Close encounters of the third kind?
"No, close encounters of the best kind!" say the scientists who study arachnids.
That's what will happen when visitors at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house see and learn about scorpions, tarantulas, vinegaroon, whip spiders, trapdoor spiders, jumping spiders--and more-- at the open house, "Eight-Legged Encounters," from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday, March 15 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building and hallway, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis.
It's free and family friendly and parking is also free.
Scores of interactive activities are planned, said the open house co-chairs, doctoral candidate Emma "Em" Jochim of the Jason Bond lab and Felix Duley, a UC Davis entomology alumnus who is an intern at the Bohart Museum. Visitors will learn the different types of silk that spiders can make.
"Spider silk is one of the strongest naturally occurring materials," said Professor Jason Bond, who serves as director of the Bohart Museum; the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; executive associate dean, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and president of the American Arachnological Society. "Spider silk is stronger than steel, stronger and more stretchy than Kevlar; a pencil thick strand of spider silk could be used to stop a Boeing 747 in flight."
Microscopes will be set up at tables in the hallway. The family craft activity will involve "model magic clay so people can create their own arachnids to take home!" Jochim said.
Have a question about spiders? The scientists will answer your questions. You can observe "feeding time." You can hold some of the insects from the Bohart Museum petting zoo, including Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects. You'll see (but not hold) Peaches, a Chilean rose-haired tarantula that's native to native to the grasslands of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. Peaches, like the other critters in the petting zoo, is a donation, said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.
Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection, and colleague Greg Kareofelas, will show butterfly specimens and answer questions.
A new attraction in the Academic Building hallway is a series of enlarged images of native bees by community scientist and conservation photographer Krystle Hickman, a National Geographic Explorer and TEDx speaker based in Los Angeles. The author of the newly published "The ABCs of California's Native Bees," Hickman strives to elevate awareness of the decline of native bee species and shed light on their intricate and biodiverse ecosystems.
Jochim is the lead author of internationally acclaimed research published last October in the journal Evolution and Ecology about a newly discovered species of trapdoor spider that inhabits coastal sand dunes stretching from Monterey to California Baja, Mexico. Jochim and colleagues analyzed genomic DNA from two trapdoor spiders thought to be the same species, Aptostichus simu, and discovered they are not.
Bond, director of the Bohart Museum and the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics and executive associate dean, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, named the new species Aptostichus ramirezae after arachnologist Martina Giselle Ramirez, dean of the College of Science at California State University, Stanislaus.
The research article, titled "Speciation Pattern and Process in the California Coastal Dune Endemic Trapdoor Spider Aptostichus simus (Mygalomorphae: Euctenizidae) and Description of a New Cryptic Species," is the work of Bond, Jochim, research scientist James Starrett, and Hanna Briggs, a 2025 UC Davis entomology graduate.
Trapdoor spiders are so named because they construct their burrows with a corklike or wafer trap door made of soil, vegetation and silk. With the recent discovery, there are now four known species of trapdoor spiders in California that live in coastal dune habitats.
"My passion for studying spiders comes from how diverse and widespread they are," Jochim said. "They are found on every continent except Antarctica and occupy almost every terrestrial niche! I think mygalomorphs are especially cool because of their larger sizes and long life spans--the oldest known trapdoor spider was 40 years old!"
For more information, access the website or email bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
Cover Image: Crab spider nailing a grasshopper on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)