road trip to china, hainan - pics n report

[Scorpfanatic]

road trip to china, hainan


my main was to go back to my great grand mothers house. but the side motive was to hunt for Mesobuthus Martenssi hainanesis. unfortunalety there isnt any whahaa.

result of the hunt is 3 female(1 suspected gravid) n 2 young male Lychas mucronatus.it only took ard 45 mins to find tons of moulte skins and 5 scorpions. checking with the locals and they say thats the only scorion they have seen there:? too bad

along on the way ive seen many snakes (too fast for my camera) many mole crickets. a colony of them that is with burrows and all ( too small for my camera at that point as it jus went wiredd and refuse to go into digital micro mode)

heres a few pics

AT the village...............

this is how they cross rivers.. even wiuth the motobikes

i caught 2 scorpion in between the layers of the roof (in between the slapes)

inside these dry barks with many tunnels!

in this hunt too. otheres are in curled up dried cocount leaves.

peeling of the bark and found 1 here too

top oif the moutain...............

scenery at the "5 finger mountain" area. suposingly meaning the 5 fingers of the great buddha. its the highest spot in hainan , which happens to right in teh middle of teh island.

one of the trail at the top of the mountain. unfortunatley theres no scorpion there

sparrow babies waiting to be feed. there r alot there and people take their nest, made of their saliva to make a famous chinese delicasy - bird nest with rock sugar usually serve desserts.

at the resturamt before i left for home.................. to say first! i did not eat the snakes!!!!!!!!!!!

some klind of sand worm.. and no,,, not for fishing.. its to be eaten...

haha i call this the preying mantis prawn!!! taste like a hybrid of cray fish and prawn :?

and now the scorpions.


the you male, check out teh "notch"in the claw, the indication in this species that its the male. the villages were surpride when i told that weather i caught a male or female and they thought for a moment i was checking if they have breasts to determine!! ARR!

the gruop of 5 keeping them communel

another newly moulted female when i jus caught it ( i even collected her new exo)

the suspected gravid female

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Those scorps look awsome! Must have been a fun trip!

 

[jamesc]

These are quickly becoming my favorite species, it is great to see their native habitat. Thanks for sharing.

 

[icefish]

那是甚么蛇？好看！！！！！！ 一般在海南能捉到甚么蝎子？看见螳螂虾，我就饿了！！！！

 

[EAD063]

Great pictures, I'm sure you had a great time. Im sure you would have a found a ton night collecting with a uv, next time you go there hopefully scorps can be your main goal.

 

[beetleman]

wow! very nice pics,:drool: that's a real cool place,awesome scorps, hey if ya ever in any parts of china again,pick me up a panda or 2 i'll pay for the shipping LOL.

 

[Mark Newton]

Some interesting shots and information. It's hard to believe there is much wildlife left in that place with so much wild caught feeding the billions of people. They are swallows you have in the nest too..not sparrows. They even eat the darn birds nests for crying out loud...what next! Very typical buthids with the tail curled to the side and the legs tucked in, mine rest in exactly the same way.

 

[SalS]

Those are great pictures! Really awesome looking scorpions. I love that mottling pattern.

 

[FortCooper1982]

well cool place to live, your very lucky to have scorps around u like that we dont have that luxuruy were i come from!!! :{

 

[Alakdan]

Walton,

Nice L. mucronatus! I was only joking when I sent you an email that you are going to China to hunt for M. martensii.

I was surprised to see the terrain and the habitat very similar to the area where I got Lychas infuscatus. If you checked under the roof of that bamboo shed, here in PH, that's where you're most likely to find a gecko or a centipede.

The one that looks like a hybrid mantis and prawn is a mantis shrimp. They are tastier than prawns.

The worm is usually found in rotting mangrove branches.


Mark,

Eating the the swallow's saliva is nothing new. Is believed to have some medicinal value. That is the main component of Nido soup or commonly known as Bird's nest soup in most Chinese restaurants. If you eat Chinese food, chances are you've already tried it.

 

[Aillith]

Here in Aus we have alot more 'Australian Chinese' resturants as opposed to real Chinese Chinese resturants.

Australian Chinese Food = Chinese food made with australian ingredients, like beef, chicken, pork, veggies that are availiable over here ect... as opposed to traditional Chinese recipes and ingredients.

no birds nest soup in our chinese resturants. We get honey chicken instead XD

 

[Mark Newton]

no birds nest soup in our chinese resturants. We get honey chicken instead XD

Good explanation...I certainly dont recall having any birds nests on my plate...

 

[Scorpfanatic]

well they r suppose to be eaten for better complexion ~ oh yeah its swallow haha .

and icefish! firsttime i saw someone [ost in chinese! haha

 

[Nich]

The one that looks like a hybrid mantis and prawn is a mantis shrimp. They are tastier than prawns.

Ild pay big bucks for a mantis that big, looks like 8"er if it wasnt cooked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ild argee though, a UV light in that dense forrest would yeild lots of crazy inverts. I get into a frenzt at the redwoods....I can only fantasize about that area until I finish school.

 

[woodson]

I like the preying mantis prawn very much, and u, u eat them!
......

 

[icefish]

well they r suppose to be eaten for better complexion ~ oh yeah its swallow haha .

and icefish! firsttime i saw someone [ost in chinese! haha

and this is my first time to reply in Chinese!!!

 

[EAD063]

Ild pay big bucks for a mantis that big, looks like 8"er if it wasnt cooked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some do keep them as pets, they're known for breaking the glass on tanks.
Very cool considering they are one of few predatory crustaceans.

 

[limz_777]

chinese in china eat everything , if it moves , it can be eaten.:}

 

[beetleman]

Some do keep them as pets, they're known for breaking the glass on tanks.
Very cool considering they are one of few predatory crustaceans.

yeah, ive kept a few in seperated acryilic(spelling) tanks they "punch" at their reflections and man were they loud,and they attack anything that moves,i could just imagine if they were in glass tanks..............ooooh! that would be a mess.

 

[tacomadiver]

I had a 6" male peacock mantis in a 20 gallon for a long time. I loved that shrimp lol.