Watch the Science of Entomology Unfold at Bohart Museum of Entomology Open House

A female Culex tarsalis. (Photo by UC Davis associate professor Geoffrey Attardo, medical entomologist and geneticist.)

The open house, free and family friendly, takes place from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. Parking is also free.

"The theme is Museum Fundamentals 101," said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. Activities will center around:  

• Catching bugs (nets, malaise, light and pitfall)
• How to make a kill jar
• Pinning
• Microscope work
• Labeling
• Identification of some of the major orders
• Celebration of noted UC Davis entomology professor Richard M. Bohart (2013-2007), founder of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, whose birthday anniversary was Sept. 28, the date of the open house.  Speaking will be UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, who directed the Bohart Museum for 34 years until she retired Feb. 1, 2024; and the new Bohart director, Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. 

UC Davis entomologist Richard Bohart, 1913-2007.

Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Lepidoptera collection, will show pinning boards at various stages of completeness and "we will have a QR code linked to the video of him showing how to spread leps that we created over the pandemic," said Yang. "We will also highlight and link to his 'carpentry how-to for drawers' and spreading boards that (collections manager) Brennen Dyer has on his website, resourcefulentomology.com.

Carla-Cristina “CC” Melo Edwards of the laboratory of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will be discussing mosquitoes and ticks--and how she traps them. Her doctoral research focuses on investigating the physiological mechanisms underlying pyrethroid resistance in Aedes aegypti (the yellow fever mosquito). She was a McNair scholar at Baylor University, where she completed her undergraduate degree in cell and molecular biology in May 2021.

A family arts and crafts activity is also planned.

The Bohart Museum is the home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also houses a live petting zoo (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, tarantulas and more) and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters and jewelry, among other items.