(Thousand Oaks, CA) On Saturday, Feb. 20, at 2 pm, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area will present a lecture by Jan Kempf of the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. If you find yourself running from house spiders, dodging spider webs on the trail, or enjoy studying and learning about the many different spider species that live in the Santa Monica Mountains and Los Angeles, this lecture is for you.
The Los Angeles County Natural History Museum has been engaged in a spider survey in the greater Los Angeles area for several years, relying on trained researchers and citizen scientists to identify and catalogue spider species. In the last year, the spider survey has broadened to include the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
Audience members can expect to hear updates about the Brown Widow, a recent arrival to the Los Angeles region. Participants will also gain insights into spider biology and behavior, discover which spiders are most likely to be seen on local trails, and find out how to lend a hand as a citizen scientist in the spider survey. There may even be live spider specimens…in plastic containers, of course.
Directions: The National Park Service Visitor Center is located on 401 West Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks, California.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
