UBI Professor Demonstrates 'How to Draw a Bug' at Bohart Museum Open House

Are you ready to draw an insect?

That's what Professor Miguel Angel Miranda of the University of the Balearic Islands (UBI), Spain, asked participants in his insect-drawing workshops on Saturday night, July 22 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house.

Miranda, newly returned from the 10th International Dipterology Congress, held July 16-21, in Reno, volunteered to demonstrate "how to draw a bug" at the Bohart open house. The four-hour event, billed as "An Evening at the Museum," featured displays of moths (National Moth Week) and flies (Dipertology Congress).

The half-hour art workshops took place in the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology classroom, adjacent to the Bohart headquarters in the Academic Surge Building.

First, the professor asked the participants what insects they like, and what they would like to draw.

"Centipedes!" a man said.

"That's not an insect," Miranda jovially replied. "What do you like about centipedes?"

"The legs," the man said.

Miranda turned to the other participants. "What other insects do you like?"

"Spiders!" a woman said. Miranda smiled, and agreed that spiders are cool, but "That's not an insect. What do you like about spiders?"

"The fangs," the woman answered.

The next response: "Dragonflies."

"What do you like about dragonflies?"

"The wings!"

Miranda proceeded to sketch a centipede, a spider and a dragonfly on a white board. He encouraged the participants to think about the main characteristics of each, what the insect is known for. (See snippet from his class on You Tube at https://youtu.be/_yCj8lFe2SQ. See second snippet at https://youtu.be/P5RDbTADQCk.)

Miranda, who joined the UBI faculty in 1995, is a zoologist, entomologist and noted insect illustrator. He currently teaches zoology, parasitology, and biotechnology applied for pest control. He is a member of UBI's Applied Zoology and Animal Conservation Research Group or ZAP. He served as the editor and cartoonist of the fanzine Plomi Corcat from 1991 to 1992. He curated the exhibition "Comic and Science" at the 2021 Comic Nostrum International Festival.

Miranda began his scientific career studying parasitoids of the pine processionary (Thaumetopoea pityocampa), a moth species that causes economic damage to coniferous forests. He researched Mediterranean fruit flies for his doctorate (1991). He has also researched tobacco aphids, scale insects of citrus, termites, ticks, sandflies and mosquitoes, including the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus. He has conducted extensive scientific work in the study of other insects of economic importance, including Hymenoptera parasitoids of plant pests, the red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus); parasites of bees, such as Varroa destructor; and the parasite Oestrus ovis.  He writes a blog and posts Tweets.

Among those participating in the class was noted dragonfly authority Rosser Garrison, who retired as a senior insect biosystematist from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and his daughter Anna Garrison. Anna, a dragonfly enthusiast, sports a dragonfly tattoo on her arm. It's a Cordulegosster diadema, commonly known as the Apache spiketail. During the class, Anna  sketched a dragonfly, among several other insects. Rosser's primary sketch? A butterfly.

"That class was so much fun!" said participant Nancy Ruiz, who added humor to the class by sketching a fly swatter and a fly.

The Bohart Museum, directed by UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, houses a global collection of eight million insects, plus a live insect petting zoo, and a gift shop, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. It is open to the public, summer hours, on Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m.