March 9, 2010
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| Tabatha Yang with walking sticks. The Bohart Museum will feature a St. Patrick's Day theme, "What Has Six Legs and Is Green All Over?" on Sunday, March 21 from 1 to 5 p.m. (Photos by Kathy Keatley Garvey) |
DAVIS--“What Has Six Legs and Is Green All Over?”
If you guessed “insects,” you’d be right. If you guessed walking
sticks, walking leaves, mantids, crickets and grasshoppers, take a
front-row seat.
That St. Patrick’s Day theme will highlight the Bohart Museum of
Entomology’s special opening from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 21 when
it “goes green.”
No, Bohart Museum director Lynn Kimsey won’t be dressed as a
leprechaun. The museum isn’t changing its name to the “O’Bohart.”
There’s no pot of gold anywhere in the museum at 1124 Academic Surge.
No shamrocks or “Danny Boy,” either.
But, yes, there will “wearing o’ the green,” said Tabatha Yang, education
and outreach coordinator for the Bohart, which houses a global
collection of some seven million specimens, plus live displays.
Many insects are green.
“The live green ones are walking sticks and walking leaves,” she said.
A new addition to the Bohart is a six-inch walking stick that’s a
bright kelly green. “This is what inspired the St. Patrick’s Day
connection,” Yang said.
*While the four-leaf clover is the luck symbol of St. Patrick’s Day,
some cultures in Europe and Asia consider green crickets
lucky," Yang said, "so we will have some crickets and grasshoppers from the
collection on display.”*
“People will see that not all crickets are green or even brown, but
they can be black or reddish or yellowish.”
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| Green walking stick. |
Senior museum scientist Steve Heydon says he’ll feed the Madagascar
hissing cockroaches some cabbage—no corned beef, though.
The first 50 visitors wearing green will receive a free Bohart Museum
bookmark," Yang said.
The Bohart Museum recently extended its hours to include several
Saturdays or Sundays. A Valentine’s Day theme, “What Is a Kissing
Bug?”, highlighted the Saturday, Feb. 13 opening.
The next special events: the all-day UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday,
April 17 and Moth-er’s Day, in celebration of moths, on Saturday, May
8 from 1 to 5 p.m.
“The weekend openings are in response to working people and parents
who can't visit us during the week,” Yang said. The gift shop also
will be open. Visitors can purchase T-shirts, posters, stickers and
“insect candy,” among other items.
The Bohart, closed on Fridays, is open weekdays, Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m. Tours can be
arranged by contacting Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0493 or (530)-752-9464. “Due
to limited space, groups need to call ahead and book a tour other than
on the weekend openings,” she said.
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946 by the late Richard M. Bohart,
former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is directed by
Lynn Kimsey, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of
Entomology.
Dedicated to teaching, research and service, the museum houses the
seventh largest insect collection in North America. The museum also
includes live insects such as Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking
sticks and walking leaves in the "petting zoo."
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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
