# the cacolands of Rancho Cucamonga, CA, USA (dialup beware!)



## cacoseraph (Apr 16, 2007)

Welcome to the cacolands.  This is a name i have given to the wild lands above my soon to be ex-house in Rancho Cucamonga, California, USA.  The terrain is somewhat rough as the land we hunt is the valleys between the foothills of the Angeles Crest Mountains.... i think. I get lost a lot, what can i say?

Normally i park in a housing tract that is being built (but will it be finished in light of the hiccup the Southern California real estate market is experiencing? i hope not, but we shall see...) and hike about 2 miles to the valley mouth.  Buthus and Twirl both had off road vehicles so we did it the easy way 

there is a water feature for most of the year. it is a tiny trickle or possibly dry during the hottest parts of summer... but a good little creak the rest of the time.  Here is Mr. Buthus on the drain for the pond that terminates the water feature.  The water sort of magically disappears into this drain.






that pond is about 50-70 feet across. it is actually quite a large body of water for my experiences in the wilds of SoCA.

Here is a crappy in situ of the infamous water spider discussed in other threads, here abouts <add links later>







Along the waterway i captured pics of two butterfly/moth things. I think one is a butterfly (straight wings held open) and one is a moth (wings like a cloak)





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the first time i went to the cacolands all i found was a dead frog and a red frog. this time we found hundreds of frogs. i think twirl said they might be chorus frogs





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we also saw a pretty big tadpole. this guy was probably over an inch in the body and 3"/8cm long total (including tail thing)





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speaking of frogs and toads (sort of)... i caught what i believe to be a toadbug. it is predacious, has forelimbs like the beginnings of a praying mantis, and honest to gods hops like a freaking toad!  these are not in situ, but rather at my house in his new home





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there were a number of bugs in and on the water. here is a tiny predacious water bug that i have always called water striders





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buthus found a friendly lizard at the base of the western valley wall.







Though we tended to stay relatively close to the water we did do a little valley wall work.





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the gents found both Scolopocryptops sp. and Scolopendra polymorpha up the hill.

From our elevated vantage point we could see what i am going to call the castle, because i like castles.  We speculated, half jokingly, that it could be some old 1800's battle emplacement.





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up close and with my memory turned back on, it turned out to be some kind of old public works project. there was actually an emplacement about 30'(10m) across the stream depression that mounted an ironwork bridge to the castle.


on the castle buthus found a large bee. i think he said it was a carpenter bee.  now, i don't want to ruin your impression of buthus' manliness... but the bee *was* on its way out and not very active or coordinated when he grabbed it. all the centipedes and what not weren't.





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the castle had some old iron doors that vandals had removed and tossed aside. a very dark colored lizard decided to bask on one





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Finally, some scenery shots.  I love the area i live in 







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## gunslinger (Apr 16, 2007)

As always, beautiful stuff.  I really like the scenery photos as well, you are truly in an awesome area.  1 year and counting until I get to move from the glorious corn fields around here...............

I really like the pic of the fallen true looking out into the valley.  Keep it up


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## buthus (Apr 16, 2007)

That little camera does alright!  Still need to figure out where we can rob you a new one though ...if I recall, yours has seen better days.   
BTW..the lizard biting shot was a setup.   

Oh... I have been too embarrassed to tell you, but I lost the big tiger I found in the wasteland.  It taught me a valuable lesson on the sneakiness of pedes.  I hope it will stick around and hunt down some of the stray cats we have coming in our yard.  :?  
I'll need a new one.   

So, are you going to move to a new place in the same general area?  I dont think your mathy metal, grind core punker, mean ass looking room mates liked me too much! But, from what I heard of their music they were pumping out ...I want their first album!  haaa... I bet you wont miss having to deal with those practice sessions ..eh?


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## twirl and kill (Apr 17, 2007)

wow i just noticed this buthus...you look like Dr. Allen Grant exploring one of those dino inhabited islands,standing on what seems to be an old rusty toilet.


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## buthus (Apr 19, 2007)

twirl and kill said:


> wow i just noticed this buthus...you look like Dr. Allen Grant exploring one of those dino inhabited islands,standing on what seems to be an old rusty toilet.


eh... dont know about the Allen Grant thing, but most of the time I do feel like I'm standing on what seems to be an old rusty toilet.


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## cacoseraph (Apr 23, 2007)

the next hunt is *SUNDAY, APRIL 29th* @ 9am @ MY HOUSE

be there or be square

email (preferred) or pm (deprecated) to get specific directions to my house, but to get to my street gmap or mapq or ymap 
12201 Blue Spruce Drive
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739


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## cacoseraph (May 1, 2007)

last sunday's hike went great!

i did forget to bring my cam, like the fool that i am :wall: 

happily Warren (wburke17) is less foolish than i 

i fished a scorpion out of a scorpion-burrow-esque hole in a cliff wall!  this is the first time i have ever successfully fished for something. even fish! i was very excited 



wburke17 said:


> this is the hole he fished it out of
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## drapion (May 2, 2007)

great scorp!!I think it might be  Paruroctonus marksi or Uroctonites montereus


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## cacoseraph (May 5, 2007)

*cliffy*

here are some shots of the scorpion i fished out of the cliff to hopefully help arrive at a tentative ID. i named it cliffy claven.

it's been a while since i read up on my physio terminology so i easily might have messed something up

cliffy_mesoVII_metaI_ventral.jpg






cliffy_metaII_nowTHATSgranulationA.jpg





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cliffy_metasomaV_ventral.JPG






cliffy_metasoma_ventralA.JPG





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cliffy_pecsA.JPG





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cliffy_pedipalp_chelaA.JPG





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cliffy_pedipalp_thornA.JPG





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cliffy_prosoma_dorsalA.JPG





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cliffy_tergitesA.JPG





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## buthus (May 11, 2007)

A few pics of some of what I brought home.

Lots of millis found in the wasteland area...






I caught two huge tigers, but you all have seen plenty of 'em by now.    

There were a couple species (maybe 3) of Eleodes in the wasteland this time.  We found these smaller ones under everything... they hung in large groups. They are about a third the size of the larger species. 





With them we were finding many of these small but pretty beetles... (oh...and there is one of those stone beetles under them...found a few more of those up in "the wild" along the river.)












Possible 2 Kukulcania species.  





Both Andrew and I remembered were we left one last time... seems different enough to question the specie. ??






I caught a couple legless lizards ...actually Earl (Neshans cousin) spotted the 2nd one.  































The famous big grass spider that Andrew has been talking about.
These are found in both areas that we hunted. (At least Im fairly certain that they are the same specie) This one is from "the wild"...


















This is probably my fav score ...I HOPE someone can help me ID it.   The mesh is 1/4", so its about the size of S.bipunctata...but SO much prettier!  
Looks so much like Steatoda... eh?







Tried to take home a few weird items for enclosures and whatnot...no doll furnature this time, but I like this doll head... 






Also was able to find another Abedus-herberti ...sub-adult, but almost full grown.  The landscape changed so much (drier and major plant growth within the pools) that I actually had a hard time finding the pools this time.  
Anywho..I stupidly thought it was large enough to put it with the adults caught the last time.. key word.. stupid.


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## cricket54 (May 11, 2007)

In the one picture, that looks like a female recluse, vilin spider. did she bite your finger. I've seen one of them in my daughter's house when she lived in Yucaipa, CA not far from there. Couldn' cath the sider though.

Sharon


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## dtknow (May 12, 2007)

errr...violin spiders don't occur in CA from what I remember.


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## cacoseraph (May 12, 2007)

we aren't supposed to have L. reclusa, but there are a couple few Lox. species that *do* exist out here. L. laeta is supposed to be an introduced species, for one


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## cacoseraph (May 13, 2007)

*May 12, 2007*

We headed out to the Day Creek canyon at around 10am this morning.  We didn't catch that many bugs here, though i believe a few tiger centipedes were caught.

wburke17 found this ring neck snake. holy crap! they are mildly venomous. that is freaking AWESOME!
i *think* it is a Diadophis punctatus modestus - San Bernardino Ring-necked Snake based on range data.
http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/d.p.modestus.html





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As always, the canyon is very picturesque





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thiscordia, twirl and kill, nbond1986





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i peeled back a piece of bark on a dead tree and found this skull in a spider nest






this is SO much better than hiking in like i normally do!


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## NBond1986 (May 13, 2007)

woohoo! thats my car in the last pic! I'm famouse!!!

jk. it was a great day. less finds, but I felt that it was somehow funner.


btw.....we _both _grabbed the snake :liar: 

but seriously, i helped 


edit: by the way, that little skull......i put it in one of my B. vagans sling delicups!!! LOL


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## Crotalus (May 13, 2007)

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing


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## buthus (May 14, 2007)

cricket54 said:


> In the one picture, that looks like a female recluse, vilin spider. did she bite your finger. I've seen one of them in my daughter's house when she lived in Yucaipa, CA not far from there. Couldn' cath the sider though.
> 
> Sharon


Nope, these take a lot of effort to make them bite.  


Anyway... bummed.  Looks like I missed a great day.  I got half the shat done i had planned to do, which is only half bad.  Still probably should have gone hunting though.  Just trying to catch up with life a bit.


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## twirl and kill (May 14, 2007)

NBond1986 said:


> woohoo! thats my car in the last pic! I'm famouse!!!
> 
> jk. it was a great day. less finds, but I felt that it was somehow funner.
> 
> ...


yeah actually i think we both did grab the gopher snake.


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