The Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis is helping to spread the biodiversity of insects. 

Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a distinguished professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, recently received a request for duplicate specimens of beetles, moths and butterflies for a Biodiversity Science Museum and Research Center to be headquartered at the research institution, Atatürk University, in Erzurum, Turkey. 

“We're gifting them 350 large-bodied beetles, moths and butterflies for their display,” she said. “The specimens are all duplicates of material we collected in Papua New Guinea about a decade ago.” 

Levent Gültekin, a professor at Atatürk University, emailed Kimsey that he and his colleagues are working on “creating a Biodiversity Science Museum and Research Center belonging to Atatürk University. Our concept will be actually a natural history museum. This is rather new topic here, and it will be the first museum in Eastern Turkey if we can succeed. As a first step, we are working on a permanent exhibition in four settings: Arthropoda (majority insect) diversity, Plant diversity, Vertebrate and Paleodiversity.” 

“For insect (and other arthropods), we are planning to hang 100 exhibition boxes (30x40 cm in size) to show great  diversity for this group,” Gültekin related, adding that “Our insect collection almost 100 percent comes from Turkey; but we would like to allocate one fourth of boxes  for other zoogeographical realms except for Palearctic.” 

The Bohart Museum is glad to oblige, Kimsey said. 

Atatürk University is a land-grant university established in 1957 inErzurum in the Eastern Anatolia Region.  The university consists of 23 faculties, 18 colleges, 8 institutes and 30 research centers. “Since its establishment in 1957, it has served as a hub of educational and cultural excellence for the eastern region,” according toWikipedia. The Eastern Anatolia Region is home to some 6 million people. 

The Bohart Museum, now celebrating the 75th anniversary of its founding by the late Richard M. Bohart, UC Davis professor of entomology, is home to some 8 million insect specimens, collected from around the world. It also houses an insect-themed gift shop, now online; and a  live “petting zoo,” comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas. 

The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane,  is currently closed to the public due to COVID-19 pandemic precautions. 

Evolutionary biologist Jessica Gillung, who received her doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 2018 and is now on the faculty of McGill University, Montreal,  Quebec, Canada, is the newly announced recipient of the Entomological Society of America's International Branch Early Career and Leadership Award.  

At UC Davis, Gillung studied with major professor Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology.  Gillung is now an assistant professor and director of the Lyman Entomological Museum at McGill, one of the largest insect collections in Canada. 

The award recognizes her leadership in entomology at an early career level and includes a $2000 grant, which Gillung said she will use to fund a research project aimed at helping her female graduate students acquire training and experience in cutting-edge methods of phylogenetic and bioinformatics. 

Gillung will be recognized at the International Branch meeting, to take place during ESA's annual meeting, “Entomology 2021,” set Oct. 31-Nov. 3 in Denver, Colo. The conference is a hybrid meeting with both in-person and virtual presentations. 

Before joining McGill's Natural Resources faculty in January 2020, Gillung served as a postdoctoral associate in the Bryan Danforth laboratory at Cornell University,  where she researched evolution and diversification of aculeate Hymenoptera (stinging wasps, ants and bees). 

In a letter of support, Kimsey described Gillung as an “absolute dynamo” who “excels in research, publications, teaching, leadership, public service and outreach programs. Her accomplishments, coupled with her trademark scientific enthusiasm, curiosity, commitment and passion, make one wonder: ‘Is this just one person?' Yes, and her name is Jessica Gillung, entomologist extraordinaire.” 

Gillung, who received her UC Davis doctorate in December 2018, wrote a landmark dissertation on the evolution and taxonomy of parasitoid flies specialized in spiders. Her dissertation, “Systematics and Phylogenomics of Spider Flies (Diptera, Acroceridae),” encompassed genomics, phylogenetics, systematics, and comparative analyses. “Her work greatly increased our understanding of the biological patterns and processes that have shaped our planet's biodiversity,” Kimsey said. 

“In her outreach programs with us at the Bohart Museum from 2013-2018, Jessica reached at least 20,000 people, no small feat!” Kimsey commented. The events included open houses, off-site programs, science presentations, summer camps, classroom activities, UC Davis Picnic Days, agriculture days, and fairs and festivals. Gillung also participated in the campus-wide UC Davis Picnic Days for five years, answering entomological questions from visitors ranging from toddlers to senior citizens and providing them with new insights and appreciation of insects.

A native of Brazil, Jessica is fluent in four languages: Portuguese, German, English and Spanish. Her global education, international teaching experience, and diverse background as a Latina woman in STEM “uniquely equip her to understand the barriers that underrepresented groups face,” Kimsey pointed out.  At UC Davis, Gillung taught entomology classes and mentored students, nurturing their personal and professional aspirations.  She was heavily involved in the UC Davis youth summer camps, and also taught two camps, in Spanish, at the Marguerite Montgomery Elementary School at Davis, Calif. for children of migratory workers.

Gillung earlier received four other ESA awards:

• Snodgrass Memorial Research Award. Entomological Society of America (2019)
• The Marsh Award for Early Career Entomologist. Royal Entomological Society (2019)
• Excellence in Early Career Award. Entomological Society of America, Pacific Branch (2019)
• Student Leadership Award. Entomological Society of America, Pacific Branch (2018)

“My current research includes unraveling the diversity, natural history and diversification of insects,” Gillung said, “and studying their evolutionary origins, patterns of phenotypic and biological diversity, using taxonomy, genomics, phylogenetic reconstuctions and comparative analyses.”  

Marius Wasbauer (1928-2021), renowned wasp expert

Spider wasps belong to the family Pompilidae, and are aculeate (stinging) wasps. Most spider wasps (also known as spider-hunting wasps) capture, sting and paralyze their prey. The worldwide family is comprised of some 5,000 described species in six subfamilies.

“A U-Haul was needed to transport the collection from Brookings to Davis last weekend,” said Bohart Museum director and UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey. 

Wasbauer, who died in the spring, was a global expert on spider wasps and a scientific collaborator with Kimsey. He was a member of the Bohart Museum Society and a strong supporter of the museum. 

 “The donation consists of a diversity of aculeate wasps but 95 percent are spider wasps (Pompilidae), an estimated 50,000 specimens from all over the world, in 180 drawers, in 13 24-drawer cabinets,” Kimsey said. “This is material he had been accumulating since the 1960s.” 

Wasbauer studied entomology and biosystematics at UC Berkeley, where he received his bachelor's degree and doctorate (1958).  “Like many entomologists of his generations,” Kimsey said, “Marius was an instructor in preventive medicine in the U.S. 7th Army Medical Service at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.” He joined the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) as a systematist in September 1958. His CDFA career spanned 34 years. 

Marius Wasbauer and his wife Joanne, at the Bohart Museum Bioblitz to Belize in 2017. (Photo by Fran Keller)

Wasbauer was a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences; president and secretary of the Pacific Coast Entomological Society; research associate with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), a member of Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society; a member of the Biosystematists Society; and a research associate at UC Davis. 

“He was generous with his time, and worked with many scientists and students around the world,” Kimsey said. “However, aside from his family and wasps, his other greatest love was fishing.” 

Marius and his wife, Joanne, longtime supporters of the Bohart Museum, frequently offered annual challenge grants of $5000, matching donations of other donors up to $5000.  They hoped to inspire others to give.  

The Wasbauers participated in a Bohart Museum Bioblitz to Belize in 2017, a trip led by entomologists David Wyatt, a professor at Sacramento City College, and Fran Keller, now a professor at Folsom Lake College. Keller, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Davis, is a Bohart Museum research associate. 

A trio of entomologists—Lynn Kimsey and her husband, forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey of the Department of Entomology and Nematology; and Bohart Museum research associate Brennen Dyer—prepared a space in the Bohart for the large donation. They unloaded the truck with Kimsey friends, retired Placer County Sheriff Mike Whitney and his wife, Becky. 

The Bohart Museum, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, houses a global collection of nearly eight million insect specimens, plus a live “petting zoo” comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and tarantulas. The Bohart Museum also inclues a year-around gift shop stocked with insect-themed t-shirts, sweatshirts, posters, books, jewelry and insect-collecting equipment.

Temporarily closed due to COVID-19 pandemic precautions, the Bohart is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane. 

This banner graces Briggs Hall during UC Davis Picnic Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Entomological offerings will be showcased at the 107th annual UC Davis Picnic Day, themed "Discovering Silver Linings," to take place virtually on Saturday, April 17.

Silver linings promise to grace this family-oriented event, billed as informative, educational and entertaining. 

Picnic Day officials have released the schedule of events that includes entomological exhibits and talks from the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, Bohart Museum of Entomology and the UC Davis Graduate Student Association. 

Here's a quick list: 

Bohart Museum of Entomology

Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas, Bohart Museum associate and naturalist, has created a pre-recorded video on the Gulf Fritillary butterfly, Agraulis vanillae. These orange-reddish butterflies have  silver-spangled underwings, are glorious. Kareofelas will showcase them and show you how to rear them, which is what he did last year during the pandemic. It's on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR3WwE7mbrA.   

Entomologist Jeff Smith, the volunteer curator of the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart, will present a live Zoom event from 1 to 2 p.m. on Saturday on mimicry in Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). "I will briefly mention camouflage," Smith says, "and spend most of the time on mimicry for defense--mimics of toxic or distasteful species, mimicry using odors or sounds, mimics of snakes or spiders, and mimics of non-food materials such as bird feces."

To connect, access  https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/92841203978?pwd=ay91SUpFZnl5MEdnVmlzOUxmMFFZQT09 
Zoom Meeting ID: 928 4120 3978 
Zoom Passcode: 160485

"People who want to submit their questions to Jeff or request to see certain species from the collection can email their requests to bmuseum@ucdavis.edu with Picnic Day in the subject," says Tabatha Yang, the Bohart Museum's education and outreach coordinator. "We won't have the time or capacity to access the collection during the event for any requests. Instead, we will pull the items that are requested or relevant to the talk and have those prepared to show. Of course we may not be able to honor everyone's request, but we will do our best."

The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane (the museum is closed now due to the pandemic), is directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis professor of entomology. It houses nearly eight million insect specimens, plus a year-around gift shop and a live "petting zoo," comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas.

Department of Entomology and Nematology