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New spider name salutes Native American ties

Contest inspired by UC Davis professor's rare discovery draws 200-plus entries

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED SEP 29, 2020

This is a female Cryptocteniza kawtak.
(Photo courtesy Jason Bond, UC Davis)

A once-in-a-lifetime discovery now has a name: Cryptocteniza kawtak .

That blend of Latin and Mutsun was the winning entry in a naming contest

for a new species of trapdoor spider, discovered by UC Davis professor Jason Bond.

Bond found the unusual spider, described as “a living fossil” for its throwback ancestry,

on a sandy beach at Moss Landing State Park near Monterey.

During the pandemic, he held an online naming contest and received more than 200 suggestions

from around the globe.

“There were a lot of names proposed,” Bond told Bug Squad blogger Kathy Keatley Garvey.

“They fell into a few general categories:

1) named after me – people apparently like my last name and the association with the James Bond

character but naming a spider after one’s self would not be good form;

2) Native Americans, particularly California indigenous groups;

3) location (Moss Landing) and/or physical description; and

The name comes from the Mutsun word for “seashore.”

The Mutsun tribe lived near Mission San Juan Bautista, not far from Moss Landing.

“I have also named other California spiders in the past for Native American groups and

feel strongly that such new species names are an elegant connection to California, to the

land and its native people,” Bond said.

The name was submitted by entomologist and UC Davis alumna Kirsten Pearsons,

who just received her doctorate at Penn State.

In her submission, she wrote: “Kawtak means ‘on the seashore' in the Mutsun language.

Before the Spanish arrived, the Moss Landing area was home to the Mutsun people. Today,
tribal members and linguists are working to revitalize the Mutsun language, so this could

be a small way to recognize this effort and to recognize their ties to the Monterey Bay.

"Also, it just sounds nice following the genus name!”

Bond first discovered the new spider (a female) in 1997, but it took until 2019 for him to
find a male and verify a separate species.

With a team of UC Davis colleagues, Bond wrote a scientific journal article on the spider find,

its evolution and discovery, crediting Pearsons with the name.

Read more: https://bit.ly/2Ggm7RE .

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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