Arizona trip 2015

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yen_saw

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Has been a while since my last trip to AZ. 4 yrs to be exact. Summer is almost over and with free time in hand I decided to go back and enjoy Arizona nature. My wife decided to join me as well. We were there for about 5 days but didn't spend as much time out in the wood as I was hoping for. I was not hoping to see too many mantis due to the previous years of drought, but apparently it has been wet near the border in Southeastern AZ. So here we go.........

Arriving late in Tucson........

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Familiar plant in AZ........

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Cool art at car renting company

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We started to drive towards the town of Arivaca. There were some very large grasshoppers crossing the highway, mainly the western horse lubber grasshopper which is a common sight around this time of the year, but there were also this grasshoppers of equal size around.

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Stopped by road side observing all the lubber crossing was pretty neat. I started to sweet around high grasses along the side of the highway but only found some grasshoppers and spiders of all sizes. This is a pair of nice looking spider in my sweeping net.

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Couldn't find any mantis so we continued to drive towards the town of Arivaca and stopped by a large field. The first mantis we saw was an adult female Bactromantis mexicanus.

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The area was very 'buggy'. I would walk on the side of the pavement and bugs of all kind will go scrambling out. Including this Litanuetria minor that 'escaped' to the pavement.

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The first adult male mantis spotted was a Stagmomantis limbata....... Can you see him on this pic?

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The most abundant species surprisingly was the pointy eye Yersiniops sphodronica. They could be easily mistaken as small katydid out in the field with those long hind legs. Adult male is very 'jumpy' and appear to be easier to spot than the female. I collected couple of females and feed them cricket which surprisingly happily being hand fed, despite their nervous nature.

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To be continue...............

 
Really cool pics... Love the eyes of the last pic... thanks for sharing... looking forward to updates!

 
So the first day wasn't so bad. Saw the following mantis

- Bactromantis mexicanus, F

- Stagmomantis limbata, M

- Yersiniops sp., M/F

- Litanuetria minor, F

The second day we decided to meet up with two bug friends at Sycamore Canyon Campground, which is very close to Pena Blanca Lake close to Mexico border. The first mantis noticed at the campground was a nice looking female Stagmomantis californica.

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A rattle snake was spotted at the campground.

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We started our trip to Sycamore Canyon, which was pretty rough and uphill.

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Reaching the canyon after driving for 8 miles with a speed of less than 20 mi/hr

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The first mantis we saw at the canyon was a very unfortunate Yersiniops sp., taken by a large spider while still inside the butterfly net. I let the spider go to finish the meal.

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There were plenty of S. limbata male flying when disturbed by butterfly net sweeping, took me a while to spot the first female.

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Another S limbata female spotted

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There are also other venomous critters too......

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My wife holding a Arizona vine snake. Apparently this is the only type of vine snake in the US.

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Apparently that is a pretty popular location for herpers and bug hunters, meet a few more people there

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Before leaving the canyon, we stopped by Pena Blanca Lake, which is 4,000 ft above sea level.

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The last mantis was another female S. californica, it was half way between the canyon and campground.

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So didn't see as many mantis as on the second day

- S. californica, F

- S. limbata, F/M

- Yersiniops sp, M/F

To be continue......

 
What kind of habitat was the Scolopendra heros found in? Was it near a body of water or somewhere moist? Just wondering so I'll have an idea of where to look if I go to arizona.

Sad that the grasshopper mantis got eaten but that's a cool lynx spider.

 
What kind of habitat was the Scolopendra heros found in? Was it near a body of water or somewhere moist? Just wondering so I'll have an idea of where to look if I go to arizona.

Sad that the grasshopper mantis got eaten but that's a cool lynx spider.
I have seen them hiding underneath log or rock. They appear to be active at night or during cloudy day. I don't remember seeing river or pond anywhere closeby they probably get their water source from prey or morning dew.

 
Madera Canyon is my favorite spot for mantis. I can always see some mantis there. So that is where we went on the third day.

Surprisingly the first thing I found was an ooth. Fresh too. Still light in color.

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This mantis was found near by on short grass

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An adult female ground mantis

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Nice looking cactus long horn beetle

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I never seen this sign before.... but it was 2011 the last time I was here. I ended up found some Yersiniops and Litanuetria there.

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The AZ jumping mantis is pretty tough to spot due to the small size and slender shape, and the fact that this area is exploded with tons of grasshoppers didn't help.

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There were also plenty of adult male Stagmomantis sp.

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But sometimes i can see small Stagmomantis nymphs..... wonder if these ever get a chance to reach adult before winter

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Beautiful cactus flower

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Bactromantis mexicanus? with beautiful marking..... found near a fallen tree bark

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There were also plenty of fast running lizard, probably feed on all kind of insects found in this area, including mantis.

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Colorful velvet ant

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Half way on Madera Canyon and i had a flat tire....bummer.

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Got a new car.... but lost half a day and missed out the trip to Florida Canyon

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Get my energy back hehe

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Went back to hotel to and check out some of the insect collected

Aphaenogaster queen?

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Wolf spider with babies!

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Feeding time

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Mating time too

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Nice trip, looks like a insect hunters paradise. :D Peter says he has great luck in Arizona too finding nearly everything. Might have to plan a road trip when I can to Arizona, that way I can drive all the mantids back home.

I'm curious how many did you end up taking back with you? At least it looks like you have plenty for new populations of several species.
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