Everyone's an arachnologist on Halloween!

Ironically, some folks proclaim their hatred or disgust for all things spiders throughout the year, but when the Halloween season arrives, they're thinking webs, fangs and eight legs as perfect decor for their door. 

And to scare the bejeezus out of trick-or-treaters, the postal employee (who goes postal), cousins  (who become distant) and other folks approaching the front porch who wish they hadn't.

So, it's good to see the Bohart Museum of Entomology come up with a "Got Legs?" spider t-shirt in its gift shop this week. It's a trapdoor spider, or what arachnologist Jason Bond of UC Davis studies. Bond is the 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. In June, 2022, he co-hosted the American Arachnological Society's "Eight-Legged Encounters" conference at UC Davis. The focus on spiders also included a Bohart Museum's open house, "Eight-Legged Wonders!"

The spider t-shirt? It's the work of  artist-designer Francisco Basso, who recently received his bachelor's degree from UC Davis, and entomologist-artist-designer Fran Keller, a professor at Folsom Lake College, a Bohart Museum scientist, and a UC Davis doctoral alumna.

"We designed it together and Francisco did the art," Keller said.

"I think it's fantastic," said Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and a UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. "I haven't seen any other t-shirts featuring spiders like this."

One of the first to claim a spider T-shirt was Toco Lang, whose parents are both scientists (and spider enthusiasts). His father is UC Davis entomology professor Louie Yang, and his mother, Tabatha Yang, is the education and outreach coordinator for the Bohart Museum. 

The gift shop offers the spider t-shirt in both youth and adult sizes. The youth t-shirt glows in the dark. 

The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. Named for UC Davis professor and noted entomologist Richard Bohart, it is open to the public from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 5 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays. The insect-themed gift shop, stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters, jewelry,  insect-collecting equipment and more, is open year-around and is also online.

Now back to spiders. We remember asking Professor Bond five good reasons why folks should like spiders. (See Bug Squad blog)

1. Spiders consume 400-800 million tons of prey, mostly insects, each year. Humans consume somewhere around 400 million tons of meat and fish each year.
2. Spider silk is one of the strongest naturally occurring materials. 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.
3. Some spiders are incredibly fast – able to run up to 70 body lengths per second (10X faster than Usain Bolt).
4. Athough nearly all 47,000-plus spider species have venom used to kill their insect prey, very few actually have venom that is harmful to humans.
5. Some spiders are really good parents –wolf spider moms carry their young on their backs until they are ready to strike out on their own; female trapdoor spiders keep their broods safe inside their burrows often longer than one year, and some female jumping spiders even nurse their spiderlings with a protein rich substance comparable to milk.

Spiders rock! And yes, they got legs...

Eight. Of. Them.

If the year 2020 "bugged" you, you're not alone.

It certainly did the insect museum, the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis.

Although the museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, Crocker Lane, is closed to the public due to COVID-19 pandemic precautions, it's gearing up for the holiday season with online sales from the gift shop, which is stocked with insect-themed t-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, posters, books, insect-collecting equipment and other items.  (See gift shop inventory)

“Your support enables us to fulfill our mission of documenting and supporting research in biodiversity, educating and inspiring others about insects, and providing state-of-the-art information to the community,” says Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum and professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. 

The Bohart Museum, home of a global collection of nearly eight million insect specimens, houses the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of the insect biodiversity of the state's deserts, mountains, coast, and the Great Central Valley. The Bohart is also the home of a live “petting zoo” (comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas), and the year-around gift shop. 

Here are some of the items available at the Bohart Museum: 

• Earrings and necklaces (with motifs of bees, dragonflies, moths, butterflies and other insects)

• T-shirts for babies, children and adults (walking sticks, monarch butterflies, beetles, dragonflies, dogface butterflies and the museum logo)

• Insect candy (lollipops with either crickets and scorpions, and chocolate-covered scorpions)

• Insect collecting equipment: bug carriers, nets, pins, boxes, collecting kits

• Plastic insect toys and stuffed animals (mosquito, praying mantis, bed bug and others)

• Handmade redwood insect storage boxes and handcrafted pens by Bohart Museum associate Jeff Smith

• Posters (Central Valley butterflies, dragonflies of California, dogface butterfly), prints of selected museum specimens

• Books by museum-associated authors:

  • The Story of the Dogface Butterfly (Fran Keller, Greg Kareofelas and Laine Bauer), Insects and Gardens Insects and Gardens: In Pursuit of a Garden Ecology (Eric Grissell), Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (co-authored by Robbin Thorp), California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (co-authored by Robbin Thorp), Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento Region (Art Shapiro), Butterfly Wish (Steve Stoddard, pen name S.S. Dudley), and multiple dragonfly books by Kathy Biggs
    
    
• Bohart logos (youth tshirts, stickers and patches)

Items are shipped out on Fridays by priority mail via the U.S. Postal Service. Average arrival times currently average between 6 to 10 business days. Those who plan on purchasing holiday or birthday gifts should do so as early as possible. 

Also available are gift memberships and the ability--through donations to the biolegacy program--to name insect species.

The Bohart Museum of Entomology, founded in 1946 and dedicated to teaching, research and service, is named for noted entomologist Richard Bohart, who taught entomology at UC Davis for more than 50 years, beginning in 1946, and chaired the Department of Entomology from 1963-1967.

Said Kimsey: "His publications include three of the most important books on the systematics of the Hymenoptera, including the well-used volume  Sphecid Wasps of the World. His journal publications total over 200 articles. He revised many groups of insects, discovered new host-associations or geographic ranges, and described many new species."

For more information, email the Bohart Museum at bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or access the website at http://bohart.ucdavis.edu. 

Move over, teddy bears.

There's a new bear in town to covet, cuddle and cherish--a water bear or tardigrade.

The plush stuffed animals are hot items in the gift shop of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus.

The stuffed animals come in three several sizes, from teddy-bear to keychain-size, said Bohart director Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis professor of entomology.

And in the near future, Kimsey hopes to install a water bear sculpture at the entrance to the museum. In fact, the Bohart Museum Society has set up a Go Fund Me account to help fund the project: see https://www.gofundme.com/f/waterbear-sculpture.

Why tardigrades? UC Davis boasts one of the world's largest tardigrade collections.  "The water bear has to be one of the most peculiar and indestructible groups of animals known," Kimsey wrote in a recent newsletter. "The microscopic and nearly indestructible tardigrade can survive being heated to 304 degrees Fahrenheit or being chilled for days at -328 F. And, even if it's frozen for 30 years, it can still reproduce." (See video on EurekAlert.)

Meanwhile, Bohart Museum officials are gearing up for the holiday season by stocking their year-around gift shop with scores of insect-themed items, ranging from stuffed animals, insect-themed books, children's books, and jewelry, to t-shirts, sweatshirts, pens, coffee cups, patches, lollipops, and insect-collecting equipment. All proceeds benefit the educational and public service mission of the Bohart Museum.

New items include green metallic beetle earrings that UC Davis-trained entomologist Fran Keller, an associate professor at Folsom Lake College, brought back from the recent Entomological Society of America meeting in St. Louis, Mo. Handmade pens by entomologist Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera section, are another popular item.

Those are just a few of the stocking stuffers available.

The Bohart Museum, founded by noted entomologist Richard M. Bohart (1913-2007), houses a global collection of nearly eight million specimens. It is also the home of the seventh largest insect collection in North America, and the California Insect Survey, a storehouse of insect biodiversity. In addition to the gift shop, the Bohart maintains a live "petting zoo," featuring Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks or stick insects and tarantulas.

The insect museum is open to the public Mondays through Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m., except on holidays. Visiting hours will end at 5 p.m., Dec. 16 and will resume at 9 a.m. on Jan. 6. The Bohart will  be closed to the public from Dec. 17 to Jan. 5. More information on the Bohart Museum is available on the website at http://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting (530) 752-0493 or bmuseum@ucdavis.edu. 

If you're looking for the perfect "bugly" entomological gift, be sure to stop by the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis.

The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane,  is open to the public Mondays through Thursdays except on holidays. It will be closed Dec. 21 through Jan. 6.

It's directed by Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at UC Davis.

Here are some of the ways you can think entomological!

• Donate to the Bohart Museum Society.  Thanks to public support last year, "we have created internships for high school students, expanding our K-12 outreach programs, incorporated newly donated collections of beetles and butterflies and have two awesome imaging systems that have made it possible for us to provide Bohart Museum scientists and visiting researchers with high quality images of insects in our collections," related Kimsey. "We have big plans for the coming year and your continue support will make it possible for us to add a second session to our summer camp for junior high students, train undergraduate and graduate students in entomology and educational outreach, continue to improve our website, and educate the public about insects, spiders and their relatives."
  
  Bohart Museum membership categories include individual ($25), student ($15), student families ($25), family ($40), patron ($100) and additional donations. Checks can be made out to the Bohart Museum Society, c/o Bohart Museum of Entomology, Room 1124 Academic Surge Building, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616. There's also a museum BioLegacy sponsorship ($2000 and up) that enables you to name an insect after yourself or a loved one.
  
  
  

  Entomologist Fran Keller, former graduate student at UC Davis and now an assistant professor at Folsom Lake College, with her book, "The Story of the Dogface Butterfly." Photographer Greg Kareofelas and artist Laine Bauer illustrated it. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
  Calendars. For donations of $50 or more, the Bohart will provide you with its 2019 calendar illustrated by entomology student/artist Karissa Merritt and featuring her humorous interpretations of actual sentences from term papers in Professor Kimsey's classes. Example, regarding mayflies: "The swarmers are attracted to lights and tend to expose themselves in the evenings.” (See illustration below.) It also acknowledges the birthdates of famous entomologists.  The calendar is  available separately for $12, plus tax.
  
  
• Peruse the Bohart Museum gift shop, which includes insect-themed t-shirts and sweatshirts, graced with everything from monarch butterflies to Hercules beetles to lady beetles (ladybugs) and dragonflies. You'll also find in the gift shop: insect-themed books, jewelry, posters and candy, plus insect-collecting equipment.
  
  Books in the gift shop include The Story of the Dogface Butterfly, a 35-page children's book authored by Fran Keller, former doctoral student at the Bohart Museum, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and  now assistant professor at Folsom Lake College. It includes illustrations by  former UC Davis student Laine Bauer and photographs by Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas and Keller. The California dogface butterfly is the state insect.
  
  Plush toys in the gift shop include tardigrades (much in demand), bedbugs and flies.
  
  Posters include the California dogface butterfly, the work of Bohart associates Fran Keller and Greg Kareofelas.
  
  Butterfly habitats, zippered and netted, are perfect for rearing monarchs, Gulf Fritillaries and other butterflies.

In addition, the Bohart Museum is a good place to see, photograph and hold many of the occupants in its live "petting zoo," which includes Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, tarantulas, and praying mantids.

The Bohart Museum's regular hours are from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. It is closed to the public on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and on major holidays. Admission is free.  For more information, access the website or Facebook page or email bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or telephone (530) 753-0493.