Random SCABIES Hikes

[MaartenSFS]

OMG, you bastard! (J/K) Do you have any idea how many hours I spent crawling through dengue-fever-carrying mosquito-infested jungle in China looking for trap-doors? Your reaction is the same as mine the first time I found a massive Scolopendra multidens specimen under a loose part of a stone stairs in a park where I lived in China.

You're probably the same as me in that if you were on holiday in say... Croatia on a honeymoon, business meeting or something and you saw a rock or better yet a pile of rocks you wouldn't be able to get it out of your head until those stones were turned!

Don't you have to be careful for rattlesnakes out there when you are flipping stones? I had an Australian friend in China that said if I was doing that there I would have been dead 10X over.

Anyways, great post.

 

[cacoseraph]

rattlesnakes are always a bit of a concern. as long as i am careful they are a minimal one. it is only when months (or years :/ ) have gone by without seeing one and i get really lax that bad things have almost happened


i have the one video above when i was one step away from a rattler... but what i don't have video or pics of is when i literally put my foot down *touching* a big ol' coiled rattlesnake! i might have considered taking a picture, as all the snake did was crawl away... but i had a dog with me at the time and my snap judgement was to secure the dog, snake, and myself before futzing around with pictures =P

 

[Teal]

A friend of mine who lives in the desert in So Cal is keeping an eye out for rattlers for me.. I plan to have a few this year. We usually have a ton around here... but with the potato bugs, they seem to have disappeared!

 

[cacoseraph]

if you come hiking down here we might get lucky and find one for you

don't even need a fishing license to take one

 

[MaartenSFS]

rattlesnakes are always a bit of a concern. as long as i am careful they are a minimal one. it is only when months (or years :/ ) have gone by without seeing one and i get really lax that bad things have almost happened


i have the one video above when i was one step away from a rattler... but what i don't have video or pics of is when i literally put my foot down *touching* a big ol' coiled rattlesnake! i might have considered taking a picture, as all the snake did was crawl away... but i had a dog with me at the time and my snap judgement was to secure the dog, snake, and myself before futzing around with pictures =P

Better safe than sorry I always say. Especially the mojave rattler is quite venomous in your area, I hear. I'm still considering where to move to once I fish the police academy next year. Too bad the lush south-east of the U.S is redneck-infested. I much prefer the culture of the south-west but I don't know about the desert climate. Apparently the wildlife is very abundant, though. Northern Cali (if I can afford it), Oregon, and Washington look very promising as well. Keep the photos and videos coming!

 

[MaartenSFS]

Is that mygalomorph @ 2:43 a Diplurid? Near the beginning a trapdoor is biting your finger. What species is that? That is an awesome specimen. I really wish that I found some larger macrothele specimen in China. The ones from Taiwan are awesome and very aggressive.

 

[cacoseraph]

if you are talking about the Beautiful and Strange the myg you are probably talking about is a Mecicobothriidae, Megahexura fulva. was it a "butt shot"?


Mecico are not too far from Dipluridae. both are considered sheet/funnel weavers

 

[MaartenSFS]

if you are talking about the Beautiful and Strange the myg you are probably talking about is a Mecicobothriidae, Megahexura fulva. was it a "butt shot"?


Mecico are not too far from Dipluridae. both are considered sheet/funnel weavers

It was the Beautiful And Strange, yes. It looked like a Dipluridae to me because of the long spinnerets.

Also, I have been looking for some information on world scorpion distribution with little luck. What would you say is their northern limit in the U.S?

 

[cacoseraph]

i'm not really up on my scorpion lore anymore :/


i kinda think that Parauroctonus borealis (or something like that) makes it dang near to canada, though. i know there are mygs and scolopendromorpha that do

 

[BrettG]

Better safe than sorry I always say. Especially the mojave rattler is quite venomous in your area, I hear. I'm still considering where to move to once I fish the police academy next year. Too bad the lush south-east of the U.S is redneck-infested. I much prefer the culture of the south-west but I don't know about the desert climate. Apparently the wildlife is very abundant, though. Northern Cali (if I can afford it), Oregon, and Washington look very promising as well. Keep the photos and videos coming!

Yep.Mojaves are bad,mmmmkay?

 

[Teal]

But soo pretty..!

 

[MaartenSFS]

i'm not really up on my scorpion lore anymore :/


i kinda think that Parauroctonus borealis (or something like that) makes it dang near to canada, though. i know there are mygs and scolopendromorpha that do

That's oké, I know they're down there.

 

[cacoseraph]

i believe i have to be really careful for er.. Southern pacific rattlesnakes, too?

i know none are great to be bit by, but i think there are a few that have nasty neurotoxic affects, too

 

[cacoseraph]

Black Widow Bites, Two For One Sale!

heh, i can't believe i forgot to post this one until now =P

[YOUTUBE]DZW1C8Dwvbc[/YOUTUBE]

WARNING: Free handling Latrodectus species spiders is probably a really bad idea. Common species possess venom that is more damaging than that of common USA rattle snakes, milliliter for milliliter. An envenomation is not likely to kill a healthy adult, but small people or people with pre-existing medical conditions could find themselves in BAD trouble. It is a good idea for anyone bitten by Latrodectus to seek medical attention.

Spoiler located at end of this test.

Latrodectus is a gneus of spider found all over the world. In the USA its representative species are commonly known as widows... there are three species of mainly black widows (L. hesperus, western black widow; L. mactans, southern black widow; L. variolus, northern black widow), one species of red widow found only in Florida (L. bishopi), and one somewhat recently introduced species of brown widow, L. geometricus. In africa they are known as button spiders and in australia they are known as redback spiders. Most species tend to be featureless black, though there are sometimes dramatic exceptions. L. bishopi has a red body with a wildly colored abdomen done in browns, whites, and yellows in spots and lines. L. pallidus, the white widow, is a cream colored spider found in the middle east. There is a species of Latrodectus from Laos affectionately known as the Hellfire Widow because of the flame decal-esque red coloration on the beautiful black body.

The spider featured in this video is either L. hesperus or L. geometricus... i am leaning toward geo at this point. At that size my experience has been that hesperus has much less wild coloration and more regularily colored legs. L. hesperus has a pretty wide range of coloration, especially when they are immature, so it is hard to known for sure what species i was dealing with based only on gross macroscopic observation of the spider. One easy way to tell the brown species from the three black species is by their eggsacs. The three black USA species all make essentially smooth, tear drop shaped eggsacs. L. geometricus makes globular to tear drop shaped eggsacs... but they are covered with dozens of spikes or extrusions. Geo's do not achieve the size of hesperus, and probably never reach over 2"/5cm diagonal leg span... and are much more regularily in the 1"/2.5cm to 1.5"/3.8cm DLS. It is disappointing to see the geometricus species spreading across the world. They are consummate survivors and are likely out competing native species that live in the same niche as them. Latrodectus genus is a member of the Theridiidae family... also known as comb-foot spiders. These comb-feet are special hairs/spines on their back legs that allow them to throw their webbing onto their prey for subduction and their predators for defensive purposes. The only silver lining to the cloud of geo's descendnig on the world is that they are likely not as human reactively venomous as many of their cousin species. Brown widows are not as strongly reactive as any of the three USA black species, but are still a serious animal to be envenomated by. In the case of envenomation professional medical assistance is probably in order.


[Uploaded from a 100/40/12MB WMV file]


SPOILER: I did get bit at least once, likely twice. Neither bite seems to have resulted in an envenomation. Generally speaking, widows are not inclined to "wet" bite, that is to inject venom, for a low priority defensive bite. Latrodectus venoms are insanely complex, giant molecules that are quite expensive for the spiders to manufacture. If the spider is not in immediate risk of death it is much more likely for them to dry bite... BUT this is not a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination!

I apologize about the audio desync. I only use free programs to edit and produce my videos and they don't seem to work great all the time :/

 

[Sunset]

ive seen one of those T where I go hicking. I also find a all black T where I go hicking to.

 

[cacoseraph]

California the Beautiful and Strange, part 2, A small hike

California the Beautiful and Strange, part 2, A small hike

[YOUTUBE]RQExSadxcx4[/YOUTUBE]

I went on a small hike with my buddy and his dogs at a spot not too far from my house today. This is in the foothills of Alta Loma / Rancho Cucamonga. The hike was fun, but i had some technical difficulties that resulted in me not filming a lot of what i wanted to. So... consider this a teaser for at least two
or three more videos. I am going to go back to the cave with proper gear and make a good video of as much of that as i can. I also want to try to make a bit of a river running and rock hopping video. I am not in great shape yet, but my buddy is much better than i am, anyways I'd also maybe like to showcase the biota of this valley... and maybe do a valley trek kinda like my other buddy is always talking about

[uploaded from a 27MB WMV file]

 

[cacoseraph]

hi res http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/cacoseraph/hunt/SV/MouthOfSapphireDappled03b.jpg


GIANT crane fly

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/cacoseraph/hunt/SV/giant_crane_fly01b.jpg


robber fly

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/cacoseraph/hunt/SV/robber_fly01b.jpg
i actually played around with that thing for a while but goofed cam settings and didn't get pics :/

unknown insect. probably has something to do with the water at some point in its lifecycle

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/cacoseraph/hunt/SV/water_related_insect_imago01b.jpg

 

[cacoseraph]

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/cacoseraph/hunt/SV/b11donefulldroppingb.jpg

 

[Crysta]

I kinda like the look of the landscape all in squares it is very neat!
looks like a good place to find snakes... jealous!

 

[cacoseraph]

i am not a snake hunter or anything... but i have only ever seen one snake there. little thing, got into it's rocky crevice home before i could take a picture, too

the whole area is actually pretty hard to find any animals at... but i have seen *one* of just about everything there =P