Children frolic with scorpions at Hopland “bioblitz”

HOPLAND, 4/9/2017 — Two of Northern California’s premier arachnologists were at the bioblitz in Hopland on Saturday morning, peering under logs and poking through leaf litter in search of spiders and scorpions.

Lauren Esposito, the Schlinger Chair of Arachnology at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, and Sarah Crews, the editor of the second edition of “Spider Genera of North America,” headed into the rain-soaked woods with several local enthusiasts and one family that had traveled from Los Altos for the event. A bioblitz in general is an attempt to catalogue all the living species within a certain area and and time period, usually a single day. The Hopland Research and Extension Center, located at at 4070 University Road, hosts an annual bioblitz that includes lectures and naturalist activities like specimen collection, nature journaling, and drawing pictures of plants and animals encountered on the grounds of the property. There is a variety of activities for children, professional scientists, and amateurs at all levels. This year, special topics ranged from bats and birds to native plants and a variety of bugs. The research and extension center, in Hopland, hosts a variety of educational events, including talks by scientists who study predator behavior, Native American artifacts, and, sometimes, entomology.