Ready to go blacklighting?
When the Bohart Museum of Entomology hosts its annual Moth Night from 7 to 11 p.m., Saturday, July 18, it will provide two blacklighting displays: one in front of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus, and the other at Shields Oak Grove, part of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden.
John "Moth Man" de Benedictus will be showing the crowd in front of the Academic Surge Building how blacklighting works: a UV light illuminating a white sheet attracts nocturnal insects.
The Oak Grove blacklighting will be by Joel Hernandez , a UC Davis alumnus who works as an agricultural inspector in the Yolo County Ag Commissioner's Office. He is also the resident entomologist for the department and assists in "identifying what the public brings into our office." He will be assisted by his wife, Melissa Cruz Hernandez of the Arboretum staff.
"For the event, my light setup will be a large pop-up tent frame with two large sheets crossing in the middle," Hernandez says. "A mercury vapor light will be in the center and UV lights will be strung over the sheets. Normally, I use only one sheet, some rope and one UV light in the field, but this large of an event requires a much larger setup. This will be in the oak grove of the Arboretum near the gazebo."
The location: 1 Garrod Drive. The time: 9:30 to 11:30.
Moth Night, to take place, as well, inside the Bohart Museum in the Academic Surge Building, is free and family friendly. See previous Bug Squad blog at https://ucanr.edu/blog/bug-squad/article/moth-night-bohart.
For more information, access the Bohart Museum website at http://bohart.ucdavis.edu or email bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.