Bohart Museum Moth Night: Free and Family Friendly
Jul 16, 2026 09:04AM ● By Kathy Keatley Garvey, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Entomologist Joel Hernandez will set up a blacklighting display at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden during the Bohart Museum of Entomology's Moth Night on July 18. Courtesy photo
DAVIS, CA (MPG) - The Bohart Museum of Entomology will celebrate National Moth Week by hosting its annual Moth Night open house on Saturday, July 18.
The event, free and family friendly, will be held from 7 to 11 p.m. in the Bohart Museum headquarters, Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus--as well as outdoors for the two blacklighting displays.
In backlighting, nocturnal insects are drawn to an ultraviolet light hanging over a white sheet. One blacklighting display will be headed by John "Moth Man" de Benedictus and will be located near the entrance to the Bohart Museum. The other will be by Joel Hernandez, a UC Davis entomology graduate, who will staff his display from 9:30 to 11:30 in the Shields' Oak Grove, UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden.
De Benedictis has amassed a moth collection of some 600 species from the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve and 300 species from his backyard in Davis. He received a grant from the former Institute of Ecology to study moths at the Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve where he collected from 1989 until the last major fire in 2020.
Hernandez, a UC Davis alumnus, works as an agricultural inspector in the Yolo County Ag Commissioner's Office. He will be assisted at the backlighting display by his wife, Melissa Cruz Hernandez, of the Arboretum staff.
"For the event, my light setup will be a large pop-up tent frame with two large sheets crossing in the middle," Hernandez said. "A mercury vapor light will be in the center and UV lights will be strung over the sheets. Normally, I use only one sheet, some rope and one UV light in the field, but this large of an event requires a much larger setup. This will be in the oak grove of the Arboretum near the gazebo."
The location: 1 Garrod Drive. The time: 9:30 to 11:30.
Hernandez maintains a blog, "The Adventures of a Moth Man," where he posts educational information and images. (See his section on blacklighting.)
The Bohart Museum's home page features an informational video on "blacklighting in a backyard at Davis," by Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas.
Kareofelas and Jeff Smith, curator of the Bohart Museum's worldwide Lepidoptera collection, will show moth specimens and answer questions. Among the other presenters: Turkish doctor Ismail Seker, an expert on silk moths.
The family arts and crafts activity "will be making moth antennae headbands," said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.
Chalk art will take place on the walkways in front of the Bohart Museum, where attendees can try their hand at creating moths and other insects. Inside, microscopes will be set up so visitors can examine moth specimens. They also can hold and take selfies of live stick insects (walking sticks).
"We plan to have live silk moths and hornworms, too," said Yang.
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946, is the home of eight million insect specimens, a live petting zoo and an insect-themed gift shop.
Director of the Bohart Museum is Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair of Systematics. He is the executive associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and president of the American Arachnological Society.
During National Moth Week, set July 18-26, communities around the globe "come together to celebrate the beauty, diversity, and ecological importance of moths," according to the organizers.
