Posts Tagged: Fran Keller

Hissers in the Bohart

It’s a comfortable life.

Eat, sleep and mate. And then eat, sleep and mate again.

Madagascar hissing cockroaches are a popular attraction at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis. The museum, directed by entomologist Lynn Kimsey, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, houses more than seven million insect specimens from all over the world.

The "hissers" are part of the Bohart's go-live "petting zoo."  

They're large. They're colorful. And they communicate, in part, by hissing. 

Beetle enthusiast Fran Keller, a doctoral candidate in entomology, is not particularly fond of the roaches. Emily Bzdyk, a first-year graduate student, is. 

You can tell by the photo below. 

The hissers, native to Madagascar, can reach 2 to 3 inches in length and in nature, live on the forest floor. Read more about them on the National Geographic Web site.

The Bohart Museum, located in 1124 Academic Surge and founded in 1946 by the late Richard M. Bohart, former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is dedicated to teaching, research and service. 

For more information on the Bohart Museum, visiting hours, and guided tours, contact education and outreach coordinator Tabatha Yang at  (530) 752-0493 or tabyang@ucdavis.edu. 

Yes, you can pet a hisser. 

Different Reactions

UC DAVIS graduate students Emily Bzdyk (left) and Fran Keller show different reactions to the cockroaches at the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Keller admits to liking other insects better; she's working on beetles for her doctorate. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bigger than Big

MADAGASCAR HISSING COCKROACH, aka "hisser," is bigger than big. It can reach three inches in length. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Saving the Bees, One Shirt at a Time

Officials at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and the Bohart Museum of Entomology are saving the bees--one T-shirt at a time.

Fran Keller, a doctoral candidate in entomology, and Nanase Nakanishi, a senior animal science major, teamed to create a "Save the Bees" T-shirt, spotlighting the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility and the adjacent Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven.

The newly planted haven is a half-acre bee friendly garden designed to provide a year-around food source for honey bees and an educational experience for human visitors. By spring, it will be well-established and in full bloom.

And the T-shirt? Nakanishi served as the artist, and Keller, the designer.

Nakanishi, a Bohart student employee for the past three years, plans to become a veterinarian.

Keller's Ph.D. work involves tenebrionids or darkling beetles. She studies with major professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart and professor and vice chair of the Department of Entomology.

In her "spare" time, Keller has created a number of insect posters and T-shirts, all available at the museum.

The bee shirt, which comes in black or yellow, is receiving scores of accolades. "Cute!" is one of them.

The front says "Save the Bees" and is inscribed with the Laidlaw facility name. The back features a photo (taken by yours truly) of a newly emerged bee tucked inside the line drawing of a hive. It is lettered with "Follow me to the Honey Bee Haven Garden!"

Keller said the shirts will sell for $20 for adults and $15 for youths, and range in size from 2XL to small for adults, and XS to large for youths.

All proceeds are earmarked for honey bee research at UC Davis. The shirts are available at the Bohart Museum, 1124 Academic Surge, UC Davis campus, or by accessing the Bohart Web site.

Saving the Bees

SPORTING the new honey bee t-shirts they created to raise funds for honey bee research at UC Davis are Nanase Nakanishi (left), an animal science major and a student employee at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, and Fran Keller, a doctoral student in entomology. Nanase models the front, and Fran, the back. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Close-Up

BACK of the new honey bee t-shirt features a newly emerged bee tucked inside a line drawing of a hive. Proceeds benefit honey bee research at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Big, Bold and Beleagured

They’re big, bold and beleaguered.

And now, they’re big, bold and finely detailed. 

Western Hercules beetles became a part of the Bohart Museum of Entomology’s educational and outreach program this month through a T-shirt design that’s drawing raves. 

Courtney Lambert, an undergraduate student in entomology at the University of California, Davis who plans a career as a scientific illustrator, drew the Western Hercules beetles after expressing an interest in them during a recent entomology class. 

Lynn Kimsey, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart Museum, taught the class and Fran Keller, a doctoral candidate in entomology, served as a teaching assistant.

“Courtney is an incredible artist,” said Fran Keller, who designed the shirt, along with other shirts and posters available at the Bohart. 

One of the largest beetles in the United States, the Western Hercules beetle (Dynastes granti) can measure 3.5 inches long. It is commonly found in Arizona. The beetle is nicknamed “rhinoceros beetle” in reference to the male’s long, fierce-looking thoracic horns. The female of the species has no horns. 

Lambert’s illustration shows the male and female on a limb. 

Keller remembers collecting the beetles in Arizona as an undergraduate. She received a permit from the Arizona Game and Fish Department to do so. “These scarab beetles are truly magnificent,” she said. “They emerge after the monsoon rains and they flock by the hundreds on the streets. They are attracted to lights of businesses.” 

Business owners spray them with pesticides at night and hose the dead insects into the sewers, she said.  “They are pests for just a brief time.” 

“And unfortunately, they are also poached, and illegal collecting has made this and other monsoon emerging beetles, Chrysina sp. for example,  rarer every season.  It is important for collectors to know the status of an insect before they collect it, and to make sure they have valid collecting permits issued by the state they’re collecting in.  Hopefully, we can educate with this beetle T-shirt."

American physician-entomologist George Henry Horn (1840) 1897) first described the species in 1870. It has a  blue and gray body with spots on the hardened forewings.  It’s also nicknamed Grant’s Hercules Beetle, honoring Ullysses S. Grant (1822-1885), the American Civil War general who went on to become the 18th president of the United States. 

Funds generated from these beetle T-shirts will help provide continuing undergraduate support and training at the Bohart Museum. 

The shirts are available in olive and brown with natural ink; black with white ink, and natural color with black ink. A coupon on the Bohart Web site offers 20 percent off with orders over $15 until April 15 

Founded in 1946, the Bohart Museum is located at 1124 Academic Surge, UC Davis campus,  and houses more than seven million insect specimens, making it the seventh largest insect museum in North America. The museum is dedicated to teaching, research and service. More information is available from the Bohart Web site, or by telephoning (530) 752-0493 or emailing Keller at mfkeller@ucdavis.edu or senior museum scientist Steve Heydon at slheydon@ucdavis.edu.  

Western Hercules Beetles

WESTERN HERCULES BEETLES--This is the original drawing by UC Davis undergraduate student Courtney Lambert that graces a Bohart Museum of Entomology T-shirt. The T-shirt is part of the Bohart Museum's educational and outreach program. Proceeds are used to provide continuing undergraduate support and training at the Bohart.

Not John, Paul, George and Ringo

"The Beetles."

When you hear those two words, you think of four Liverpool musicians named John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Not so at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Say "beetles" and that  means insects. Lots of insects.

When Michael Caterino, the museum's curator of entomology,  speaks  Wednesday, Feb. 18 at UC Davis, he'll be talking about patterns of diversity in Southern California beetles.

And their names are not John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Caterino's talk, sponsored by the UC Davis Department of Entomology,  begins at noon in 122 Briggs Hall. UC Davis entomology doctoral candidate Fran Keller, who specialies in beetles (Coleoptera), will introduce him.

"I first met Mike on the top of the Caliente Range in the Carizzo Plain National Monument down south," Keller said. "I was taking Entomology 107 and we were on a field trip. It was hot and nobody was around, but Mike and another gentleman were up on the ridge collecting butterflies. We chatted and he helped catch some butterflies for my collection, willing to share."

"However, I think that as a Coleopterist, had I been collecting beetles, he might not have been so willing to give up his recently collected beetles," Keller quipped.

You can see many of her beetle photos on her  Web site).

Caterino, trained at UC Berkeley and the Natural History Museum in London, joined the museum staff in 2001. His primary research specialty is the taxonomy and evolution of an obscure, but diverse family of beetles called Histeridae.

He recently initiated the California Beetle Project; he is surveying  some 10,000 species of beetles in the state. 

Oh, and those butterflies Caterino was collecting on the Caliente Range? Probably swallowtail butterflies. His research interests include not only beetles and Jerusalem crickets (potato bugs), but the swallowtails.

Dining on herbs

HUNGRY--This is a beetle, Lytta sublaevis (Meloidae) chowing down on fresh herbs. (Photo by Michael Caterino)

Behold the Dragonfly

Some folks wear their heart on their sleeve.  

Others wear a dragonfly on their chest.

As part of its public outreach education program and to showcase the world of insects, the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, has created t-shirts featuring a California dragonfly.

The t-shirt, designed by entomology doctoral candidate Fran Keller, features the white-belted ringtail, also known as a gomphid dragonfly, from the family Gomphidae.

UC Davis undergraduate student William Yuen, a part-time employee at the Bohart, traced the insect from a photo taken by Davis nature photographer Greg Kareofelas.

The dragonfly also appears on the Bohart’s “California Dragonfly Poster,” the work of Keller and Kareofelas. 

“William is an excellent artist, a brilliant student, a hard worker and has worked in the museum for two years,” said Keller. “I wanted to immortalize him and his talent and for his contributions to the museum.”  

 “This drawing is so precise you could identify this dragonfly by its wing venation,” Keller said.  The insect order (Odonata), family, species name and common name appear beneath the wing.  

Keller said more than 5000 species of dragonflies exist worldwide.  “Dragonflies don’t harm people; they don’t bite or sting,” she said.   

What else about dragonflies?

• Female dragonflies lay their eggs in or near water.
• They beat their wings about 30 beats per second (bps), compared to a honey bee’s 300 bps
• In both their larval and adult stages, dragonflies eat mosquitoes.  The larvae eat mosquito nymphs and other insects. As adults, they grab mosquitoes and other insects in mid-air.

The Bohart Museum is offering both short-sleeved and long-sleeved shirts in various colors online and at the museum, 1124 Academic Surge.  Prices range from $18 to $20.  

Proceeds will benefit the Bohart’s insect outreach education program. The museum, directed by entomologist Lynn Kimsey, chair of the Department of Entomology, is home to more than seven million specimens.   

Education coordinator Brian Turner and senior museum scientist Steve Heydon offer tours throughout the year, including the campuswide Picnic Day in the spring. Turner delivers presentations to schools, public libraries, fairs, garden clubs and others as part of the Bohart’s outreach efforts.

For more information, see http://bohart.ucdavis.edu/ or contact the museum at (530) 752-0493.

William Yuen wearing dragonfly t-shirt

UC Davis undergraduate student William Yuen wearing his dragonfly t-shirt. He has worked part-time in the Bohart Museum of Entomology for two years. (Photo by Fran Keller)

White-belted ringtail dragonfly

This is the white-belted ringtail dragonfly from the Bohart Museum of Entomology poster. The poster and dragonfly t-shirts are available at the Bohart Museum, 1124 Academic Surge, UC Davis, or at http://bohart.ucdavis.edu.

Sympetrum by Fran Keller

This spectacular dragonfly photo, taken by UC Davis entomology doctoral candidate Fran Keller, is a Sympetrum sp. that she took in her back yard on July 28, 2007, in North Davis. This is one of her favorite photos. "This picture," she says, "shows how incredibly delicate they are and their legs so slim and yet grasping on the edge of this twig they maintain balance. The eye color reminds me of a watercolor painting and the red on the abdomen is such a contrast to the yellow spots on the thorax."

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