So quipped UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey about the portraits and multiple images of Richard "Doc" Bohart (1913-2007) gracing the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on Saturday, Sept. 28, on what would have been his 111th birthday anniversary.
Bohart, an internationally recognized entomologist and a longtime UC Davis professor, founded the insect museum in 1946. It was renamed the Bohart Museum in 1983.
The 300 visitors at the open house visitors learned how to catch bugs, identify them, pin them and label them. They also learned about butterflies, moths, mosquitoes and ticks. As the open house concluded, they enjoyed a "Doc" birthday cake cut by the new Bohart Museum 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.
Kimsey served as the director of the Bohart for 34 years until her retirement on Feb. 1, 2024. Specializing in hymenoptera, she continues her research; directs the Bohart Museum Society; and writes and edits the quarterly newsletter.
Kimsey, who was one of Bohart's last graduate students before he retired, remembers him in the audio of a newly produced video by Walter Leal, UC Davis distinguished professor of molecular and cellular biology and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. Included are her archived PowerPoint images of the professor, and video excerpts from her 1996 interview of "Doc" Bohart in an Aggie Video production. (See https://youtu.be/3YqnK-CpbJE)
The video heralds Bohart's 60 years of entomological work, documents his childhood passion for insects, relates that his first publication (1936) featured Strepsiptera (twisted-wing parasites), and lists many of the species that bear his name. He authored two landmark books, Sphecid Wasps of the World (with Arnold Menke), and The Chrysidid Wasps of the World (with Lynn Kimsey), as well as 230 journal articles and four other books on wasps and mosquitoes, including the 2nd and 3rd editions of The Mosquitoes of California (the 2nd with Stanley Freeborn and the 3rd with Robert Washino). During his career, he described more than 200 new species and genera of insects.
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus, 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.
Attached Images:
Only three directors have led the Bohart Museum of Entomology since 1946. Pictured are hymenopterist Lynn Kimsey, director from 1990 to Feb. 1, 2024, and arachnologist Jason Bond, director since Feb. 1. The portrait shows Richard "Doc" Bohart, who founded the insect museum in 1946. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A portrait of Richard "Doc" Bohart graces a wall overlooking a celebratory cake at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's Sept. 28th open house. "Doc" was born Sept. 28, 2013 in Palo Alto and founded the UC Davis insect museum, now known as the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bohart Museum director Professor Jason Bond addresses the crowd, with former director Lynn Kimsey, now a UC Davis distinguished professor emerita. Bond is 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. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bohart Museum director Professor Jason Bond cuts the cake while Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator serves. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)