Intro from new member looking to be a Desert Hairy owner

do0gles

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 28, 2017
Messages
20
Rocks/Stones in a water dish are a magnet for bacteria. I find it easier to just use a smaller dish.
Very true! I haven't had any bacteria problems, but no sense in inviting any lol. My hairy keeps covering the dish with sand lol.
 

darkness975

Latrodectus
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
5,610
Very true! I haven't had any bacteria problems, but no sense in inviting any lol. My hairy keeps covering the dish with sand lol.
Mine all do that too. Good thing they don't need water every day.
 

DubiaW

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jan 10, 2017
Messages
471
Not saying if you are right or wrong, but I have seen this before and I have an inquiry. If humidity (or lack thereof) is playing a large role in the low molting rate of H. arizonensis in captivity, I am wondering why other arid species such as Smeringurus mesaensis don't seem to share this same high level of difficulty.
I'm going to reach a little bit here but the quirkiness of Sonoran life is often explained by history. I don't know about other species habitats but Arizona was a tropical rain forest very recently in geological history (as little as 9,000 years ago). It is reflected in Sonoran biodiversity in many ways. There is even a species of parrot and tree frog here. My intuition is to attribute the need for high humidity during molt to a throwback from the rain forest that hasn't been selected out because of the high humidity and moisture during the summer monsoons.

From article:

The Sonoran Desert that we see today, with its characteristic assemblages of plants and animals is quite recent, at least in terms of geologic time. In fact, it and the other North American deserts are among the youngest biotic communities on the continent. Although some Sonoran species evolved in ancestral seasonally-dry tropical communities, the development of the unique regional climates and the evolution of characteristic desert-adapted plants and animals are thought to have combined to form the Sonoran Desert by about 8 million years ago (mya) in the late Miocene. Similar conditions developed many times subsequently as global climates changed, with the Sonoran Desert continually expanding, contracting, and redefining itself. The most recent expansion of the Sonoran Desert into its modern area in Arizona and California occurred only 9000 years ago, with the modern communities of plants and animals developing 4500 years later. This chapter is a walk through time examining the conditions that led to the development of the Sonoran Desert and exploring what shaped its dynamic history. https://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_deep_history.php
 

DubiaW

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jan 10, 2017
Messages
471
More on the tropical interglacial periods of the Sonora and Mojave deserts in the Holocene era (11,000 yrs to present):

Surprisingly, the vertebrate fossil record suggests that some interglacial climates were more tropical during the Holocene. El Golfo de Santa Clara is near the mouth of the Colorado River in northwestern Sonora. Early Pleistocene (1.8 mya) fossils reflect a climate that was frost free, with much greater rainfall in the warm season, and with higher humidity than today. Greater summer rainfall would suggest that tropical oceans were warmer than they are today, in contrast to most of the Pleistocene when ocean waters were colder. The fauna included such mammals as antelope, bear, camels (dromedaries and llamas), cats, horses, proboscidians, and a tapir (Tapirus). The giant anteater, capybara (Neochoerus), and ground sloths in the fauna were members of ten families of mammals that immigrated into North America in the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene after the opening of the Panamanian land bridge during the Great American Interchange. In contrast, the imperial mammoth (Mammuthus imperator), a hyena (Chasmoporthetes johnstoni), and jaguar (Felis onca), were Eurasian immigrants. The nearest populations of giant anteater are 1800 miles (3000 km) to the southeast in the humid, tropical lowlands of Central America! As for many large mammals, the modern distribution may not accurately reflect their physiological range limits because of human predation in the last 11,000 years. Other fossils in the fauna include the Sonoran Desert toad (Bufo alvarius), slider �turtle�(Trachemys scripta), boa constrictor (Constrictor constrictor), and the large extinct California beaver (Castor cf. C. californicus). The Sonoran Desert toad is a regional endemic, while the slider and boa constrictor occur today in Sonora in wetter, more tropical areas to the southeast. Although the El Golfo area is today part of the hyperarid Gran Desierto, the delta of the Colorado River was historically a very wet area that supported extensive cottonwood (Populus fremontii) gallery forests with abundant beaver. There is even a December 1827 account of a large spotted cat (likely a jaguar) that entered James Ohio Pattie�s camp on the Colorado River south of Yuma to feed on drying beaver skins.
 
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darkness975

Latrodectus
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
5,610
More on the tropical interglacial periods of the Sonora and Mojave deserts in the Holocene era (11,000 yrs to present):

Surprisingly, the vertebrate fossil record suggests that some interglacial climates were more tropical during the Holocene. El Golfo de Santa Clara is near the mouth of the Colorado River in northwestern Sonora. Early Pleistocene (1.8 mya) fossils reflect a climate that was frost free, with much greater rainfall in the warm season, and with higher humidity than today. Greater summer rainfall would suggest that tropical oceans were warmer than they are today, in contrast to most of the Pleistocene when ocean waters were colder. The fauna included such mammals as antelope, bear, camels (dromedaries and llamas), cats, horses, proboscidians, and a tapir (Tapirus). The giant anteater, capybara (Neochoerus), and ground sloths in the fauna were members of ten families of mammals that immigrated into North America in the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene after the opening of the Panamanian land bridge during the Great American Interchange. In contrast, the imperial mammoth (Mammuthus imperator), a hyena (Chasmoporthetes johnstoni), and jaguar (Felis onca), were Eurasian immigrants. The nearest populations of giant anteater are 1800 miles (3000 km) to the southeast in the humid, tropical lowlands of Central America! As for many large mammals, the modern distribution may not accurately reflect their physiological range limits because of human predation in the last 11,000 years. Other fossils in the fauna include the Sonoran Desert toad (Bufo alvarius), slider �turtle�(Trachemys scripta), boa constrictor (Constrictor constrictor), and the large extinct California beaver (Castor cf. C. californicus). The Sonoran Desert toad is a regional endemic, while the slider and boa constrictor occur today in Sonora in wetter, more tropical areas to the southeast. Although the El Golfo area is today part of the hyperarid Gran Desierto, the delta of the Colorado River was historically a very wet area that supported extensive cottonwood (Populus fremontii) gallery forests with abundant beaver. There is even a December 1827 account of a large spotted cat (likely a jaguar) that entered James Ohio Pattie�s camp on the Colorado River south of Yuma to feed on drying beaver skins.
Actually a pretty interesting set of thinking. Even though I still wonder why it only affected that species and not the other species that are from the same area as H. arizonensis.
 

DubiaW

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jan 10, 2017
Messages
471
Probably depends on when the radiant occurred in history. There are periods in history further back where the Sonora was much like it is today.

I know from a miserable first hand experience that Diplocentrus spitzeri can't be kept in the same arid conditions that other AZ scorpions can be. I went on a trip to Patagonia about ten years ago and collected a few. Being new to inverts I haphazardly put them in the same dry set up in my warm room that I kept the rest of my local stuff in only to find them dried up and dead a few days later along with the vinagaroons that I gathered.
 

Rik Cuddy

Arachnosquire
Joined
Apr 21, 2017
Messages
103
Advice please. So my new scorpion seems to have buried himself somewhere that I can't see, I can only see the opening. Hasn't been back out for two days at all (I have a night vision IP camera set up). Any advice?
 

Rik Cuddy

Arachnosquire
Joined
Apr 21, 2017
Messages
103
So I have found him and placed him inside a plastic critter keeper for a short while. I wanted to make sure he had eaten as had been in transit. Fed and hopefully happy
 

do0gles

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 28, 2017
Messages
20
So I have found him and placed him inside a plastic critter keeper for a short while. I wanted to make sure he had eaten as had been in transit. Fed and hopefully happy
That would be the best thing to do lol. Mine hides under a log and comes out anytime I move the cage to check on her.
 
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