Catching Calisoga

cacoseraph · Catching Calisoga

i told someone i would make a write up on my experiences catching Calisoga but have been DREADFUL about making good. i thought i would do a basic write up here and then streamline comments and discussion into it to make a nice finished product with more than my sometimes myopic viewpoint Smile

Catching Calisoga
A summary of catching Calisoga longitarsus. C. theveneti is mentioned incidentally in parts of this text.

What are Calisoga?
Calisoga is a genus of spiders ( Order Araneae ), so they have 8 legs, 2 leglike pedipalps, fangs, make webs, and are carnivores. They are mygalomorph spiders (Infraorder Mygalomorphae) so their fangs are oriented in a more parallel fashion, they have four book lungs, and tend to take years to develop to maturity (especially for females). They are Nemesiidae (family Nemesiidae ) which means they are somewhat similar to tarantulas (family Theraphosidae) but lack the sticky pads on their feet ( scopulae ) that tarantulas possess.

What do Calisoga look like?
Mature Calisoga females probably do not exceed 4"/10cm diagonal leg span very often, if at all. A 3" DLS is a much more reasonable estimation and expectation. Mature males can be much more leggy than females, but don't achieve much more DLS, if at all. The two species known to the hobby (C. longitarus and C. theveneti) both start to exhibit metallic coloration at around half grown size. When mature, both species (and both sexes!) show extreme metallic coloration in the right light. C. longitarsus is a somewhat drab brown color with only metallic hints in most light, but is liquid silver with the correct light. ( see a mature female (left) and male (right) here --> http://i21.photobucket.com/albums...ga_longitarsus_mating2008_05_.jpg) Mature C. theveneti are a black color in most light, with just a hint of metallic green-blue. Unfortunately, normally a flash does not call out their most intense colors, which are only visible in *some* sunlight. In the right light they are a complex black overlaid with metallic blue-green. (see a poor picture, but my best color capture here --> http://i21.photobucket.com/albums...eraph/mygla/calisoga/DSCN5012.jpg )

Where do Calisoga live? (range)
Calisoga is a USA genus, known through out central to northern parts of California, southern Oregon, and small parts of Nevada near Lake Tahoe. A cludged range map for C. longitarsus can be found here http://scabies.myfreeforum.org/vi...p?component=gallery&id=203656 . C. theveneti are known from Humboldt and Mariposa counties.

Where do Calisoga live? (habitat)
Female and immature Calisoga longitarsus can be found in a wide range of habitats. They do seem to tend to colonize areas that do not become dreadfully dry during summer months... but they don't seem to like places that are soaked, either. Any easy place to find them is road cuts. Burrows can be found on the range from very nearly vertical to absolutely horizontal ground. Burrows found on horizontal ground tend to angle downwards fairly sharply and can involve moving quite a bit of dirt with quite a bit of effort. Burrows found on more vertical surfaces tend to be more horizontally oriented and are sometimes easier to dig out. Burrows can be found in grass growing on relatively rock free soil in more dry areas. Burrows can be found in rocky, moss covered soil in more moist areas. The main problem i had in catching burrowing longitarsus was that the areas they were found in also had a lot of rodent burrows. Calisoga burrow entrances are almost perfectly circular, tend to be less than ~2" in diameter, and lack evidence of external webbing.... and so do rodent burrows. The best rule i could come up with is that if you find seed pods and plant material in the burrow you are exploring it is probably not going to have a longi in it. Speaking of webbing... longi use a minimum of it. Even when digging them out i can't really remember a lot of webbing, as when digging up most of the other non-tara myg species i am familiar with. Some of the longis i recovered from burrows were 2-3 feet back! Happily, not all of this distance is directly orthogonal from the surface. That is, their burrows don't usually go straight back from the surface. The longer burrows tended to parallel the surface at various, generall shallow, depths. It seems likely to me that at least some of these longer burrows were part or wholesale "reclaimed" from rodent excavations and this is why it is so darned hard to tell them apart sometimes!

However, not all the longitarsus live in these kind of burrows. Some of the longitarsus were found directly under various surface and embedded structures. We found them under: whole, semi-embedded logs; deeply embedded knocked over tree stumps; largish, flattish rocks. When flipped over there really wasn't that much webbing that seemed to be laid down by the longi. I might have missed some webbing when flipping, but there are spiders where it is HARD to miss the webbing, no matter what you do. They are similar to the Mecicobothriidae species i have found twice before, which was found under structure and had only a few hammock/mat style

Whether in an earthen burrow or under structure, they do NOT make any kind of doors or other burrow entrance structures. Rather, i have never seen anything. Further, there is rarely any obvious evidence the hole is even lived in by a spider.

When you find a Calisoga...
When you find a Calisoga have a care... they are full of vinegar and moxie. I have seen them captured by hand, using a restrained hold between legs II and III... but you have to be deft and have a sure hand or they will power out of your hold and possibly bite you. The venom is not hideous sounding... but you notice it, for sure! I personally used tools, as did my companions most of the time. Individuals don't always throw attitude, but i recall it as often as not... and some positively drip venom at you!

n.b. (important notes)
1) the specimens claimed as Calisoga in the scabies "collection" have not been conclusively keyed out. there is a chance that we are wrong about the ID, but i rate our genus ID strength as better than 90%
2) some taxo info pulled from www.bugguide.net
3) the initial info posted by cacoseraph is from memory and conclusions and what seemed to be the situation. in no way is it guaranteed =P

balam

Digging tools: Check

Flashlight: Check

"Catching Calisoga" write-up: Check

Ok, so when are we heading up north again? . ..