Suds for a bug?

The annual “Beer for a Butterfly” contest, launched in 1972 by butterfly guru Art Shapiro, now a UC Davis distinguished professor emeritus, gets underway Jan. 1.

The person who finds the first live  cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, of the year in the three-county area of Sacramento, Yolo and Solano, will receive a pitcher of beer or its equivalent.

What are you doing on New Year's Day?

Weather permitting, you can begin searching for the first bumble bee of the year in the two-county area of Yolo and Solano. If you photograph or video it, and you are judged the winner, a prize awaits you--in addition to bragging rights.

If gift-giving decisions bug you, you’re in luck.

If friends tick you off, you’re in luck. 

If you’re ready to put a bee into the cowboy expression of “yee haw,” you’re in luck.

The UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) and the Bohart Museum of Entomology are ready to assist you with lots of gift choices.

Ticked off? The Bohart Museum gift shop has keychains with stuffed toy animals such as ticks and fruit flies.

Dragonflies and spiders!

The Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on Saturday, Nov. 2 will feature talks by UC Davis doctoral candidates Christofer Brothers, a dragonfly specialist, and Emma “Em” Jochim, a spider specialist.

The event, free and family friendly and the last open house of the year, takes place from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. Parking is also free.

Entomologist-artist Allen Chew, an associate with the Bohart Museum of Entomology outdid himself with his kraken sculpture of an octopus.

It’s made of cicada molts collected last spring from emergences in the midwest and southeast regions of the United States.

Specifically, they're from Broods XIII and XIX, which are two of the 15 broods of periodical cicadas, Magicicada spp.  

It was an entomologist's dream and a learning experience for non-entomologists.

UC Davis doctoral alumna Fran Keller, a professor at Folsom Lake College and a lecturer in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, showed collecting equipment, shared entomological knowledge, and emphasized the importance of insect collections when she staffed a station at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on Saturday, Sept. 28. 

The Bohart Museum of Entomology will host an open house, "Museum ABCs: Arthropods, Bohart and Collecting," from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 28, in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane.

The event, open to the public, is free and family friendly. Parking is also free.

A sensory moth exhibit by a UC Davis doctoral student and his father will be among the stations featured at the Bohart Museum of Entomology Moth Night, set from 7 to 11 p.m., Saturday, July 20 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. 

The event, free and family friendly, will take place inside and outside the Bohart Museum, as well as in the hallway of Academic Surge. 

Like a moth to a flame….

The Bohart Museum of Entomology is hosting its annual Moth Night, free and open to the public, on Saturday, July 20. 

The event, held in conjunction with National Moth Night, is set from 7 to 11 p.m. in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, and outside. A blacklighting display--UV lights on a white sheet--will be set up to draw moths and other night-flying insects.