Ready to greet the crowd at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's Moth Night are (from left) UC Davis doctoral candidate Emma Jochim, doctoral student Iris Quayle and Bohart research associate John "Moth Man" De Benedictus. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Curious minds want to know.
How many species of moths did scientists detect in the blacklighting demonstration at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's annual Moth Night, held Saturday, July 12?
"We caught a total of 11 moths at the light sheet--five species in five different families," said Bohart Museum research associate John "Moth Man" De Benedictus of Davis, who spearheads the annual blacklighting project.
Amelia Vasquez-Fuller of Vacaville looks for insects. (Photo by Kristy Vasquez)
Here's his list:
One Leucogniella sp., probably Leucogoniella california (Family: Gelechidae). "No common name. There are two species of this tiny moth in our area that I cannot confidently identify based soley upon wing pattern. It occasionally turns up in large numbers around this time of year. I believe the larval food is unknown, but collections suggest that it could be a scavenger on plant detritus."
One Plutella xylostella. Family: Plutellidae. Diamondback Moth. "This is a cosmopolitan species of the Old and New World. It's origin is unknown. It feeds on a wide range of cruciferous plants and can be a pest of some field crops such as broccoli and cabbages."
Six Euchromius ocellea. Family: Crambidae. "Moth Photographers Group gives the common name as "Belted Grass-Veneer Moth." It is a common species in Davis that has a much rarer and very similar looking congeneric species Euchromius californicalis. The larvae feed on grasses."
Two Ephestioodes gilvescentella. Family: Pyralidae. "Moth Photographers Group does not give it a common name; it is called the Dusky Raisin Moth by BugGuide. It is the most common moth in Davis and is especially abundant in the summer months. It's larvae are known to feed on dired fruit, nuts and other stored food product making it an occasional pest, but its host range is much broader and I"ve never heard of an infestation around here in spite of its abundance."
One Bagisara buxea. Family: Noctuidae. "No common name. This moth has shown up infrequently at my backyard light, but none this year. I could find no information on its larval hostplant. Probably trees and shrubs."
Other insects? "Many of the usual small flies, gnats and mosquitoes," he said. "One black webspinner, a small insect in the Order Embioptera. It and the other webspinner, (pink webspinner) are introduced species. The black webspinner turned up in Davis 5-10 years ago. Webspinners have silk glands in the forelimbs and construct silken tubes under objects on the ground from which they feed. Only males fly. (The pink webspinner is only known as parthenogenic females, so never turns up at light sheets, but seems to be more abundant under rocks, boards, etc. than the black webspinner.) Two species of crickets, the common large black Gryllis sp. and a smaller one. Three scarab beetles, the kind whose larvae feed on roots of trees and shrubs."
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Jeff Smith (left) curator of the Bohart Museum's Lepidoptera Collection, and Bohart research associate John "Moth Man" De Benedictus show specimens of White Witch moths, Thysania agrippina. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The event drew nearly 300 people, according to Tabatha Yang, the Bohart Museum's education and outreach coordinator. Visitors admired the moth collection, chatted with the scientists, handled stick insects from the live petting zoo, and crafted tiny caterpillars from pipe cleaners.
The Moth Night, free and family friendly, took place at its facility in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis.
The Bohart's Lepidoptera collection is considered "the gold standard" of collections. Professor Paul Opler (1938-2023) of Colorado State University, an international authority on Lepidoptera and author of noted books on butterflies and moths, was so impressesd with the Bohart collection that he emailed Smith: “I consider the Bohart Lepidoptera collection to be The Gold Standard to which we all should aspire.”
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946 by noted entomologist Richard "Doc" Bohart (1913-2007), a UC Davis professor and a former chair of the department, now houses a worldwide collection of eight million insect specimens, mostly gathered under the tenure of UC Davis Distinguished Professor (now emerita) Lynn Kimsey, who served as the Bohart director for 34 years.
Professor Jason Bond, the Evett and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair of Insect Systematics and the executive associate dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, succeeded Kimsey as director in February 2024.
In addition to its worldwide insect collection and live petting zoo, the Bohart Museum houses an insect-themed gift shop stocked with T-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, books, posters and insect-collecting equpment.
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A crowd begins to gather around the blacklighting demonstration. (Photo by Kristy Vasquez)
