Special Day at the Bohart Museum
You've heard of "Mommy and Me" photos, right?
Well, let's add bugs:
"Mommy and Me--and Bugs!" Or "Daddy and Me--and Bugs!"
That's was basically the scenario when UC Davis and UC Health System employees and their offspring visited the Bohart Museum of Entomology for the campuswide event, "Take Your Children to Work" (TOC).
Visitors delighted in learning about insects and photographing them. They admired the worldwide Lepidoptera specimen collection curated by Jeff Smith, and marveled at the live arthropods, including black widow spiders, and the scorpions that fluoresce under UV light.
Scientists estimate there are10 quintillion individual insects on Earth at any given time. That equates to roughly 1.4 billion to 200 million insects for every human being.
The Bohart Museum, part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is involved in "understanding, documenting and communicating terrestrial arthropod diversity." The insect museum houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, ranking it the seventh largest insect collection in North America. Scientists from throughout the world learn from the specimens.
In addition to the specimens, the Bohart maintains an insect-themed gift shop, and the live "petting zoo" that includes Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas. Visitors can hold the "hissers" and stick insects.
Among those welcoming the guests on TOC Day were Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection; Brennen Dyer, collections manager; and interns Emeline Huffaker and Jo Ridgeway.
Mid-morning visitors included:
- Associate Professor Inna Vishik, Department of Physics and Astronomy, with her daughters Arielle, 7, and Adina, 3.
- Angelina Petersen, doctoral candidate, Department of Environmental Toxicology, with her daughter Elleana, 5.
- Matt Steinwert, clinical informatics specialist, UC Davis Health System, and children, Luther, 7, and Tilda, 3
Next Open House
The Bohart Museum's next open house, scheduled Saturday, May 16 from 1 to 4 p.m., is themed "Buzz Words: Insects in Literature." UC Davis doctoral students Grace Horne, Mia Lippey and Marielle Hansel Friedman are organizing this event, announced Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.
A special guest at the May 16th open house will be native bee conservationist, community scientist and photographer Krystle Hickman of Los Angeles, whose enlarged images of native bees grace the Bohart Museum hallway. A National Geographic Explorer and a TedX Speaker, she is the newly published author of The ABC's of California's Native Bees.
All open houses are free and family friendly, and parking is free on weekends and holidays. The Bohart Museum offers walk-in days on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Admission is free year around.
Founded in 1946 by noted entomologist Richard Bohart, the museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, Crocker Lane. Director of the Bohart is Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair of Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and the executive associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES).
More information is available on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu/ or by emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
Cover image: Emeline Huffaker at the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
