What Bees, Butterflies, Beetles, Birds and Bats Have in Common

C Davis graduate student Margaret "Rei" Scampavia, who studies pollination ecology and native bees, is scheduled to participate in the open house.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Beetles do it. Birds do it.

Bats do it.

Do what, you ask? They pollinate!

The Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, will greet visitors on Saturday, March 14 at its open house, themed "Pollinator Nation."

To be held from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, it promises to be both fun and educational.

“It will be about bees, bees, bees!” said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor of entomology at UC Davis. "Also, we are borrowing specimens of pollinating birds, bats and lemurs from the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology to cover non-insect pollinators, which should be fun."

Lots of animals are pollinators. It's not just bees, bats, butterflies. bats and birds. Pollinators can be ants, flies, moths, wasps and the like.

You'll see many of them at the open house. Staff research associate Billy Synk of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, will provide a bee observation hive. That's a glassed-in hive filled with a bee colony. You'll be able to see the queen bee, worker bees and drones.

Extension apicuturist emeritus Eric Mussen will answer questions about honey bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The event is free and open to the public. Family activities are also planned.

Special attractions include a “live” petting zoo, featuring Madagascar hissing cockroaches,  walking sticks and tarantulas 

The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of nearly eight million specimens. It is also the home of the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and  the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity. Noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007) founded the museum.

The museum is open to the public four days a week, Monday through Thursday, but special weekend open houses are held throughout the academic year 

The Bohart Museum's regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. The insect museum is closed to the public on Fridays and on major holidays. Admission is free.

More information is available by accessing the website at http://bohart.ucdavis.edu/;  telephoning  (530) 752-9493; or emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.