# Rez's Rocklifting trip



## RezonantVoid (Oct 28, 2018)

Almost 8 years ago I went to a place a bit past Armidale, NSW and somehow ended up finding Black Rock scorpions (U.Manicatus) there, and pretty soon realised there was a decent sized colony there. Every year or 2 I visit this place and check how the colony is going, and take 1 or 2 from the non-national park area. The last few trips I have had a growing concern regarding the ant colony to scorpion ratio, and since the area has had a bit of a drought I thought I'd stop by to see how my little buddies were going. This is the first time I've really had a good look around and I found quite a few nice little critters.

So first up, the habitat is on a hill with a quite a few small granite rocks about dinner plate size in diameter. This is underneath gum forest and above quite sandy, light brown soil, ideal for a scrape dweller where your rocks holds condensation, the soil drainage prevents flooding, and the decaying leaf litter provides an abundance of prey items.

First of all, we found a decent sized U.Manicatus female, I suspect in early stages of premolt. This species is very docile but nonetheless I got stung when she accidentally flipped over and got me trying to flip back up.






A good start when you're documenting population numbers.

Next I found an arboreal Hexathelid burrow which I strongly believe to be H.Formidabilis which I believe is currently the world's deadliest spider (from my research it sounds like more people survive wandering spider bites than these). A serious envenomation can result in death in 15 minutes. This is a Hexathelid I very much want in my collection but they are tricky to capture.






Next up my brother found an olive green Cormocephalus Aurantiipes centipede. It was quite shy but any decent photo of a wild pede is a victory to me.





Heading down the track a bit I found quite a few of these guys under rocks and logs. They are an armoured burrowing roach of some kind.






Anyone love millipedes? Sure you do! Found this cool one under a log, looks like it has recently molted.







I also came across molting Prowling Spider in a silk cocoon, most likely Lycosa species.







Next was something rather unexpected, but welcomed nonetheless. Here we have Lychas Variatus and an armoured burrowing roach. It's cool to see completely different scorpion genus interacting in the same environment.





I took this one home with me as I don't have any Lychas specimens currently.

Rain and black clouds were on the horizon so unfortunately i had to cut the trip short a bit, but I ended on a high. Managed to get a male U.Manicatus I can use a breeder back home to help this colony out*...





There was one more surprise waiting under the last rock.

A mystery Trapdoor burrow! What made this one interesting is that it's lid structure was very unique; a paper thin film of webbing which was attached to a gumleaf. The interior didn't appear to be well maintained but considering the lid was webbed shut I believe that the spider was down there somewhere. I also accidentally pulled an egg sack that may have been from the burrow that was webbed to the roof of the Rock.






Well, that concludes the photography, now what did I find out this trip?

Most significant is that every time I come there are far more ant colonies under rocks than scorpions. While I do not examine the same spots each time I come so I don't overly disturb the resident scorpions, I believe my findings do reflect the situation around the whole colony. My hypothesis is that due to the drought ants are invading scorpion scrapes to get moisture via rock condensation. These are not just one type of ant either, like 5-6 different species, sometimes occupying one half of a rock with a scorpion on the other half. The scorpions regularly feed on termites when young and I noticed alot less termites this trip as well. Last trip I made I found hundreds of scorplings but this trip we found only 2 4th instar young and a handful of adults.

*My plan is to breed my females and release the scorplings back at the site. I'm not sure what effect if any this will have but it's better to me than watching the colony drop more and more each year.

Any Aussies reading this thread who would be interested in helping me document the population of the colony can start a conversation with me and I'm happy to reveal the locale these are found.

Hope this was interesting to some of you, I'm always up for rocklifting and will hopefully do some more soon.

Reactions: Like 8 | Love 1


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## Dennis Nedry (Oct 29, 2018)

Awesome finds. The olive Ethmostigmus is more likely a Cormocephalus aurantiipes, very common in the region and have those exact colours. The moulting wolf spider is actually a prowling spider (Miturgidae) by the looks of it, the habit of heavy webbing matches Miturgidae as well. The cockroach is a Laxta sp. I believe and I’m not sure if they can actually burrow very well.

Also if that is H. formidabilis then that is a very nice find

Reactions: Like 1 | Informative 1


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## RezonantVoid (Oct 29, 2018)

Dennis Nedry said:


> Awesome finds. The olive Ethmostigmus is more likely a Cormocephalus aurantiipes, very common in the region and have those exact colours. The moulting wolf spider is actually a prowling spider (Miturgidae) by the looks of it, the habit of heavy webbing matches Miturgidae as well. The cockroach is a Laxta sp. I believe and I’m not sure if they can actually burrow very well.
> 
> Also if that is H. formidabilis then that is a very nice find


 thx for the clarification! I can see the prowling spider shape now too. Pretty positive the web is formidabilis as I found a few molt fragments in another web, next time I'm back I'll definitely try and catch one. I have kept a few of those roaches in the past and FME they seem to be able to shovel cocpeat around quite a bit. I thought maybe they liked the more sandy soil because it is easier to dig in or something but im always learning out things

Reactions: Like 1


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## WildSpider (Oct 29, 2018)

RezonantVoid said:


> Almost 8 years ago I went to a place a bit past Armidale, NSW and somehow ended up finding Black Rock scorpions (U.Manicatus) there, and pretty soon realised there was a decent sized colony there. Every year or 2 I visit this place and check how the colony is going, and take 1 or 2 from the non-national park area. The last few trips I have had a growing concern regarding the ant colony to scorpion ratio, and since the area has had a bit of a drought I thought I'd stop by to see how my little buddies were going. This is the first time I've really had a good look around and I found quite a few nice little critters.
> 
> So first up, the habitat is on a hill with a quite a few small granite rocks about dinner plate size in diameter. This is underneath gum forest and above quite sandy, light brown soil, ideal for a scrape dweller where your rocks holds condensation, the soil drainage prevents flooding, and the decaying leaf litter provides an abundance of prey items.
> 
> ...


You look like you had a good trip! IMO, invert hunting is one of the most fun parts of this hobby .

Reactions: Agree 1


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## RezonantVoid (Oct 29, 2018)

WildSpider said:


> You look like you had a good trip! IMO, invert hunting is one of the most fun parts of this hobby .


absolutely! there were so many microclimates there i never got to check because of the rain so ill defintely be going back soon to search the rest of it out

Reactions: Like 2


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## RezonantVoid (Oct 29, 2018)

Just got home and rehoused the 3 new scorpions, they are all looking really nice and before long I should have 3 gravid scorpions if all goes to plan


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## The Snark (Oct 30, 2018)

RezonantVoid said:


> there were so many microclimates


This is something the average animal keeper almost never takes into account, way too often ending up with 'one size fits all' environments and wondering why some of the animals are unthrifty.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## RezonantVoid (Oct 30, 2018)

The Snark said:


> This is something the average animal keeper almost never takes into account, way too often ending up with 'one size fits all' environments and wondering why some of the animals are unthrifty.


A good example of this I have personally learned is keeping Urodacus Yaschenkoi. Unlike other Urodacus sp. scorpions it has extremely specific environmental requirements and as a result alot of people end up killing there's due to making assumptions


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## antinous (Nov 2, 2018)

Thanks for sharing! I'm absolutely jealous of you btw, amazing finds and amazing animals. How far did you have to go from your house to find these?

Reactions: Like 1


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## RezonantVoid (Nov 3, 2018)

Phormic28 said:


> Thanks for sharing! I'm absolutely jealous of you btw, amazing finds and amazing animals. How far did you have to go from your house to find these?


glad you like them all! this was quite a while a way, about 3 hours. we were on our way back from a trip to a place called Tamworth, we usually stop by the location every time we go past. The Lychas scorpion is the first specimen of that genus i have ever seen there, im not sure if they will refill the ecological niche left by the black rocks should the ants kick them all out, but i'll see how it goes


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## Inktomi2 (Nov 21, 2018)

Awesome finds! Thank you for sharing with us. Wish we had this type of wildlife in NY.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## RezonantVoid (Nov 21, 2018)

Inktomi2 said:


> Awesome finds! Thank you for sharing with us. Wish we had this type of wildlife in NY.


You're more than welcome! I have explored so little of the Granite Belt and surrounding areas here I am constantly looking for opportunities to take trips there to explore. In a few weeks I will be heading to a botanical garden that has a bunch of myglamorph species in it, one I think is undescribed so that will be fun

Reactions: Like 1


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## WildSpider (Nov 25, 2018)

Inktomi2 said:


> Awesome finds! Thank you for sharing with us. Wish we had this type of wildlife in NY.


Ditto to that for our state too .

Reactions: Like 1


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