Strange, bewildering marvels of the insect world are on display in Dr. Entomo’s Palace of Exotic Wonders. Resembling an old-fashioned circus sideshow, this exhibition explores the truth, myths, and mysteries surrounding some of nature’s most curious creatures—many of them alive and on view!

(Entomology = the study of insects)

Visitors Daring Enough to Enter Will:

• Be captivated by the deceptive and treacherous techniques insects can employ with unsuspecting predators.
• Learn how the giant African millipede, though harmless in appearance, can unleash a destructive cyanide secretion.
• Meet the “Devil with Two Heads,” also known as the Vietnamese centipede, to discover how it can confound predators with a tail that looks just like its head.
• Discover why other “arthropod offenders” such as the black widow spider and desert hairy scorpion are held in the exhibition’s “Rogues Gallery” for their wild behavior on charges of suspected murder and home invasion.
• Meet the giant mealworm and see how this amazing creature can appear mummified only to re-emerge in a new form.
• Find out—does the goliath bird-eating tarantula lives up to its name?
• …and much more!

In Dr. Entomo’s Palace of Exotic Wonders, live and mounted specimens are on display in exhibits such as the “Theatre of the Macabre,” “The Rogues Gallery of Criminals,” and “Dr. E’s Kitchen Cabinet of Curiosities.” 

The exhibition encourages visitors to reexamine what they think and how they feel about bugs.

Also highlighted will be some of the unusual insects that call San Diego home, featuring specimens straight from the Museum’s own Department of Entomology, such as the Jerusalem cricket and the tarantula hawk wasp.