Who were the "worker bees" bee-hind the scenes who organized the highly successful Bohart Museum of Entomology open house, "Buzz Words: Insects in Literature," that featured displays, hands-on activities, and three speakers?
The "worker bees" were three UC Davis Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) members: Grace Horne, Mia Lippey and Marielle Hansen Friedman. Horne and Friedman are doctoral candidates in the lab of urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke, associate professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Lippey, who received her doctorate in entomology in April 2026, studied in the labs of Meineke and UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jay Rosenheim.
The "worker bees" not only organized the event and answered questions about "buzz words" in literature, but staffed the family arts-and-crafts activity center, and showed insects from the Bohart Museum's live petting zoo (including Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects). The speakers at the open house:
- Krystle Hickman, a noted bee conservationist photographer and author of the book, The ABCs of California Native Bees
- Felicity Muth, who studies the cognitive ecology of wild-foraging and lab-based bumble bees, and authored the children's book, "Am I Even a Bee?"
- Christofer Brothers, a UC Davis doctoral candidate who studies dragonflies and who writes rhyming prose about his research
Friedman, Horne and Lippey all wore different EGSA T-shirts. EGSA members annually design T-shirts that are sold to the public at UC Davis Picnic Day at Briggs Hall. The T-shirts are also available online.
Friedman wore the T-shirt that she designed in 2024, the pink Bugbie shirt, illustrated with a rosy maple moth, Dryocampa rubicunda. It is among the best-sellers. “I was swept up into the Barbie craze," she earlier said, thinking "Wouldn’t it be cute to draw one with a bug and call it Bugbie?”
Horne, the 2026 co-chair of the entomology activities at Briggs Hall for UC Davis PIcnic Day, wore the popular Beetles T-shirt, EGSA's all-time best seller. It was designed in 2006 by Hillary Thomas, then a doctoral candidate in the Frank Zalom lab and now, as Hillary Thomas-Sanchez, the technical director of the Salinas-based Naturipe Berry Growers. The Beetles T-shirt, a take-off of George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon crossing Abbey Road, shows four beetles crossing Abbey Road. Beneath each image is the family name: Phengogidae, Curculionidae, Cerambycidae and Scarabaeidae. Think glowworm beetles, snout beetles, long-horned beetles and scarab beetles!
Lippey wore the "Roach Races" T-shirt from 2019. She is a former EGSA president, former co-chair of entomological activities at UC Davis Picnic Day, and recipient of the 2025 Student Leadership Award from the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America.
Steve Schutz, then a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Bruce Eldridge (1933-2025) lab, introduced the Roach Races to the UC Davis campus in 1992. Senior staff research associate Marvin Kinsey (1931-2011) built the first UC Davis roach racetrack, using Schutz' description of the design.
Schutz, now the scientific programs manager of the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District, recalled: "When I was a postdoc in Bruce Eldridge's lab, I volunteered for the Picnic Day Committee and suggested that we add 'cockroach races' to the event. I got the idea from the Rutgers Entomology Department where I did my MS/PhD work. Cockroach races had started as an activity in the undergraduate 'Insects and Man' class, taught by Donald Sutherland at the time, and became a popular part of the annual Cook College Ag Field Day event. We gave out jars of honey from the University's hives as prizes. I thought it would also be a hit at UC Davis, although there was initially some skepticism, and apparently, I was correct, since they're still doing it."
Next Open House: Moth Night
The next Bohart Museum open house is "Moth Night," set from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, July 18. It will include a blacklighting exhibit and moth displays, in keeping with National Moth Week. All open houses are free and open to the public.
The Bohart Museum is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus.
A tardigrade "water bear" sculpture, the work of artist Solomon Bassoff of Faducci LLC, North San Juan, Calif., fronts the building. The sculpture measures six feet long and nearly three feet high. In real life, the water bear is microscopic. The adults usually range from 0.3 to 0.5 mm in length.
Founded in 1946, the Bohart Museum is the home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live petting zoo (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and more) and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with T-shirts, hoodies, books, jewelry, posters, stuffed toy animals, and insect-collecting equipment.
Director of the Bohart Museum is Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and the executive associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
For more information on the Bohart Museum, access the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu/ or email bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
Cover image: A native bee, genus Lasioglossum, foraging on rock purslane in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)