spent the late afternoon exploring a beautiful section of scrub, and it definitely did NOT disappoint! all around the area I saw numerous burrows belonging to anuroctonus, and aphonopelma, and thanks to my experiences with my eremobates, some tunnel systems of large solifugae. my main target was bothriocyrtum, and this area is loaded with them! the colors in this habitat are truly beautiful. rocks were everywhere, I flipped a few, but didn't want to damage the habitat, so I kept my focus on the trapdoors. this is one of the largest bothriocyrtum I've ever seen, beautiful! general area she came from. this places requires you to pay close attention to where you put your hands. poodle bush and thistles were everywhere. unreal geology! some portions made me do a double-take. I can't believe how colorful the soil itself was! I was only here for a couple of hours, basically a scouting mission, I'm definitely returning soon.
you and you're spiders! Damn. I'm not much for them but looks like a nice find. fyi, I didn't understand 75% of the words you said.
damn my man this is kind of like an interesting hobby and shit. like i would personally never ever spend a whole afternoon looking for shit like that but hey, to each his own brah. and that fucking spider? god that shit creeps me the fuck out man. but anyways, i'm happy for u since u liked all of that, i mean it. and i understand every word u said man, latin or english.
Bothriocyrtum, while pretty scary looking, is very docile. I actually tried to provoke a defensive bite, however she just wouldn't bite. I was surprised, considering that trapdoor spiders are generally mean little fuckers. Mostly, she would either play dead, or grip whatever she was standing on powerfully. They are very strong, I had to use considerable strength to open her door, she actually managed to force me off her door a few times! She took to captivity very quickly, generally these take up to a week to make a burrow after capture. My next target: aptostichus! This species is much different, and lives directly on the beaches of southern California. People here don't even realize they're stepping around huge spiders while barefoot. This genus is in serious trouble, thanks to destruction of beaches. The cities continually comb the sand and remove dune vegetation. As a result of careless development, many species in this genus are extinct. Whenever a pissant rich country club member gives you shit in California, let them know their club eradicated a whole species just to bitch about Jews.
Went back into the scrubland, and collected a 2" long (body length) Aphonopelma 'eutylenum-type', which is a problematic species, more data is needed. Whatever the case, these are very striking. I always liked Aphonopelma the most out of all tarantula genera. The vegetation here is beautiful, especially the white sage. I also collected a freezer bag full of this awesome clay-dominant sandstone which has been eroded into an attractive and stable substrate for T's, wind-scorpions, and trapdoor spiders, which you can see in the pics of my tarantula. Here's what their burrows look like: Uta stansburiana elegans were extremely common. Nearly every rock I flipped had one under it! They kept trying to hide under my foot , good thing I'm observant, another person would've smashed 'em good! I really enjoy this area, alot. When it gets hotter, the scorpions become more active.. I should be able to collect a few good ones!
Wow, I never knew there were such large spiders in so cal. Do those trapdoor spiders range all the way down to the southernmost portions of California? I recently discovered a population of regal horned lizards in a local preserve, which has me wondering what else might be in there.
would that red/orange mineral rich soil do anything for your herbs if you mixed a bit with your regular herb soil? and you need to keep this thread going. i really enjoy this stuff. im more familiar with black widows and brown recluses, here in south Texas. Edit: You would absolutelly love West/Southwest Texas!!
yes, bothriocyrtum ranges all the way down to Baja. They are kinda boring, though. Tarantulas are alot more active. Alot of Texas' invertebrates are also found in California. You can find the Texas brown tarantula in California, as well.