Beetle mania! Beetles will be among the specimens shown at the Bohart Museum of Entomology on Sunday, Oct. 5. These are ready for labeling. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Beetle mania! Beetles will be among the specimens shown at the Bohart Museum of Entomology on Sunday, Oct. 5. These are ready for labeling. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bohart Museum: 'The ABCs of Collecting and Curating Insects'

Open House Set Sunday, Oct. 5

UC Davis entomology major Dylan Vega assisting visitors at a recent Bohart Museum of Entomology open house. He also will help staff the Bohart Museum open house on Oct. 5. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis entomology major Dylan Vega assisting visitors at a recent Bohart Museum of Entomology open house. Hewill help staff the Bohart Museum open house on Oct. 5. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Bohart Museum of Entomology will host its first open house of the 2025-26 academic year on Sunday, Oct. 5.

 The event,  themed "Museum ABCs: How to Collect and Curate," will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. It is free and family friendly. Parking is also free.

"We will take some of the mysteries out of entomology and the collecting-to-curating process," said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.

Emma "Em" Jochim of the Jason Bond lab interacting with open house guests. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Doctoral candidate Emma "Em" Jochim of the Jason Bond lab interacting with guests at a recent open house. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

"Visitors can learn the importance of entomology and collections, from the fundamentals to a collections-based research museum, Yang said. "We're going to show the process of what we do every day, and show them what they can do at home."

Collecting and preserving insect specimens was more popular a few decades ago, Yang said, but interest is growing.  Many insect enthusiasts post their images or check out other images on such sites as iNaturalist and BugGuide.net.

Kaitai Liu, a first-year doctoral student in the Jason Bond lab, shows critters from the Bohart Museum petting zoo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Kaitai Liu, a first-year doctoral student in the Jason Bond lab, shows critters from the Bohart Museum's petting zoo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection, and fellow Bohart Museum associate and naturalist Greg Kareofelas, will be answering questions about moths and butterflies, and discussing the collecting-to-curating process.

UC Davis entomology students scheduled to staff the open house include Dylan Vega, a third-year entomology major; Emma "Em" Jochim, a doctoral candidate in the Jason Bond lab; and Kaitai Liu,  a first-year doctoral student in the Bond lab.

The family arts-and-crafts activity, a traditional part of every open house,  will involve pinning and labeling a replica of a bug.

"Visitors can choose to stay for 15 minutes or three hours," Yang commented. "There is no registration required. If you have questions, please contact bmuseum@ucdavis.edu."

Founded in 1946 by UC Davis Professor Richard "Doc" Bohart (1913-2007), the Bohart Museum houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus 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, jewelry and stuffed animals.

Director of the Bohart Museum is professor Jason Bond, the Evett and Marion Schindler Endowed Chair of Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and executive associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

UC Davis Distnguished Professor Emerita Lynn Kimsey, a former graduate student of Doc Bohart, directed the Bohart Museum for 34 years before her retirement in 2024. She continues to do research (specialty Hymenoptera) and write and edit the Bohart Museum newsletter.

Primary Category

Secondary Categories

Education

Tags