Monarchs Still Flyin' at Bohart Museum at UC Davis

DAVIS, CA – Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis, unfolds a monarch puppet. It unzips into a caterpillar and chrysalis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Monarchs are still flyin' at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Off the shelves, that is.

And it's all in the interest of education.

The Bohart, home of a global collection of nearly eight million specimens, including mounted monarchs, is featuring "Got milkweed?" t-shirts in its gift shop (milkweed is the host plant of the monarch), and a monarch puppet that unzips into three life cycle stages: caterpillar, chrysalis and adult.

The gift shop, open year around, also includes sweatshirts, books, posters, jewelry, insect collecting equipment and insect-themed candy, as well as a variety of stuffed animals: bed bugs, lice, tardigrades and mosquitoes.. Proceeds benefit the Bohart's many educational and public outreach activities.

In addition, Bohart Museum visitors can see, hold and photograph Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and tarantulas in the live "petting zoo.".

In keeping with the widespread interest in monarchs and other butterflies, the Bohart Museum will host a special open house, "Eggs to Wings: Backyard Butterfly Gardening," on Sunday, March 19.

The event, free and open to the public, takes place from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus.

Other open houses scheduled throughout the academic year are:

--Sunday, Jan. 22: 1 to 4 p.m.: “Parasite Palooza: Botflies, Fleas and Mites, Oh, My”

--Saturday, Feb. 18: (varying times throughout campus): Biodiversity Museum Day, an opportunity to explore 11 UC Davis collections

--Saturday, April 22: Campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day. The Bohart Museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, the Bohart Museum is open to the public from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m.Mondays through Thursdays. The museum is closed to the public on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and on major holidays. It will be closed to the public the week of Dec. 26-29 and Jan. 2. Admission is free.

More information is available by contacting (530) 752-0493 or bmuseum@ucdavis.edu. The website is http://bohart.ucdavis.edu/

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