Georgia Finds!

[Exuviae]

Hey all,
I recently came back from spring break, and thought some of you guys might like to see some of the pictures I took. Several members of the entomology club I'm in went down to Georgia to check out UGA's graduate program and, of course, go bug hunting! While I'm glad to be back, I definitely miss the warm weather, as I was greeted back to NY with 25-30 degree weather and a snow storm this weekend! Anyway, here are some of the things I saw/collected:

A pretty green beetle that I found when we stopped for the night at the club president's house in Charlotte, North Carolina. These guys were everywhere after sunset. I believe it's a Calosoma scrutator.


A little stream in Charlotte, NC.


Anole at the campsite in Eatonton, Georgia.


Mating Promethea moths. This was a really exciting find for me because I'm not used to seeing Saturniids until around May or June in DE.


Not something I found in the wild, but a cool spiny leaf insect from the UGA arthropod zoo.


A pretty big salamander I found under a rock. I think it was the biggest salamander I've seen, and the black spots on a red background were pretty.


Some little mama Lycosid. She was small enough to fit on a nickle, if I recall correctly.



A couple of photos of steam rising off of Lake Sinclair in the early morning at the campsite.


Another salamander!

 

[Exuviae]

An old turtle shell of some sort.
Not the best picture, but this is the skull of what I think might be some sort of hawk?

Black swallowtail puddling from some sort of salt deposit.


Cluster of tiny spiderlings. I'm not sure what species they were, but this sight made me smile.


Rosy maple moth, found near one of the lights outside of the campsite bathrooms. We saw a total of maybe 6 of these guys over the week.


Big ol' luna moth at the same bathroom light! We saw two of these guys during the trip.


Same luna moth with a little friend in the foreground. For some reason, I found this sight rather amusing.


The same scene from a different angle.


Same luna with the wings spread.


Reduviidae. This guy bit my boyfriend's finger and apparently the pain lasted for 2 or 3 days.

 

[Exuviae]

Fluorescing scorpions! I believe the species is Vaejovis carolinianus based on coloring and locality. These guys were high up on my wish list for the trip, so I was pretty excited to find my first one, and I'd never seen a scorpion in the wild so it was quite the adventure! I collected 10 of these guys.


Same group, sans UV flashlight.


Another anole, except this one was found in the daytime.


Mother Nature's way of making it up to us after needing to go to four different auto-repair shops to get the van's oil changed.

Here are most of the things I actually decided to keep:

Immature individual of some Dolomedes sp. I'm very interested in this genus so I tried to collect a handful of them in GA.




Some more photos of the scorpions. This was only a temporary setup.



I believe this centipede is Hemiscolopendra marginata, but please correct me if I'm wrong! I collected three of these.

 

[Exuviae]

Not a great photo, but this is a massive Phidippus audax my boyfriend found and gave to me. She's probably the biggest specimen I've seen of the species so far.


Another massive critter! I guess I spent so much time trying to get acquainted with the local invertebrates that I didn't realize that there were millipedes this big in the U.S. Someone told me it's Narceus americanus, but I didn't think they got this big. Anyone have input?



Some more young Dolomedes.


A relatively large Lycosid. I'm thinking she might be a Tigrosa species, but I haven't really looked much into identifying her yet.

 

[pannaking22]

Awesome shots from what looks to have been a great trip! Agreed on your ID's of the millipede and scorps and I think the turtle shell might actually be from a tortoise.

 

[Toxoderidae]

Can you tell me what part of GA you found this in? I'm in the Atlanta/Marietta region, and I'm trying to find some scorps.

 

[Exuviae]

Awesome shots from what looks to have been a great trip! Agreed on your ID's of the millipede and scorps and I think the turtle shell might actually be from a tortoise.

Awesome! So you do think it's a Narceus americanus? And thanks for the input on the shell. I'm not familiar with all of the herps in Georgia; is the only tortoise there the gopher tortoise?

Can you tell me what part of GA you found this in? I'm in the Atlanta/Marietta region, and I'm trying to find some scorps.

The scorpions were found in Eatonton, at the Lake Sinclair Recreation Area, and at Oconee National Forest in Watkinsville. I only found one during the day in Oconee, but when I went out at night with a UV flashlight, I found a handful of others under rotting logs.

 

[pannaking22]

Awesome! So you do think it's a Narceus americanus? And thanks for the input on the shell. I'm not familiar with all of the herps in Georgia; is the only tortoise there the gopher tortoise?

Looks like it to me! I think gopher tortoises are the only species you can find in Georgia, even though I think they're endangered.

 

[Biollantefan54]

The Dolomedes look like D. albineus, the Tigrosa is T. georgicola I believe. Awesome finds!!

 

[Exuviae]

Looks like it to me! I think gopher tortoises are the only species you can find in Georgia, even though I think they're endangered.

Uh oh... So what should I do if I brought it home?

The Dolomedes look like D. albineus, the Tigrosa is T. georgicola I believe. Awesome finds!!

Thanks for the IDs! I thought the smaller Dolomedes looked like albineus, but I thought the larger one might be tenebrosus. Is there any better way of telling them apart beside color?

 

[pannaking22]

Uh oh... So what should I do if I brought it home?

I didn't see anything if you didn't That's a pretty old and beaten up shell, so I don't think you'd get in trouble for having it. The tortoise likely died a couple years ago and the shell hasn't really broken down yet.

 

[Biollantefan54]

I just identify based on color and pattern. They are pretty good for identifying this from the other in the genus.

 

[Exuviae]

Thanks, guys!