by entomologist Fran Keller, who this year received her doctorate in entomology from UC Davis. She is a researcher, college instructor, mentor, artist, photographer, and author.

The book, geared for  kindergarten through sixth-grade classrooms, and also a favorite of  adults, tells the untold story of the California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice), and how a classroom successfully mounted a campaign to name it the California state insect. Illustrations by artist Laine Bauer, a UC Davis graduate, and photographs by naturalist Greg Kareofelas, a Bohart Museum volunteer, depict the life cycle of this butterfly and show the host plant, false indigo (Amorpha californica). Net proceeds from the sale of this book are earmarked for the education, outreach and research programs at the Bohart Museum.

Gift shop items are available both in the store (Monday through Thursday) and online, http://www.bohartmuseum.com/.

The Bohart Museum, home of nearly eight million specimens, plus a live petting zoo comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and tarantulas, is directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis. Visitors enjoy taking photos of them for gifts.

Among the favorites gifts at the Bohart Museum:

• T-shirts depicting images of dragonflies, butterflies,  beetles and moths
• Bohart Museum coffee mug
• Insect collecting net
• Posters of butterflies of Central Californian, Dragonflies of California, and the California Dogface butterfly
• Butterfly habitat
• Jewelry depicting bees, butterflies, dragonflies and ladybugs (many of the boxes are engraved with the Bohart logo and treasured)
• Science kits
• Insect and spider books
• Insect magnets

The Bohart Museum's regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The insect museum is closed to the public on Fridays and on major holidays. Admission is free. More information is available by contacting the Bohart Museum at (530) 752-0493 or Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator at tabyang@ucdavis.edu.

The Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) offers t-shirts to fund its educational activities. The newest t-shirt, design by grad student Danny Klittich, who studies with major professor Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is of a honey bee exiting a honeycomb.

Other popular EGSA shirts depict a dung beetle, “They See Me Rollin'”; a “cuddling moth” for infants and toddlers; a weevil shirt, “See No Weevil, Hear No Weevil, Speak No Weevil”; and “The Beetles” shirt, of four beetles crossing Abbey Road, reminiscent of The Beatles pictured on their Abbey Road album. The shirts can be ordered from Margaret “Rei” Scampavia at mrscampavia@ucdavis.edu.

Another bug gift: the pollinator notecards being sold by the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, directed by Amina Harris. The photos of insects, including bees and butterflies, were donated by communication specialist Kathy Keatley Garvey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who captured most of the images in her bee garden The notecards are available from the Center office (in the Robert Mondavi Insitute for Wine and Food Science on Old Davis Road)  and at the UC Davis Bookstore, among other places. 

DAVIS--Nematologist Ray Hong, associate professor of biology at California State University, Northridge, will speak on "A Fatal Attraction: Regulation of Development and Behavior in the Nematode Pristionchus pacificus by a Beetle Pheromone” at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar on Wednesday, Nov. 19 in 122 Briggs Hall.

The seminar is from 12:10 to 1 p.m. and will be hosted by UC Davis nematologist Valerie Williamson. It will be recorded for later viewing on UCTV.

"Nematodes and insects are the two most species-rich animal phyla, and nematode-insect associations encompass widespread biological interactions," Hong said. "However, even for the few species-specific insect-nematode associations that have been known for some time, the genetic basis for such interactions remains largely unknown. Previous studies suggest that the beetle host specificity of Pristionchus nematodes is in part due to nematode attraction for various plant volatile compounds released during beetle feeding, as well as for beetle aggregation and sex pheromones during mating. Recent studies from our lab revealed that the role of a specific beetle pheromone is actually more complex and stage-specific."

In his presentation, Hong will show that although the pheromone of oriental beetle (Exomala orientalis) is attractive to Pristionchus pacificus adults, the beetle host pheromone may moderate nematode infection by arresting embryonic development, inducing larval paralysis, and inhibiting dauer larvae resumption of reproductive development.

In addition, "we identified a putative lipid binding protein that mediates both beetle pheromone attraction as well as P. pacificus development," Hong said. "Our data suggests that Ppa-OBI-1 is required to protect P. pacificus larvae against a host beetle pheromone, as well as to enable P. pacificus attraction to the pheromone."

One of the images he will show (see below) is a Serica sp. beetle and an associated Pristionchus sp. nematode. Hong  describes it: "This dissected decomposing Serica sp. beetle from the Los Angeles area is surrounded by bacteria, fungi, and an associated Pristionchus sp. nematode. Superimposed on the beetle is a Pristionchus pacificus nematode expressing the fluorescent GFP pattern of the obi-1 gene that mediates the nematode-beetle interaction. We (the Hong lab) are just beginning to identify the genetic components of this omnipresent but little-understood interaction between nematodes and insects."

Hong received his bachelor's degree in biology from Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., and his doctorate in biology from UC San Diego. He served as a post-doctoral fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen, Germany.

The remaining noon-hour seminars for the fall quarter are:

Wednesday, Nov. 26
Doris Bachtrog, lab
Associate professor of integrative biology, UC Berkeley, specializing in evolutionary and functional genomics
Title: "Numerous Transitions of Sex Chromosomes in Diptera"
Host: Michael Parrella, professor and chair, Department of Entomology and Nematology

Wednesday, Dec. 3
No seminar

Wednesday, Dec. 10
Sawyer Fuller
Postdoctoral researcher, Harvard University
Title: "RoboBee: Using the Engineering Toolbox to Understand the Flight Apparatus of Flying Insects"
Host: James Carey, distinguished professor of entomology
This seminar is being remote broadcast to UC Davis via internet

Contacts:

Steve Nadler, sanadler@ucdavis.edu
Professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

Jesael "Jesa" David, jcdavid@ucdavis.edu 
Student Affairs Officer, Graduate Programs
Plant Pathology, Entomology and Nematology 

DAVIS--Teriyaki-flavored grasshopper kebobs: Yum or yecch? 

The protein-rich delicacies drew mixed reactions at the “Bugs and Beer” event hosted recently in the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science's Silverado Vineyards Sensory Theatre at the University of California, Davis.

“Don't worry—be hoppy,” celebrity bug chef David George Gordon, author of the award-winning “Eat-a-Bug” cookbook, told the budding entomophagists as they eyed the colorful kebobs threaded with grasshoppers and green and red peppers. 

Quipped Gordon:  “Some people call them 'sheesh-kebobs.'” 

Gordon, from Seattle, joined “The Pope of Foam” Charlie Bamforth--the Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences in the UC Davis Department of Food Science and Technology--to pair six bug dishes with six different beers.  The theme: “Bugs and Beer—Why Crickets and Kölsch Might Be Matches Made in Heaven."

Their quips and puns punctuated the four-hour event. Coordinator Elizabeth Luu, a UC Davis student-employee at RMI who originated the idea of the beer-bug fest, praised the humorous duo as “a match made in heaven.” 

Clare Hasler-Lewis, RMI executive director, welcomed the capacity crowd.  “Who's going to want to eat bugs--and drink beer with them? I did eat a cricket this morning—without beer—and it was good.” 

Luu, who said she occasionally practices entomopaghy, told her fellow bug eaters:  "The more disgusting the bug, the more I want to eat it." She recalled the day she approached Bamforth in his classroom and asked “What do you think about this, pairing beer with bugs?” He deadpanned: “I think I should kick you out of the room today." 

As it turned out, the beer-bug fest was a kick: “one of the best-ever events we've had at RMI,” said Hasler-Lewis, who said "Let's do this again!" Some participants asked that it be an annual event. 

Gordon and Bamforth paired:

• Flavored mealworms with Ruhstaller Gilt Edge Lager
• Wasabi sago worms with Lagunitas Pils
• Baked European house crickets with Sudwerk Hefeweizen
• Cambodian crickets with Gordon Biersch Winterbock
• Ant and pear salad with Sierra Nevada Boomerang IPA
• Teriyaki grasshopper kebobs with Rubicon Angus Scottish Ale
• Cricket flour cookies with Heretic Chocolate Hazelnut Porter
• Chocolate-dipped chapulines (grasshoppers) with Berryessa Whippersnapper English Mild

UC Davis students majoring in food science, brewing science, or entomology prepared the bug dishes, using the chef's bugs and recipes.

Entomologist Danielle Wishon, a UC Davis graduate now with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, cooked in the kitchen and sampled the bugs.

"This event was a fun way to introduce a sustainable food supply that is as common in other areas of the world as our hamburger," Wishon said. "While I don't expect the 'cricket burger' to replace hamburger anytime soon, it is important that we start opening our food horizons now before it is no longer a choice. I spent all my time in the kitchen--which is laughable for anyone who knows me--but if anything could make that happen it would be by putting insects in the kitchen with me. This was an experience I will not soon forget! Strangely, my friends and family have declined to let me practice my new cooking skill to make them dinner."

Anne Schellman, manager of the UC Davis California Center for Urban Horticulture who attended with friend Javier Miramontes, a community education specialist for UC Agriculture and Natural Resources in Fresno, said her favorites were the European house crickets andgrasshopper kebobs.  “They were both chewy but crunchy and had good flavor,” she said.

She wasn't so sure about the Cambodian crickets.  “I ate the head and part of the body--after I pulled off the legs and played with the wings,” Schellman said. “It was just too darned big and intimidating to eat it (all).”

 “It had an interesting flavor, and the ‘meat' inside actually kind of looked like an artichoke heart in coloring and also texture. Javier ate the cricket whole--I didn't even see him do it he was so fast. A piece of leg got stuck in his throat, and he was trying to keep from gagging, poor guy!”

Ursula Selby, a UC Davis junior majoring in neurobiology, physiology and behavior, attended with her husband Ian Gamble. “I've always wanted to eat sago worms ever since I saw the movie, 'The Lion King,'" she said. “The movie made the sago worms look delicious.”  

And they were, Selby confirmed.  

Sago worms are the immature larvae of the red palm weevil. “Sago worms eat palm trees, and we can't import sago worms,” Gordon said. “If they got loose in Los Angeles, they would change the identity of the city.”

RMI program representative Evan White, who does design and communications, said he especially loved two dishes: the pear-spinach-ant salad “with the crunchy weaver ants” and  the dessert, the chocolate-dipped chapuline grasshoppers. “But then anything with chocolate is delicious,” White said.

White did not eat the Cambodian crickets, which he described as “as big as a small mouse,” and which Bamforth characterized as “a full-flavored meat dish.”

 “How many of you ate the full-flavored meat dish?” Bamforth asked after the pairing. “How many of you drank the beer?”

The beer won.  

In his talk on "Adventures in Entomophagy: “Waiter, There's No Fly in My Soup!” Gordon said that 80 percent of the world's culture eat bugs and two-thirds of all animal species are insects. "Bug-eating is good for the planet. Bugs are nutritious, delicious, cheap and plentiful.” 

 “John the Baptist was the most famous bug eater,” Gordon said. “The Bible tells us he ate locusts and honey. Angelina Jolie is the second most famous bug-eater. And I'm third, the godfather of insect cuisine.”

 “Whether a country eats bugs has a lot to do with dependence on agriculture,” Gordon said. “Insects are in direct competition with humans for food. But as the human population grows, we can't feed them all (what Americans are accustomed to eating). People are eating hamburgers when they should be eating bugs.”

 Raising cows, pigs and sheep is a “tremendous waste of the planet's resources, but bug ranching is pretty benign,” Gordon  said. With cows, “it takes the equivalent of 16 pounds of grain and 2000 gallons of water to get one pound of steak." And the resulting greenhouse gases are not good for the planet, either, he pointed out.

 “In our culture, bugs are often considered a novelty food, such as tequila-flavored lollipops,” the chef told the crowd.  However, cricket energy bars "have gone mainstream," and cookies made with cricket flour are becoming more and more popular.

 “Insects are the food of the future,” Gordon declared.

 He cautioned that all bugs should be cooked, as cooking kills any parasites.  Bug chefs must also take special precautions in preparing stinging arthropods. 

He paused.  “How many of you take calcium pills? If your fingernails keep breaking, eat more crickets. They're rich in calcium. And how many of you are anemic? Termites are rich in iron.”

Food choice is just a matter of what we're accustomed to eating,” Gordon said.  He asked how many eat sushi (raw fish), pickled pig's feet, chicken eggs and lobster. “Lobster used to be served to inmates in prison on the East Coast. And talk about the all-time weird food--the chicken egg comes from the butt of a chicken."

You shouldn't eat  just any bug, Gordon said “You don't want to eat that cockroach that crawled under your refrigerator or a bug in the field sprayed with pesticides.” He advocates that “you raise your own insects under hygienic conditions or order bugs from supply companies.”

Gordon said it's only right—and it's justice--that we humans eat the pests that eat our food in our garden. Tomato hornworms, for one.  One of his recipes calls for tomato green hornworms, with olive oil, green tomatoes, pepper, white cornmeal and basil. Gordon said it's important to be environmentally friendly and not to use pesticides, especially if you're going to eat the pests.

Gordon said the key ingredients in his signature dish, “Orthopteran Orzo” (orzo is a rice-shaped pasta) are three-week old cricket nymphs. Gordon recalled serving the dish at one event and a young boy, a pre-teen, kept returning for more. “Don't they ever feed you at home?” Gordon asked him after the fourth helping. “But this is way better than anything my mom makes,” the boy said.

In his talk titled "Bugs Are No Strangers to Brewers," Bamforth discussed the intricacies of  beer brewing and why he paired certain beers with certain bug dishes. He also touched on beer preference:  what some people love, others may loathe. Bamforth likened some beers (not served at the event) as reminding him of “cat's breath, newly filled baby diapers, and wet horse blanket with mouse pee.” At one beer tasting, a beer reminded him of “a wet dog urinating in a telephone booth.”

Bamforth said bugs and beer go together in another way, but not a good way. A beer's key ingredient is a grain, and insects may contaminate them. For example, hop aphids may contaminate hops and the saw-toothed beetles, the rice. Grain contamination can also involve such organisms as bacteria, powdery mildew virus and fungi

Some of the entomophagists at the bug-beer fest jokingly inquired if the bugs displayed by the Bohart Museum of Entomology were for eating, as well as for viewing. Arachnids included  Tanzanian Giant Whipspider, Costa Rican Red Tarantula and Salmon Pink Bird-Eating Tarantula.

“No, they're not for eating,” said White, holding a millipede as people milled around him talking about Gordon's recipes, including “Superworm Tempura With Plum Dipping Sauce,” “Pest-O,” “Larval Latkes,” “Curried Termite Stew,”  “Cream of Katydid Soup,“ and "Ant Jemina's Buckwheat-Bug Griddlecakes.”

In fact, Gordon said millipedes are poisonous and should not be substituted for centipedes in recipes. He writes in his cookbook: "These animals (millipedes) secrete a foul-smelling fluid that, in some species, may contain traces of hydrogen cyanide--not good, unless you're from the Borgia household."