paloma dwarf

Bugs In Cyberspace

Arachnodemon
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Dec 10, 2006
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721
Thanks Alice! It was a beautiful lizard. I also saw one of those thorny devil(?) lizards gorging itself on ants. Maybe I'll get lucky and see a gila monster next time! That would be the neatest potential vertebrate sighting of the trip.

I saw a coati last time. AZ is awesome!
 

josh_r

Arachnoprince
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Jan 18, 2008
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1,131
the thorny devil is actually a phrynosoma. horned lizard!
 

BrettG

Arachnoprince
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Aug 19, 2009
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I live in Whetstone about 60mi. south of Tucson. I'll post a pic after work today. I found a couple of males while hiking Carr Canyon but left them there. Recently found one I believe is a female @ Ramsey Canyon and decided to keep this one.
I have one from Sierra vista that I am looking at as I type..... Will get pics when the wife gets home......
 

BrettG

Arachnoprince
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Aug 19, 2009
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1,315
Here is the dwarf I promised to share with everyone.Any ideas on what species?
I have this same spider.Slightly larger,and I mean SLIGHTLY......Found on a garage wall of all places.....It just molted and is gorgous to say the least....
 

Sunset

Arachnoknight
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Jun 1, 2009
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183
we don't have leopard geckos in united states. it was probably a banded gecko that you saw. Im more then 90% sure it was a banded gecko if you said it was a leopard gecko.




Spoke with Josh on the phone for a good amount of time today. Really nice talking to you Josh! I'll be touring the lower part of Arizona again this summer and hope to meet up with Josh for a neat day trip.

Anyway, back in 2001, I was coming from California towards Tucson. I know we were past Yuma and we took the turn South (after Paloma) onto Hwy 85 towards Ajo. Somewhere in this general area, I turned over a board that we saw about thirty feet off the roadside. Underneath we found a leopard gecko, some death feigning beetles and the tarantula at the following link. I've always wondered what it was. Anybody have a clue? I know the photo quality isn't all that great, but maybe somebody can cross-reference the locality and photo info. and take a guess??? I ended up sending this specimen and two others from other parts of AZ to a researcher. Been so long now, I don't even remeber who I mailed them to. He was particularly interested in this specimen and I seem to recall him mentioning that it was probably actually an adult specimen. Hard to recall for sure, but I'd guess it had a ~2 inch legspan +/- .5 inches.

This thread you guys are writing is REALLY getting me excited about my trip down there. Like Josh, I'm not a huge "collector" and prefer to work with captive bred stuff, but I guess we do have to get a few individuals to start a program with! Mostly, I just want to be in the desert and see and photograph lots of bugs {D

For the record, I'll be taking a few captive bred individuals of the famed Arizona Unicorn Mantis down with me. I'll be releasing them in a sort of symbolic "giving back" kind of way.

Here's the link to that mystery tarantula. It's not even an active link on my website. I had labeled it Aphonopelma at the time (please disregard):

http://bugsincyberspace.com/aphonopelma_sp2.html

Thanks for the really enjoyable and informative (and tantalizingly teasing) thread guys! There is no place like...Arizona!

Peter Clausen
 

Sunset

Arachnoknight
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Jun 1, 2009
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183
like i said before, the pic is not a leopard gecko its a banded gecko. Leopard geckos are bigger and fatter. when banded geckos are longer and skinny.


As I think back seven years, I do distinctly remember passing through Ajo at night (and collecting some mantises that were at the lights on the wall of school building). We spent the night near Organ Pipe (well, tried...too hot to sleep), so it would probably have been near Sells the following day, or back somewhere on the eight (even before Yuma), the previous day. Here's a photo of the leopard gecko I found under the board (didn't take the gecko).



The small T I found sure has long hair compared to your dwarfs. Not that it matters too much, but the three photos I took of my "dwarf" were of it in the bottom of a 16 oz. deli cup.

I don't vividly remember any behavioral details. It didn't seem particularly aggressive. I'd remember that as it was the first tarantula I've ever collected in the wild (of 3). For a mostly-insect guy, the jump from 6 to 8 legs can be a bit intimidating when it comes to live collection. I only remember that it was under a board and visible when the turned over the board in the middle of the day. It was a very thin and fragile looking spider. I figured it was a young juvenile, but somebody I was in contact with back then (who knew his Aphonopelma) said he couldn't recognize it from the photo and suspected it might actually be an adult.

Well, I was just curious. Thanks for trying! When I started my previous post, I didn't realize that was the first T I'd ever collected. I'm slightly more curious to know what it is because of this, but I'll find another someday.

Your dwarfs (ves?) all look so similar to me. It's cool that they are mini's and how many photos of those four species together has anybody seen?

I took stills with a video camera, back then. Here are a few other photos from two other Ts we saw. At least one of the other two individuals was collected near Sedona.

http://www.bugsincyberspace.com/us_tarantulas.html

Hey, Josh...as I plan my trip down there, I'm wondering...is there a best time of day to visit that place we spoke of? Would you prefer to do the morning, day, evening or night thing, there? Of course, we have months to figure this all out, but our conversation yesterday has really got spending a lot of time looking at my map :?

Thanks again!

Peter
 

josh_r

Arachnoprince
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Jan 18, 2008
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like i said before, the pic is not a leopard gecko its a banded gecko. Leopard geckos are bigger and fatter. when banded geckos are longer and skinny.
lol, this was already established a long time ago. read a few posts above yours.
 

Robotponys

Arachnoknight
Joined
Nov 26, 2011
Messages
172
Hate to revive, but this thread is pretty cool. :p Do any of you who posted here still collect and/or have any? They look gorgeous and very interesting. :)
 

josh_r

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
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Jan 18, 2008
Messages
1,131
Unfortunately I don't keep them or any inverts anymore. The few people who do have paloma I highly doubt will give them up. They are just too cool and too desired.
 

josh_r

Arachnoprince
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Jan 18, 2008
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1,131
I distributed a bunch of cb years ago. I wonder what happened to them all.
 
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