Butterflies, Spiders and 'Doc' Bohart

A close-up shot of "Beau," filling in for Doc Bohart's legendary cat. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

That was the scene at the Bohart Museum Society's annual Halloween party, held at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis.

Tabatha Yang, the Bohart Museum's outreach coordinator, came dressed as internationally acclaimed entomologist Richard Mitchell Bohart (1913-2007), who founded the insect museum in 1946 that bears his name. Bohart served as a professor and chair of the Department of Entomology.

And he had a cat named "Beau," who seemed to "love" the graduate students petting her--until she didn't. Her paws turned into claws.

Yang wore a white lab coat with a "Doc" Bohart name-tag, with "Beau" securely fastened in front of her. 

"It was pretty funny/creepy, but really creative," said UC Davis distinguished professor emerita Lynn Kimsey, who directed the Bohart Museum for 34 years, retiring on Feb. 1. She was one of Bohart's last graduate students. "I'd have never thought of doing that." 

Meanwhile, Yang fielded questions about "Doc" Bohart.

Bohart attended UC Berkeley, receiving three degrees in entomology culminating in his doctorate in 1938. He joined the UC Davis faculty in 1946 and chaired the Department of Entomology from 1956 to 1965. He taught general entomology, medical entomology, systematics, and agricultural entomology.  

According to the Academic Senate's memorial, Bohart "contributed substantially to the world literature of the insect Order Hymenoptera, which included two landmark books, Sphecid Wasps of the World (with A. S. Menke), and The Chrysidid Wasps of the World (with L.S. Kimsey), as well as 230 journal articles and four other books on wasps and mosquitoes, including the second and third editions of The Mosquitoes of California (the second with Stanley B. Freeborn and the third with Robert K. Washino). During his career, he described more than 200 new species and genera of insects."

Earlier this year, UC Davis distinguished professor Walter Leal of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and former professor and chair of the Department of Entomology, created a video with Kimsey. They detailed his life. (See video)

At the Halloween party, Kimsey, a hymenopterist, came dressed as a spider; she wore a spider-webbed patterned blouse with a spider clutching her back. Her husband, UC Davis retired faculty member Robert "Bob" Kimsey wore his traditional ghillie suit.

Bohart research entomologist Tom Zavortink arrived in his traditional Bernie Sanders' outfit (suit and tie). Doctoral candidate Christofer Brothers wore a dragonfly costume, the insect he studies. UC Davis alumnus and artist Francisco Basso wore a furry spider costume. 

Many others came dressed as "just" themselves. They included:

• Jason Bond, director of the Bohart Museum, and the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. 
• Medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
• Brennen Dyer, Bohart collections manager
• Research associate Sandy Shanks
  
• Research associate John "Moth Man" De Benedictus
• Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas 

Bottom line: Bohart Museum Society parties aren't about the traditional ghosts, goblins and ghouls. Insects reign supreme.

And sometimes a costumed "Doc" Bohart takes the cake.