Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 12:25 pm Post subject: Vegas in December
Decided to consolidate my images of what I collected in Vegas here.
It was cold ...reaching freezing at night. Everything was hunkered down under rocks and whatnot. Most of my searching was in my friends yard and in a couple close by empty development lots (bulldozed scrub with enough cement chunks, rock, garbage, old plywood, etc. to look under). I also searched an area north of town towards redrock area. We visted redrock canyon but I did not collect there.
Spotted TONS of loxo molts...everywhere. I would guess in late spring/summer, the city is loxo heaven.
(Note: I was quick to ID the molts as loxos, but I suppose some may be final molts of kuk males.)
I suspect that these are Loxosceles deserta
cute little loxo teen action...
anyway...too many pics, but this male was too cool. Must have taken a hundred shots of this guy running round...
Ok.. found a couple smallish kuks ...probably sub-adults. These were found within small drainage basins filled with rocks.
this is one...
the rest the other...
Collected some small kuk-like specimens. I thought they may be something else, but now with the images to look at, I THINK these are just young kuks.
The smallest and most different...
and some others...
A wolfy that I dug up while doing a little gardening in my friends yard...totally surprised me cause she came out of nowhere...
Steatoda...
Nice! NOT to run into S.grossa for a change! Its only a matter of time though ...those fat spider killers will move in eventually ...as long as they keep some water flowing into hell town.
But, under one of those stupid plastic rock-ish looking anti-freeze water line covers in my friends front yard I found this little intruder...
Most likely Steatoda triangulosa
She was hunkered down in a moist place. The valve has a leak allowing a good amount of H2O ..creating a little bio-dome.
Vegas is now reducing its water usage. They are encouraging home/business owners to rid themselves of lawns and sprinkler systems replacing it all with native plants and rocks. S.triangulosa will need to defend its ground around casino fountains or leave Vegas ...at least until the next ice-age changes things that is.
Native and much hardier Steatoda sp ...Steatoda medialis ??
another...
Maybe!! one of those "pumpkin" Steatoda I found out here in the "wasteland"...
A hesp I found north/west of Vegas ...in the wild away from mankind. Always enjoy seeing them out there struggling w/out mans comforts. Its almost a rare find.
Collected a couple groups of these ...had a good handfull, but they started to die ...now it seems all or most have died. Could have been a bad thing for these to be warmed up so suddenly ..maybe ??
Milli I found...
I collected three adults and a couple nymphs ...nice looking desert roaches...
ok..I think thats it. Not bad for maybe a couple hrs max of rock turning...winter in Vegas.
These kuks are young. The more pale one MAY be a male ...if theories stated by others are true.
The small kuk-like ones are the real mystery. I found a lot of them everywhere I looked. They ranged between small and smaller, but none were found that gave indication that they get bigger. So... maybe they are baby kuks, or maybe they are kuk-alikes. Food will tell the tale.
Quote:
the roaches look like htey might actually be Blatta lateralis, an invasive species that a lot of ppl use as feeders all over the world
Interesting. Hopefully I have enough (and both sexes) to get a colony going. I need some more easy to care for feeders.
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