Come explore UC Davis Biodiversity Day
Madagascar hissing cockroaches will hiss, walking sticks (aka stick insects) will crawl, raptors will perch and yeast will rise at the 12th annual University of California, Davis Biodiversity Day, an all-day event Saturday on the university campus.
Other sounds will include the “sound of silence” at still-life displays, but not really, as questions and answers will flow, said Biodiversity Museum chair, Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator at the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
Billed as a Super Science Day—a day in which visitors can chat with scientists and see their work—the event is free and family friendly.
The insects are housed in the museum's petting zoo; the raptors at the California Raptor Center; and the yeast in the Phaff Yeast Collection, which will be shown in the Robert Mondavi Institute Brewery and Food Processing facility.
Monarch specimens are a fan favorite at Bohart, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane.
“We have about seven drawers of monarch butterflies from all over the United States, from Central America, Guam, Hawaii, Australia, and perhaps another Eastern country or two,” said entomologist Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection. “This also includes four specimens of the nearly-white monarchs from Hawaii.”
The butterfly and moth collection totals about 500,000, Smith said, and about 400 are monarchs.
Smith remembered receiving, from a Lepidopterist, “a box of about 300 DEAD monarchs that were intended to be released at a wedding but never survived until that event. I have been using these important specimens for spreading demonstrations/classes for the UC Davis Entomology Club and the summer Bio-Boot Camps, so at least they are being put to a good use and not wasted.”
Releasing butterflies at personal events is frowned upon by the Bohart Museum
The Biodiversity Museum Day will showcase 11 museums or collections:
• Anthropology Museum, 328 Young Hall and grounds, noon to 4p.m.
• Arboretum and Public Garden, Habitat Gardens in the Environmental GATEway, adjacent to the Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive, 9a.m. to 1p.m.
• Bohart Museum of Entomology, Room 1124and main hall of the Academic Surge Building, Crocker Lane, 9a.m. to noon and 1to 4p.m.
• Botanical Conservatory, the greenhouses along Kleiber Hall Drive, 11a.m. to 3 p.m.
• California Raptor Center, 340Equine Lane, off Old Davis Road, 9a.m. to 3p.m.
• Center for Plant Diversity, Sciences Laboratory Building/Esau Science Hall, off Kleiber Hall Drive, 11a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Nematode Collection, Sciences Laboratory Building/ Esau Science Hall, off Kleiber Hall Drive, 9am. to 3p.m..
• Marine Invertebrate Collection, Sciences Laboratory Building/Esau Science Hall, off Kleiber Hall Drive, 9am. to 3p.m.
• Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Room 1394, Academic Surge Building, 455Crocker Lane, 10a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Paleontology Collection, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1309 Earth and Physical Sciences Building, 434 LaRue Road, 12noon to 4p.m.
• Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, Robert Mondavi Institute Brewery and Food Processing facility, Old Davis Road, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Yang said visitors can purchase food at the assorted food trucks. Parking, she added, is also free.