UC Davis Events Calendar

A special open house, “Eight-Legged Encounters,” set from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, June 25 at the Bohart Museum of Entomology will officially kick off the 2022 American Arachnological Society's meeting at UC Davis.

The free, public open house. featuring spiders and other arachnids, promises to be one of the biggest events--if not the leggiest!--of the year on the UC Davis campus and beyond. The Bohart Museum is located in the Academic Surge Building, Crocker Lane.

A "powerhouse" of arachnologists will be participating, said Jason Bond, associate dean, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. He will be hosting the conference with Lisa Chamberland, postdoctoral research associate, Department of Entomology and Nematology, and Joel Ledford, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Plant Biology, College of Biological Sciences.

 “There will be everything--spider specimens, live arachnids, activities, artwork, etc.," Professor Bond said.

Some 20 exhibits and activities will be set up in the hallway of the Academic Surge Building, said Tabatha Yang, the Bohart Museum's education and outreach coordinator. 

Professor Eileen Hebets of the School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, is co-hosting the open house as part of a U.S. National Science Foundation grant, “Eight-Legged Encounters” that she developed as an outreach project to connect arachnologists with communities, especially youth.