# Back from Turkey



## ErikWestblom (Sep 3, 2008)

As some of you know, I went to Turkey for a week with my family. Besides getting a tan, I was hoping to find some arachnids to bring back home.

I went out on a walk following the shore line, but about a hundred yards from the beach. The habitat was mostly rocks, sand and shrubberies. I flipped about every rock I could see. I was surprised how little I would find! 

When it comes to arachnids I found a cute little Olios sp. (mini huntsman, about 10 mm BL and 30 mm LS freshly molted) under a rock along with a molt from a lycosid. I also found a pair of salticids when I had to "do my business" at a beach restaurant. Only kept the female, and she is 11 mm BL. That's actually the biggest salticid I've seen. You Americans are spoiled.

After 3 hours of flipping rocks I finally found what I was looking for.. an adult female Lycosa tarantula! I didn't find it in its typical burrow, but underneath a flat rock. Was really surprised when I saw it. The size of this beauty was 30 mm   (bit more than 1 1/5") BL and 80 mm (7 1/5") LS.

By that time I was a bit dehydrated and it was too hot to stay out in the direct sunlight (it was about 100 degrees the whole week), so took the local bus back to the hotel. 

I went back to the same place a few days later and found two more Lycosa tarantula. One is female for sure, but the other one I'm not so sure about. These were found in typical burrows, one of which you will see pics of later. This day I had my girlfriend with me, so we could not stay out very long.

We did find some nice lizards too, but I didn't bring any of them with me back home. I actually wanted to bring one kind of lizard with me, but I wasn't able to catch one. They were simply too fast for me! Talk about greased lightning!

I was a bit bummed about not finding a single scorpion though. But I didn't put any energy into finding any besides flipping rocks and using a simple flashlight at walls at night. I didn't bring any black light, and I didn't talk to the locals about where to find scorps.

One more spider I would have liked to find is Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, but not a sign of those either.

Unfortunately, you will have to wait a week for pictures, as the camera is moms and she and dad is going to stay for one more week. Oh, btw, my gf took some pics of the lizards with her cell phone. Quality and focus kinda sucks though. Will post them tomorrow.

Sorry for the wall of text


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## ErikWestblom (Sep 4, 2008)

Ok, here are some pics with crappy quality:

A turtle I found in the beginning of the first day:











Ocellated skink (Chalcides ocellatus)






Starred agama (Laudakia stellio)
Unfortunately the focus is off, my gf's cell phone camera sucks at close ups...











Some habitat shots:































Will post more pics when I get a hold of the other camera.
Pics of some of the spiders that I found will be posted in the "True spiders and other arachnids" part of the forum.


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## Rick McJimsey (Sep 14, 2008)

Very cool!
I beleive that is a tortoise. though


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## ErikWestblom (Sep 15, 2008)

Not sure about the difference, but u are probably right


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