- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
When you visit the Bohart Museum of Entomology during the 14th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day on Saturday, Feb. 8, you'll probably meet a scorpion named “Butters.”
It's a new arrival, donated by a retired educator. She did not name it Butters. The Bohart Museum student interns named it that due to it being…well…umm...pleasingly plump, shall we say. Or pudgy or portly. Or a chubster, a chunker, a butterball…
Just don't call it late to dinner.
Scorpions are carnivorous and eat a variety of insects (such as crickets, earwigs, ants, and pill bugs), spiders, and other small critters. They are not particular. They also eat other scorpions.
Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart, asked UC Davis doctoral candidate Emma “Em” Jochim of the lab of arachnologist Jason Bond to identify the genus and determine the gender. Professor Bond, director of the Bohart Museum, is the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He is also president-elect of the American Arachnological Society.
In the Bond lab, Jochim studies trapdoor spider evolution and systematics. She has kept scorpions for about seven years. She currently has two pet scorpions.
Jochim identified the pudgy scorpion as a Hadrurus sp., which live in sandy deserts. She also sexed it. Butters is a female.
Do You Know How to Sex a Scorpion?
This is not something most people know how to do...sex a scorpion.
“The way you determine the sex is by looking at the pectines (sensory structures on the underside of scorpions),” Jochim wrote in an email. “Females have shorter pectines and they will be further apart while males have longer pectines closer together. It's a Hadrurus sp. which live in desert environments.”
Scorpions, predatory arachnids with eight legs, are easily distinguished by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow segmented tail curved over the back that ends in a stinger.
The genus is native to southwest United States and northwestern Mexico, and is among the largest of all scorpion genera,surpassed only by Hadogenes, Pandinus, Heterometrus and Hoffmannihadrurus. If you shine an ultraviolet (UV) light on them, they glow. There's a substance in their exoskeleton called the hyaline layer that fluoresces under UV light.
"The evolutionary history of scorpions goes back 435 million years," Wikipedia tells us. "They mainly live in deserts but have adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions, and can be found on all continents except Antarctica. There are over 2,500 described species, with 22 extant (living) families recognized to date. Their taxonomy is being revised to account for 21st-century genomic studies."
Butters' new home is in the Bohart Museum's popular petting zoo, an educational habitat which includes Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, and tarantulas. The tenants have names such as:
- Peaches, a Chilean rose hair tarantula (Grammostola rosea)
- Coco McFluffin, a Chaco golden knee tarantula (Grammostola pulchripes)
- Princess Herbert, a Brazilian salmon-pink bird-eating tarantula (Lasiodora parahybana)
- Beatrice, a Vietnamese centipede (Scolopendra subspinipes)
Butters is right at home in a coconut shell. When's dinner?
About the Bohart Museum of Entomology
The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus the petting zoo and a gift shop stocked with insect-themed books, posters, jewelry, t-shirts, hoodies and more. Founded in 1946 and committed to "understanding, documenting and communicating terrestrial arthropod diversity," the Bohart Museum is named for UC Davis professor and noted entomologist Richard Bohart. More information is available on the Bohart website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by emailing bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
About UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day
The UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day on Saturday, Feb. 8 is a Super Science Day. It is billed as a day of discovery, a day of exploration, and a day to chat with the UC Davis scientists about their work and see their displays. It's all free and family friendly. Parking is also free.
The participants:
- Arboretum and Public Garden, Habitat Gardens in the Environmental GATEway, adjacent to the Arboretum Teaching Nursery on Garrod Drive. Hours: noon to 4 p.m.
- Bohart Museum of Entomology, Room 1124 and main hall of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. Hours: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Botanical Conservatory, the greenhouses along Kleiber Hall Drive. Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- California Raptor Center, 1340 Equine Lane, off Old Davis Road (Located three miles south of the central campus.) Hours: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Center for Plant Diversity, Katherine Esau Science Hall off Kleiber Hall Drive. Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Nematode Collection (part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology), Katherine Esau Science Hall, off Kleiber Hall Drive. Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Room 1394, Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Paleontology Collection, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1309 Earth and Physical Sciences Building, 434 LaRue Road. Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, Robert Mondavi Institute Brewery and Food Processing facility, Old Davis Road.Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Visual Journal Exhibit (new), Design Museum at Cruess Hall, Room 124, 375 California Ave. Hours: 1 to 5 p.m.
- Moth Documentary, Nocturnes (new), 2:45 to 5 p.m., Cruess Hall, Room 1002. The Bohart Museum is hosting the showing of the documentary Nocturnes, about moth research in the Himalayas. It will be followed by a discussion about remote field research with Iris Quayle, a graduate student in the Bond Lab who has been to Belize and Madagascar to study insects. "This film is beautiful, slow, and immersive and has some subtitles," says Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart. It requires a stillness and patience, so may not be for everyone."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
- You'll learn how spiders and dragonflies catch their prey
- You'll watch a tarantula grab its prey
- You'll learn how moths have evolved to elude bats and their echolocation
- You'll see carnivorous plants and maybe take one home
- You can eat a crickette (cricket)
- You can buy a trapdoor spider t-shirt that glows in the dark, and
- You can engage in a family arts and crafts activity.
And it's all free and family friendly.
The open house, themed "Specialized Predators of Insects," takes place from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. Parking is also free.
The event will feature talks by UC Davis doctoral candidates Christofer Brothers, a dragonfly specialist, and Emma “Em” Jochim, a spider specialist. They will present talks from 1 to 1:30 p.m. in the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology classroom (across the hall from the Bohart Museum). Visitors will then gather in the Bohart Museum for more activities from 1:30 to 4 p.m.
“We'll be discussing predators of insects above (Odonata) and below (Arachnida),” said Jochim. “We will talk about what predators are and how we categorize them, and then discuss how arachnids, dragonflies, and damselflies fit in those descriptions. There will also be some examples of unique adaptations that have evolved to help these groups predate insects. At the open house there will be live feedings every hour where we'll get to see tarantulas in action!”
Brothers and Jochim anticipate receiving their doctorates in the spring of 2026. Brothers is with laboratory of Professor Stacey Combes, Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences, and Jochim is a member of the lab of Professor Jason Bond, who serves as the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; and director of the Bohart Museum.
The Combes lab researches biomechanics and behavioral ecology of flying insects, while the Bond lab studies arthropod diversity.
Spiders Are Very Misunderstood. “I'm drawn to spiders because of the diversity of species, habitats in which they live, and variety of behaviors they exhibit,” said Jochim. “I think they're very misunderstood and love educating people on why spiders are awesome and essential to all ecosystems in which they're found.”
"I'm drawn to dragonflies and damselflies because of their unmatched prowess as predators, diversity of hunting and mating behaviors, impressive vision and flight abilities, and their cultural esteem across the world,” Brothers said.
Postdoctoral research scientist James Starrett and graduate student Iris Quayle of the Bond lab will be displaying their work on spiders and answering questions.
Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection, and fellow Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas will be displaying special moth specimens. “Jeff is working on highlighting the cool adaptations of moths, how they have evolved to elude predators,” said Tabatha Yang, the Bohart's education and outreach coordinator.
Said Smith: "Much will focus on the ability of moths to elude bats and their echolocation, such as the use of long hairs on their bodies and wings that absorb the signals, tiger moths that can emit a rapid series of clicks that confuse the bats, long tails on silk moths that are twisted and disrupt the echolocation so the bat cannot home in on the moth. With tiger moths that clicking may also be a warning to bats that the moth is terribly distasteful."
How Moths Evade Bats. "Many moths, such as noctuid moths, sphinx moths, and even some butterflies are able to hear the bat searching for them and will immediately take evasive action," Smith noted. "During the daytime hours, moths may use wonderful camouflage to hide in plain sight, as with underwing moths and many sphinx moths. Or their larvae may resemble non-foodlike bird feces, as with swallowtail butterflies or even adult moths in the family Noctuidae."
"Many moths, either as the adult or the larva, may employ features that startle predators or make them wary of feeding on the moth, such as large false eyespots on the wings, bright colors that suddenly appear, or a remarkable resemblance to a snake," Smith shared. "Of course, many kinds of butterflies and moths are toxic and distasteful, such as the tiger moths, heliconian butterflies. Many moth larvae can be extremely venomous due to their urticating hairs, such as silk moths or puss moths." Highlights will be posted on many of the specimen drawers.
The UC Davis Entomology Club will be seeking donations through the display and sale of carnivorous plants, many grown by club advisor and emeritus faculty member, forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey. Undergraduate student Julianna Campos will be bringing 54 seed-grown Sarracenia leucophylla “White Trumpet Pitchers” that she grew.
In addition, open house attendees will be invited to sample free "crickettes" (dried, edible crickets), Yang said. The Bohart Museum open house coincides with with the annual UC Davis Parent/Alumni weekend.
Trapdoor Spider T-Shirts. Sales in the Bohart Museum gift shop will feature the popular glow-in-the-dark trapdoor spider shirts. A family arts and crafts activity is also planned.
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946 by noted UC Davis entomologist Richard Bohart, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live petting zoo (including Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas) and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, jewelry, posters, stuffed toy animals, collecting equipment and more.
Fall public walk-in hours are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. The walk-ins are free. and open to all ages. Hourly parking fees apply, but there is free, 30-minute parking along Crocker Lane.
More information is available on the website or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
