# Southern California Hike



## GQ. (Apr 27, 2007)

I'm very happy I decided to take a little walk this morning in San Diego County.

First up is a little California Kingsnake that I happened to see cruising down a hillside.  I took a few photos of the snake in situ and moved on.

Lampropeltis getula californiae - California Kingsnake








About fifteen minutes later I heard a slight rustling in the brush as I was moseying along.  I stopped to look and saw some scales flipping and flopping around in the brush.  Upon closer inspection I realized t was a small Crotalus ruber trying to eat a gopher.  The carcass had flies and ants crawling all over.  I sat and watched the snake for about half an hour.  He gave up on eating the gopher very quickly.  I'm not sure if the gopher was too big or if the gopher was just too old and stiff.  The snake lay coiled up near the dead gopher for awhile.  Eventually he decided to move on with his life and started cruising through the grass towards me.  I took a nice shot of him coiled in some green grass before my camera battery keeled over.  Arggggggggh.

Crotalus ruber in dried grasses.  Watch your step!






Dead gopher






Crotalus ruber - Red Diamond Rattlesnake


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## GQ. (Apr 27, 2007)

Here are a few more new things from the same general area.

Opiliones - Harvestman with a lot of mites






Latrodectus hesperus - Black Widow






Latrodectus hesperus - Black Widow showing hourglass


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## GQ. (Apr 27, 2007)

Unidentified beetle






Unidentified beetle two






Jerusalem Cricket - This one looks like she is gravid.


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## froggyman (Apr 27, 2007)

jerusalem crickets are frigging sweet looking


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## cacoseraph (Apr 27, 2007)

froggyman said:


> jerusalem crickets are frigging sweet looking


they are one of the few local bugs that has made me bleed. i went to pick up a large specimen and it "kicked" me and a leg spike stuck in my finger skin. when it worked the spike out a drop of blood welled out.  it was almost better than the time a rabbit bit me and made me bleed!


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## Texas Blonde (Apr 27, 2007)

Whoo hoooo!  C ruber!  Nice find.  I hope you find more stuff tonight, good luck!


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## beetleman (Apr 27, 2007)

wow very nice pics:clap: poor gopher  you  got alot of very cool critters out there.


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## GQ. (Apr 27, 2007)

Thank you!  

Cacoseraph,

     The same thing happened to me earlier this month only I was holding a grasshopper.  I was examining this huge grasshopper when he decided he had enough of me.  He kicked me and imbedded one of his barbs into my finger.  Below is a photo of one of the legs with the offending barbs.

Grasshopper leg barbs


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## GQ. (Apr 27, 2007)

I was up in the San Luis Obispo area awhile back and turned up some huge Jerusalem Crickets.  I don't know what species/subspecies is up in that area.  I just know they are massive.  The are twice as big as the ones I find around San Diego.

Jerusalem Cricket from north of San Luis Obispo






Same Jerusalem Cricket with hand for size perspective.





Poison Oak?  This stuff is everywhere around the San Luis Obispo area.


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## GQ. (Apr 27, 2007)

I might as well post this photo of a couple more San Luis Obispo finds.  I found dozens of Slender Salamanders and Jerusalem Crickets when I was up there.

Batrachoseps sp. - Slender Salamander






Cute little buggers.


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## froggyman (Apr 28, 2007)

what do those jerusalem crix eat. are they burrowers. they look kinda like small wetas


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## buthus (Apr 29, 2007)

froggyman said:


> what do those jerusalem crix eat. are they burrowers. they look kinda like small wetas


They are omnivorous.  Mine gets veggies such as lettuce, raddishes etc and it loves crickets and especially loves waxworms.  It has a tough time biting thru the rubbery body of a waxworm... its funny to watch it tear into the thing.  
I've seen a vid of one taking out a scorpion.  The scorpion just kept ricocheting off its helmet like head while it ate the scorpion head first.


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## froggyman (Apr 30, 2007)

those sound really cool wish they lived around here.
arethey hard to keep


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## cacoseraph (Apr 30, 2007)

froggyman said:


> those sound really cool wish they lived around here.
> arethey hard to keep


i don't know about breeding them, but the species i have kept before seemed pretty straight forward


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## froggyman (Apr 30, 2007)

cool. i bet they could give you a nasty bite!


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## Crotalus (May 1, 2007)

Great stuff Gil!
Id love to see ruber one day!

/Lelle


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