Bohart Museum Displaying Items at Vacaville Museum's 'Art of Death' Gallery Exhibit

The Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, is showing several insect-themed displays in the Vacaville Museum’s six-month-long gallery exhibit, “The Art of Death," underway through Nov. 15 at 213 Buck Ace., Vacaville.

The Bohart Museum, home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens, is sharing educational information involving multiple insect species, as well as the specimens.

One of the Bohart displays is "Ephemeral Resources," an "Oh My Drawer" created by doctoral candidate Tracie Hayes and postdoctoral researcher Elizabeth Postema of the lab of community ecologist/professor Louie Yang, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.  Postema is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum, Chicago.

"Dermestid Damaged Drawer," also part of the Bohart collection being displayed, shows what these beetles did to a Bay Area science center collection.

The third Bohart display features three curated specimens:  a monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus; death's head hawkmoth, Acherontia sp.; and a flame skimmer dragonfly, Libellula saturata.

Insects that Use Ephemeral Resources

In their display, titled "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, Insects That Use Ephemeral Resources," Hayes and Postema wrote that "ephemeral resources are food, breeding space, or habitat that are only available for a short period of time relative to the lifespan of the consumer. Many insect species use these resources and have unique ways of adapting to the ephemeral nature of the resource they rely on. These systems are important to ecological research because the scarcity of the resource in time  can promote strong ecological interactions, making for a microcosm or model of the larger ecosystem."

The scientists categorized the themes: puddles and tears, dung, desert super-blooms, carrion, fungi, tree holes and bromeliads. 

For the puddles and tears category, they wrote "Various salts and amino acids play an important role in the ecology of insects. These nutrients can be hard to find, but their rarity makes them a great gift for potential mates. To acquire these gifts, many butterflies 'puddle'—i.e. suck up nutrients from shallow, mud puddles. Other species have more unorthodox techniques. The Julia heliconian (Dryas lulia) can be found drinking the salty tears of caiman and other reptiles, and several species sip eye secretions from sleeping birds."

For the carrion category, Hayes and Postema wrote: "Many insects rely on the ephemeral resource of carrion for nutrition and reproduction. A mating pair of carrion beetles in the genus Nicrophorus will find a small carcass and dig underneath it to bury it and protect it from competitors. Then, after laying eggs, they will prepare the carcass for their offspring by stripping its fur and covering it in anal and oral secretions. Most pairs will feed their larvae as they develop."

Demestids, beetles in the family Coleoptera, are commonly referred to as skin beetles or carpet beetles. Since some dermestids eat insect collections,  museum personnel have to watch for dermestid beetle larvae, pupae, exuviae, and damage. 

The monarch, death's head moth and dragonfly specimens are also drawing attention. The moth is the species featured in the movie thriller, "The Silence of the Lambs." The moth's name is derived from a skull-like image on the back of its thorax. However, the moth is harmless--unless as someone quipped, "you are a potato plant." 

Vacaville Museum 

Clara Dawson, executive director of the museum, said "The Art of Death" exhibit is filtered through the lenses of art, history, science, and culture, and explores the ways society depicts, honors and confronts death to reveal “how our relationship with mortality continually evolved." Contributors include Solano County artists. Dawson and curator Shelby Sorensen of the museum staff headed the project.

The mission of the Vacaville Museum is to explore history, connect community, and cultivate a future inspired by arts and culture, Dawson said. Through exhibits, publications and educational programs, the museum, which encompasses all of Solano County, continuously promotes the value of community connectivity through shared community heritage, she related. (See schedule of current events at https://vacavillemuseum.org/events/)

At the museum's preview party, many members and their guests dressed in black, illustrating the gallery theme.   One museum member, Kerri Schillinger of Vacaville, wore a mourning dress, similar in style to the 1860s mourning dresses.   She accessorized  it with two true Victorian pieces, a handbag and eyeglasses, as well as a Victorian-insprired mourning brooch. ("My real Victorian mourning brooch is currently on the Victorian dress displayed in the gallery.") 

 “The custom of wearing black became popular from Queen Victorian, hence the Victorian era," Schillinger shared. "Her husband died at 42 years old in 1861.  She wore all black and continued in mourning dress for the rest of her life.“ 

“Widows would go through three stages of mourning, with different restrictions on each stage.  The first and most stringent stage was called Full Mourning--and it would last one year and one day from the date of her husband's death.  The clothing would be very plain (no ornaments or detailing, and very dull), with heavy fabric, and would be completely black.  Jewelry could be worn - but it needed to be fairly plain and was often jet black.  A thick black crape (a type of very matte fabric) veil would be worn over the face, also called "widow's weeds" or "weeping veil."  The veil would be worn with a plain black bonnet.  The veils in the first stage would often be floor length.  Unfortunately, they were dyed with various chemicals including arsenic, and the widows breathing them in often got very sick--and many died.  Many women fainted from difficulty breathing in hot weather."

“The second stage was called Second Mourning--and that is the style I was going for in my outfit," Schillinger related. "This would last for another 3 to 6 months.    The veil would remain, but would now move to the back of the head and could be shorter.   Some colors could be introduced into clothing at this point--like some colored trim.  The jewelry could also start to have more color --like gold or gemstones."

"The third stage was called Half-Quarter Mourning--and this generally was what eventually brought the widow back to regular clothing.  The crape veils were no longer used.  Other colors of clothing could be worn--but they would gradually transition to these other colors.  Some women never went back to colored clothing."

Schillinger, keenly interested in history, enjoys researching and delivering community presentations on various historic subjects. She is active in the Chief Solano Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution.  A longtime Vacaville businesswoman, she owns a bookkeeping business, Bull's-Eye Bookkeeping; is the CEO of Eras Natural Sciences, Inc. (which makes a natural wound care topical made from Manuka honey); and also runs a non-profit, Brilianis Brainworks. "I do seminars on right-brain versus left-brain thinkers and give out scholarships to right-brained students--who typically wouldn't qualify for traditional scholarships and who want to go to a trade school or community college."

The museum gallery is open Thursdays and Fridays from 1 to 4:30 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, access https://vacavillemuseum.org/contact-us/.