Wastelands of Rialto, CA, USA, dial up warning :)

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Yo Andrew when are we gonna go back to the wastelands.
I'm ready when you are....well not this weekend cus its the paintball expo
Besides that remember the question about Jerusalem crickets....
The are NOT communal.
LMK.
-.Raul

P.S FTorres want to go too that would be cool.

 

If anyone wants to swap for some northern bugs let me know. J crix are pretty cool. They should be just emerging from their winter burrows by now.
I think that centipede was similar to the one in your pic. It was the first one I saw around here. Usually I just find the little red ones when I'm bug hunting.

 

cacoseraph if you eve come across another one of the horned lizards i would be more than happy to take it off your hands

 

They are notoriously hard to keep in captivity due to their specialized diet. This is one animal that is almost certainly best left in the wild.

With respect to the velvet mites, I've found some nice sized ones in some very dry environments. They burrow down until it rains, at which point you can hardly keep from tripping over them. We found them walking around Organ Pipe, for example, a while after a thunder storm but still over 100 degrees. Also near Nogales -- also after a thunder storm, but on soil that looked completely parched again.

Cheers,
Dave

 

Dial up, oh the pain. It was worth the wait. Still wasn't able to see all the pics. Looks like it was a fun hunt man! That roach was pretty cool, as well as all the other stuff. When I was a teenager, I used to think the horned lizards squirting blood out of the corner of the eyes was a myth, until it happened to me. Pretty unusual lizards.

 

Bug Hunting

Hello Caco,
How was the bug hunt???
What did you guys get?
Ft

 

Wastelands my a**, all I came home with was this can of joint juice (very warm but still surprisingly tasty), an old piece of doll furnature, 3 nasty good for nothing stink bugs and what looks to be signs of heavy gangbanger activity.











...
Actually in more ways in one, this sums up the wasteland if one could actually sum up that disaster area. Though rooting round the wasteland hardened my hatred for the human race, I got to admit, a lot of herps/inverts dig our sh!t! ance:

Had a blast and found some great stuff!

Highlight scores of the day have to include finding a very rare hesp "morph" in cacoseraph's room ( Cant wait to show it off) and these...









Actually, the Eleodes are pretty cool ...and so far even with all the handling, they have not made my life miserable.



More pics to come...

 

it was some awsome fun there,ill definately be at the next trip exstravaganza,
took home alot of cool pedes,and thanks again for the spiders steve.



ps:thats my couch! lol!,the bugs look great on it.

 

dont forget the bums,...but we didnt take any of them home.

 

Ok...if your trying to open this thread with dial-up and now its finally loaded...and your p!sssed... well, time to get a faster connection!

No problem regarding the spiders ..infact i was thrilled that you guys actually gave a hoot about them!
Yep, thats your couch. {D I think those are your stink bugs too ...I can send them to ya if you want them ...


All my pics are post adventure because I didnt lug my camera along. The camera would have ruined this hunt for me as it has done many times in the past. If I had a very specific shoot or two planned, then it would have been fine, but we were all over doing all kinds of fun stuff. Anyway... just glad I wasnt looking at the world that day thru my lens ...and glad that I didnt have an expensive piece of equipment strapped around me preventing me from making subconcious decisions to jump into places like pools of slimy green water.

Speaking of slimy pools ... I do plan on going back very soon to take much more time to study, document and hunt those river pools. I am also curious if there are more higher up ...even if not, at least my fat arse well get a good workout.

Ok... where to start...
hmmmmm
The usual suspect...
There was an overly healthy population of hesperus living amongst the garbage. I probably looked at/played with ...eh..maybe 30 or so and they all were of the jet black/no dorsal markings flavor... average size to fairly huge. Maybe some evidence of adaption to the harsher more dangerous environment, but I was a bit disappointed not to find more fully split and partial hourglass babes. BUT, cacoseraph made sure that I didnt go home empty handed in that dept... infact the wasteland babe he gave me (from his last hunt) has already forced me to rethink my hesperus breeding plans. Ill post those pics too, just need to look at the results of her photoshoot and get some uploaded.
But, first the usual suspect... nothing unusual about this girl, but her genes will strengthen my local(immediate) population.


I collected a few younger hesps also ...very black for their size.
But... check this wasteland stud out...





Cross a labrador retriever with a circus boxing kangaroo ...now build your spider around that kernel. Make sure it has Arnold "arms" that can do sync round punches with pneumatic hammer speed and power. I love this spider. Andrew pulled it from some garbage, but I didnt see its lair. If these could grow to ..eh..lets say legspan of 1.5 ft you'd see a significant reduction in the wasteland scary dog population.
She was extremely crabby to hold, but mostly just hard warning blows and HIGHLY controlled love bites. Makes sense... being that Kukulcania sp are known communals.






...speaking of those wasteland dogs... remember these guys?


I nice beetle found along the riverbank up in the hills. (BTW... Im just a wannabe dork ...so feel free to help with any IDs )


Crazy stone beetles found in the same area...




Along the river there were two obvious species of wolf(like) speed demons. This one may be a fisher ...that was what we called it that day anyway.






One of the pool residents. Died on me already.
Looks like Ill be getting wet again ...I just need to be careful, cause Ill end up with a bunch of aquariums if I let myself.


Along the river wash in the hills, we found some great stuff, but one needs to look a bit harder and be prepared to move much faster with complete disregard for the pain inflicted by pissed off creatures.
I think Im the only one to get lucky and find a scolopocryptop. (another creature I'd have never found if it wasnt for our excellent guide)
Tried to take some shots that will show its features ...cacoseraph could give us pede newbies all the kinky facts ...





Hey... wheres the eyes? B)

This tail can grab, but its but a tickle compared to the power grab of a tiger...


This one tagged my twice on the finger when I caught it. It left a nice bubble of venom on the surface of the wound... twirl and kill wiped it off while I was busy dealing with the little f'r. Finger went numb within minutes with minor swelling that lasted thru the next day. Actually I had a lot of problems with my finger on sunday and yesterday. Felt like someone turning cable-tighteners attached to my tendons. Tried to rub the stiffness out, but that made the swelling and pain triple in intensity. Im not much of a piano player, but for a moment or two, I was actually starting to ponder the possibility that it may actually get worse. Luckily not the case.
Besides according to cacoseraph's research, centipede venom is actually good for you and probably should be injected daily. <_<
Anyway...not much of a gory wound shot, but you can see two point scoring blows. Cant wait til this lovely pede gets bigger!


We found some nice tigers along the wash too. Scolopendra polymorpha(?) Twirl and kill found a monster way up on a steep, soft bank (more like cliff )
I found one small one. Hurt its tail during capture (it returned the favor with multiple bites) and then I guess I ripped its tail even more during transfer on sunday. Didnt realize it until I spotted the severed part laying on another project on my workbench. Pisses me off because I wasnt even aware of the f-up.
Shes not available for photos ...just food, water and undisturbed RnR.


Nice big tiger I found in the wasteland under a smashed couch. It actually cought ME when I was digging for it as it ran deeper into the trash. Im not fearful of these tigers because I had one before and its bite caused a bit of swelling but thats about it. On this trip I grabbed three of these and two tagged me... with no mentionable symptoms besides uncontrollable laughter intermixed with yells of "ouch!".
Great pede, but completely animated and infuriated ...just a quick "open the cup and shoot the pic" shot for now.


I'm a puss when it comes to scorps though.
I caught one using the "scoop it up with plenty dirt under it" method.
Cant remember cacos ID of this one was. Info was in constant flow, but my brain was barely able to stay afloat.





Stenopelmatus fuscus? Jerusalem cricket or whatever ya call it ...I call it a potentially interesting latro hunt photoshoot... cute little bugger though..





A really nice geophilomorpha from a pile of Christmas decorations...
Infact if you're wondering where Christmas went to... it was smashed to pieces and dumped into caco's wasteland. I was right all along, but never could prove it until now. h34r:








These true spidie sacs were everywhere ...may be the big grass spider cacoseraph mentioned. Maybe they'll hatch and we will find out.



Interesting spider... this one I found while it was feeding on what looks to be a male hesperus...








We actually hunted 4 different areas including a huge mountain run off river bed, a road side area, the large wasteland and a very small and unique niche which I will call an interior wasteland. ....
Cacoseraph's room had a major problem with a large number of introduced species. I think there was a bed in there too and maybe stuff like a stereo and a phone, but I couldnt tell.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for this amazing hesp ...something Ive seen once, but wasnt into keeping widows at the time ...and I have been searching for her ever since! B)

If all that you're into is pretty orange flames, stripes and spots, then this one will bore the crap out of you...




A non-native specie of scorp found in Cacoseraph's room...





Hes very crabby. Clawing like a crawfish out of water and wont stay still for more than a few seconds. :wub:
Ill probably hit you up for some good care info for him asap.

Anyway, there was more, but this the majority of the cool stuff I came away with.

Had a blast... hoping to do it again and soon. B)

 

I love checking out your trips on here guys. Feel free to post as many trips as you take! If only I lived a few thousand miles closer, I'd be there every step of the way!

 

wow,awsome photos of all that cool stuffs,caco let us know of the next trip soon!

 

yep,i work this sunday,let me know when you got a saturday hike coming.!

 

Ok, I'm hopping a plane for y'all's next outing.....:drool:

Love this spider

 

Seriously ...get on that plane next time round.

The Kukulcania is definately a cool spider. I hope she gives me a sac.
I have a nice big K.hybernalis... if I can get her out of her enclosure, I am going to see how she handles. Never thought of doing so (not usually my priority) until I played around with this one.