Bug Squad

Have you seen any Checkered White butterflies lately? They're quite common in the southern United States and northern Mexico (they're known as the Southern cabbage butterfly), but one CW fluttered through our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Solano County, Calif., on June 23.

It was Saturday, June 25.

A little yarn, a little glue and a little confetti--and attendees at the recent "Eight-Legged Encounters" open house, co-hosted by the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology and the American Arachnological Society (AAS), learned how spiders have evolved to capture their prey more efficiently.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what are a series of photos taken at an open house showcasing spiders and other arachnids worth? Photos, that is, of children's candid expressions? Priceless.

Those who know that spiders have eight legs know exactly what's being showcased at the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology open house, "Eight-Legged Encounters," on Saturday, June 25. Spiders and other arachnids. And you're invited.