Austin, Texas, is home to about 170 species of butterflies. It is also the home of the Austin Butterfly Forum, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to butterfly conservation and to enriching people's lives through butterflies.
The Austin Butterfly Forum is a butterfly club that holds field trips, conducts butterfly counts, promotes butterfly gardening, performs conservation activities, and meets monthly for an educational presentation. We are a community of butterfly enthusiasts who also enjoy dragonflies and other bugs.
Monday, May 28: Trail of Silk: How Spiders Came to Be. Arachnids have been around for as long as insects, and spiders for nearly as long, yet insects have tremendously diversified morphologically, while spider morphology has remained virtually unchanged. Why? Because spiders are tool users. Their tool is silk, and they have adapted to new circumstances by adapting their use of silk. In this talk we'll trace the evolution of spiders from their arachnid ancestors and see how spiders came to use silk in so many different ways. This is an introduction to spider taxonomy, evolution, and ecology. The speaker, Joe Lapp (aka “Spider Joe”), will also share some of his own research on flower crab spiders and show how even amateurs can make discoveries.
