The Art of Loving Insects: Bohart Museum-Style

This is a close-up of Karissa Merritt's tattoo of a Chinese moon moth or Chinese luna moth, Actias dubernari. Merritt, a UC Davis entomology alumna and artist, won a tattoo contest at the Bohart Museum in 2018.

Then you'll want to attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on "Insects, Art and Culture" from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 15 on the UC Davis campus.

The Bohart Museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. The event is free and family friendly.

Among artists represented will be UC Davis graduate student Srdan Tunic; UC Davis undergraduate students Allen Chew,  Francisco Basso and Brittany Kohler; and UC Davis alumna Megan Ma; plus the work of the late scientific illustrator Mary Foley Benson (1905-1992), employed by the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture,  the Smithsonian before retiring and moving to Davis. She also did illustrations for several UC Davis entomologists. 

Tunic, a UC Davis candidate for a master's degree in art history, will present a seminar on Benson from 11 a.m. to noon, Oct. 15, in Room 1010 of the TLC Teaching and Learning Complex, 482 Hutchison Drive.  (See research story on Mary Foley Benson by forest entomologist Malcolm Furniss)

The family arts-and-crafts activity at the open house will be to "create your own Pokemon card," said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. Also planned: eating insects, creating gall ghosts (from oak galls), learning about cochineal dyes, and showing off insect tattoos.

"We would love to have folks come and show off their insect tattoos," Kimsey said.

The UC Davis museum, founded in 1946 by noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007), is dedicated to teaching, research and service. It is the home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens. The collection is now the seventh largest in North America and includes terrestrial and fresh water arthropods. The museum is also home of the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity of California's deserts, mountains, coast, and the Great Central Valley. In addition, the Bohart features a live "petting zoo" (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and tarantulas) and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with T-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, posters, books and insect-collecting equipment.

The Bohart is open to the public year-around (except for holidays) Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon and  from 1 to 5 p.m. It is closed to the public on Friday to enable research activities. Admission is free. For more information, access the website or contact the museum at bmuseum@udavis.edu.