spider hunting today in socal

Crab spiders are quite common - they're just hard to see because they blend in so well. If you go out hiking anywhere that has a lot of flowers in bloom (such as brittlebush or California buckwheat) you can usually find crab spiders. They are frequently hiding underneath leaves or flowers, waiting to ambush a fly or bee or other insect that lands on the flower to feed.

 

And a few Lynx if you get lucky. I still remember the debacle when the US government proclaimed all our lives with be ruined by the invasive Mediterranean fruit fly and executed repeated blanket sprayings by helicopter over most of urban and suburban So. Cal. For years afterwards so many insects and spiders became a rarity. The rose garden at Santa Anita Arboretum that used to have a crab or lynx on nearly every flower was devoid of them for months. The bee population also plummeted.

 

Ah, yes, the government doing its specialty of screwing everything up.

 

you saw a T? LUCKY DUCK! i want one so bad. i know where there are tons of trapdoors

 

that wasnt the us government, that was Jerry Brown's doing- back in his first term as california's governor. The extremist group known as 'the weather underground' launched a bio-terror attack on california's agricultural areas, releasing thousands of cultured med flies, which led to jerry brown dousing us all with pesticides.

...and people elected him again afterward

Probably the worst governor ca ever had. ..twice :/

 

That is only one version. There are several other credible ones. The feds were involved, there was dark money changing hands, someone made a huge profit distributing and spraying Malathion and another huge profit selling sterile flies to various government agencies and the list goes on. Of note the supposed bio terror attack came 3 months after and in retaliation for the initial aerial Malathion spraying.

The entire scenario reads much too similar to the FBI attempt to label Earth First! as a terrorist group and frame Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney as terrorists armed with explosives. Both Judi and Darryl were close personal friends of mine and the likelihood of them involved in ANY violent activity was substantially less than Donald Trump never telling another lie.
PS EARTH FIRST!

 

I've found several tarantulas near Paso Robles, which are more than likely A. iodius, given the range distribution, as they are too far up north for A. eutelynum. If you're interested in finding other Mygalomorphs, I found some interesting species near Hacienda Hills, and also around the Angeles National Forest. We have a very small species of Mygalomorph here that isn't very well known, called the California Funnel Web. (Megahexura fulva) I mistook their burrows for tarantula sling burrows, and what popped out genuinely surprised me. They look almost like tiny slings. I also did find an Apomastus sp., albeit long dead. We also have a species of Lycosid I saw in Paso Robles, which we also likely have down here in the drier areas, known as Schizocosa maxima. They are ridiculous looking, with orange tinged femurs and stocky legs. As for B. californicum, I've had no luck.

 

wow nice finds

 

Thank you!