- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The event celebrated the retirement of senior museum scientist Steve Heydon, dressed as a nursing home patient who walked with the aid of a walker and his wife, Anita, dressed as a nurse. Heydon, a 32-year UC Davis employee who retired at the end of October (2022), cut a cake and handed out prank gifts to the Bohart Museum staff.
Forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, wore his traditional ghillie suit as he served refreshments.
Scott Ballinger, at a height of 6'7", towered over everyone as the "Tall Tree." Ballinger, who received his degree in computer science and engineering from UC Davis in June, partnered in costume with friend Grace Horne, a doctoral student in the laboratory of urban landscape entomology Emily Meineke, assistant professor.
UC Davis entomology student Max Arnold of the Bob Kimsey lab came as "The Red Guy," sporting a red wig the color of a California wildfire. Allen Chew dressed as an angel. Postdoctoral researcher Severyn Korneyev, a Ukrainian entomologist who studies flies at the Bohart Museum of Entomology and at the California Department Food and Agriculture, wore a batman costume. His name tag proclaimed "Batman."
Ellen Lange, UC Davis lecturer emerita of linguistics, arrived as Groucho Marx. Her husband, Professor Harry Lange (1912-2004) served as a faculty member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, teaching agricultural and economic entomology courses.
Others came as themselves. They included Steve Nadler, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, Diane Ullman, professor and former chair of the department; Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Musuem, and his wife, Kathy; and Bohart associate and naturalist Greg Kareofelas.
During the event, Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum, and artists Francisco Basso and Brittany Kohler, unveiled two large-scale art projects of butterfly specimens in the hallway.
The guests also took turns swinging at a candy-filled pinata in the shape of 32, in a tribute to Heydon's years at UC Davis. Heydon will continue his research at an office in the Bohart.
The Bohart Museum, home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Rain dampened the Crocker Lane event but not the enthusiasm as the crowd toasted the work of the Bohart Museum and its director Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. She has administered the Bohart Museum since 1990.
The UC Davis museum traces its origins back in 1946 to two Schmitt boxes filled with insect specimens collected by noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007), UC Davis professor of entomology and museum founder. Named the Bohart Museum in 1982, it is now the home of nearly eight million insect specimens, collected worldwide.
“We should take a moment to not only express our appreciation of the Bohart Museum and the legacy that Dr. Richard Bohart left, but to all the work Lynn has done to make events like this possible and to continue the important work,” emcee Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair and professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, told the crowd.
“Collections have a tremendous educational value,” Bond said, “and they also have amazing research value as well. Discoveries of new species don't actually happen in the field, they happen in the museum collections. New species on the average spend about 25 years on the shelf before a graduate student, undergraduate student or a researcher pulls them off shelf and describes or discovers them.”
He offered a toast to Kimsey, who in turn praised the thousands of collectors “who have their names” on the specimens. “We've been doing this for a long time. Eventually we'll be able to serve the public again like we should. Otherwise it would just be a dead collection in a building somewhere.”
Kimsey interviewed “Doc” Bohart, then 82, in 1996 as part of the Aggie Videos collection. (See https://bit.ly/2Zv8rvO.) Bohart, who began his UC Davis career in 1946, chaired the Department of Entomology from 1963 to 1967.
Unparalleled Research. “His scientific research on insect taxonomy and systematics is unparalleled,” Kimsey wrote on the Bohart website. “His publications include three of the most important books on the systematics of the Hymenoptera, including the well-used volume Sphecid Wasps of the World. His journal publications total over 200 articles. He revised many groups of insects, discovered new host-associations or geographic ranges, and described many new species."
Kimsey, an alumnus of UC Davis, received her undergraduate degree in 1975 and doctorate in 1979. She joined the UC Davis faculty in 1989. A two-term president of the International Hymenopterists, and a recognized global authority on the systematics, biogeography and biology of the wasp families, Tiphiidae and Chrysididae, she won the 2020 C. W. Woodworth Award, the highest award given by the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America, for "her 31 years of outstanding accomplishments in research, teaching, education, outreach and public service."
Entomologist and UC Davis biology manager Ivana Li prepared and served a buffet. Kimsey cut a specially decorated cake, adorned with images of a monarch, a morpho and a dogface butterfly (the state insect), a dragonfly, and assorted beetles. Tiffany Warrick of CreaTions N EvenTs, Rancho Cordova, created the cake and dozens of Bohart-motif cupcakes.
The costumes drew smiles of approval and delight. Bohart senior museum scientist Steve Heydon and his wife, Anita, came dressed as steampunk figures; Bohart education and outreach coordinator Tabatha Yang donned a horse fly costume; entomology major Gwendolyn "Gwen" Erdosh portrayed a monarch butterfly; and UC Davis entomology graduate Benjamin Maples (now a California Department of Food and Agriculture scientist) walked in wearing a lampshade.
With crayons and ink pens, attendees drew insects and pasted them on a piñata, formed in the shape of the number 75. Then, cheered by the crowd, they took turns whacking it, spilling out Halloween candies, and mementos from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Financial support. Bond urged the crowd to help support the outreach mission of the museum. Bohart Museum scientists are seeking donations for their traveling insect specimen displays. They aim to raise $5000 by 11:59 p.m., Oct. 31 for their UC Davis CrowdFund project to purchase traveling display boxes for their specimens, which include bees, butterflies and beetles. These are portable glass-topped display boxes that travel throughout Northern California to school classrooms, youth group meetings, festivals, events, museums, hospitals--and more--to help people learn about the exciting world of insect science.
Donors can do so in memory of someone, a place, or a favorite insect. Bond donated $500 in honor of Lynn Kimsey, and Lynn Kimsey donated $500 in memory of the founder, Richard M. Bohart. The donation page and map are at https://bit.ly/3v4MoaJ
The Bohart Museum, currently closed to the public due to COVID-19 precautions, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane. In addition to its insect collection, which is the seventh largest in North America, the museum houses a live “petting zoo,” comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas, and a gift shop (now online), stocked with insect-themed t-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, books, posters and other items. Further information is on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
That's how a University of California, Davis undergraduate student described mayflies in a class taught by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
That sentence now appears in a newly published---and first-ever--Bohart Museum calendar, illustrated by talented artist Karissa Merritt, a fourth-year UC Davis entomology major.
Professor Kimsey collects strange, funny and odd answers that her students pen on their tests or essays in Entomology 100. Some of her favorite sentences, all calendared, include:
- “The infected fleas can harbor rats, ground squirrels, rabbits, and occasionally, even house cats.”
- "In addition to a food product, pollinators are also used to pollinate crops.”
- "Normally, locusts are introverted creatures; they do not socialize unless it is for reproduction.”
- "Drones are male bees that contribute only in the perm production for the queen."
- "Feigning death is also a play that stick insects will do when their other tragedies are all failed."
Merritt, a two-year Bohart associate, illustrated the entire calendar, drawing upon her creativity, humor and imagination. “Karissa is a gifted graphic artist,” Kimsey said.
The calendar, published by Tara Baumann & Associates of Vacaville, is a project of the non-profit Bohart Museum Society. The calendar sells for $12 at the Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane. Those who contribute $50 or more to the Bohart Museum Society will receive a calendar with their donation. All proceeds are earmarked for research, education and outreach projects.
"One of the outcomes of teaching a general entomology course to undergraduates is that you develop a new appreciation for science fiction-fantasy," Kimsey said. "In part, this is because every year some new scientific discovery about an insect causes you to have a head slapping moment—they do what? The other part is how little students know about insects. Most are not entomology majors, and many aren't even majors in the biological sciences, so there are a lot of misconceptions.”
“One aspect of teaching this course is the writing requirement," she explained. "Students at UC Davis are required to take a number of units in general education, science and writing. My course fulfills two of those requirements, which means that I have to require—and grade—student term papers as part of their assignments. I can say definitely that student writing abilities have not improved over the years. So, to alleviate the pain of grading these works of art, I started collecting particularly silly or otherwise awesome sentences from their papers.”
Karissa Merritt not only enjoys drawing insects but teaching others how to do so. Last January, the Bohart Museum featured her as an “artist in residence” at its open house on insects and art. She offered tips on how to draw insects and took requests from youths. “It was touching to see how something like mundane doodling could bring smiles to kids' faces,” she said. “In fact, many ended up going home with original art work!"
What especially fascinates her the most about insects? “How alien their biology and morphology as compared to vertebrates,” Merritt said. “But working in the Bohart, I find many specimens that just amaze me with their beauty. Insects are just so diverse and it's amazing what nature produces!"
Merritt's favorite insect order is Hymenoptera, which includes bees, ants and wasps. “But I like all insects,” she acknowledged. She learned beekeeping when she volunteered in the lab of Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis.
Merritt is also an alumnus of “Bug Boot Camp,' a five-week insect taxonomy and field ecology course taught by Phil Ward, UC Davis professor of entomology and held at the Sagehen Creek Field Station, in California's northern Sierra Nevada. That course enabled her to sharpen her taxonomy skills.
The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of nearly eight million insect specimens, and is the home of the seventh largest insect collection in North America and the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of insect biodiversity. The facility also includes a gift shop and a live "petting zoo" of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, and tarantulas.
The Bohart Museum is open to the public (free admission) from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. More information on the Bohart Museum is available on the website at http://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting (530) 752-0493 or emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.