BE ADVISED: On Saturday, April 26 and Sunday, April 27, nearby events at Exposition Park and the University of Southern California will impact traffic, parking, and wayfinding in the area. Please consider riding the Metro E (Expo) Line and exiting at USC/Expo station.

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Bugs

Exhibitions

Black and white image of tarantula leg
Scanning Electron Microscope Lab

See how big discoveries can come from the tiniest things in the Gem and Mineral Hall.

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Close up of Green Wasp
Exhibition | NHM
Spiky, Hairy, Shiny: Insects of L.A.

Meet your tiny neighbors!

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Girl looks at coyote display
Exhibition | NHM
Nature Lab

Live animals and hands-on interactives show you L.A.’s wild side.

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Children standing around the Paleo Play Zone, a counter with imitation sand and fossils, with mounted taxidermy up high on the wall in the background
Exhibition | NHM
Discovery Center

Dig for dinosaurs, wonder at live insects, and organize your own diorama.

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Butterflies photographed from above on a pink background
Exhibition | NHM
Butterfly Pavilion

Watch butterflies take flight around you in this seasonal exhibition.

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Events

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nhm
Tours & Activities

Nature Gardens Exploration

Enjoy NHM’s one-of-a-kind Nature Gardens while learning more about urban wildlife. Visitors of all ages are welcome to stop by anytime during the hour and stay as long or short as you’d like!

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weekly

  • 11:00 am

Saturdays and Sundays

Opossum on a stick sculpture with an audience in the background
nhm
Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

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daily

  • 3:00 pm
Visitors looking up, holding binoculars to their eyes
nhm
Tours & Activities

Nature Gardens Exploration

Enjoy NHM’s one-of-a-kind Nature Gardens while learning more about urban wildlife. Visitors of all ages are welcome to stop by anytime during the hour and stay as long or short as you’d like!

Learn more

weekly

  • 11:00 am

Saturdays and Sundays

Opossum on a stick sculpture with an audience in the background
nhm
Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

  • 3:00 pm
Opossum on a stick sculpture with an audience in the background
nhm
Tours & Activities

Meet a Live Animal

Get up close and personal with the Museum's resident animals! Hear amazing stories about critters that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

Learn more

daily

  • 3:00 pm

Stories

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Woman holding beat sheet under a leafy bush
Collect And Observe Bugs At Home

Learn about simple ways to collect and observe bugs with materials you have at home.

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insects bugs specimens drawer research and collections entomology
Entomology

With over 800,000 described species—more than half of all known living organisms—insects are the most diverse group of animals on Earth.

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kid with phone at a unrc event
Community Science

Community science (sometimes called citizen science) mobilizes volunteers to work alongside scientists to help answer questions about the world.

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lisa gonzalez with malaise trap in LA bioscan community science
BioSCAN

This first-of-its-kind scientific investigation is discovering and exploring biodiversity in and around one of the world’s largest cities: Los Angeles.

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SuperProject

The SuperProject is a one year long FREE program run by the Urban Nature Research Center (UNRC) at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

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News & Press

Understanding Our Coast: A Guide to Southern California Marine Pillbugs

A review of nearly 200 marine pillbugs, or underwater roly-polies, will improve ocean monitoring off the coast of Southern California.

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Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County’s Dr. Luis Chiappe Co-Authors Paper on Relationship Between Feathered Dinosaurs and Beetles

“Symbiosis between Cretaceous dinosaurs and feather-feeding beetles” published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

The paper looks at amber fragments preserving the remains of feathers from the Early Cretaceous and larvae related to modern feather-feeding beetles in intimate contact
 

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A Global Plan for Parasite Conservation

Parasites are unseen heroes that maintain ecosystem stability; they are scarcely studied and highly threatened by global change, and now there is a global plan to conserve them.

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