Collecting experience in Texas and Arizona during early May

[PhilinYuma]

As always, Yen, your pix are a joy. I had forgotten how soft and verdant the desert is in Tucson is compared with Yuma! In that area, the holes in the ground, if they went out of site, were probably grasshopper mice holes. This far west they tend to be kangaroo rat holes. The trick is to see if they have any spider webs in the mouth, in which case they are abandoned (interesting that the Talmud and the Koran both tell a story about that). Although the ant nests close down around noon here, too, sometimes, as the shadows lengthen, I will see a "huge" shadow staggering slowly across the sidewalk. It is a tiny harvester with a huge chunk of leaf or a propeller seed pod, still wending his weary way homeward, long after his buddies settled down for siesta.

More pix please!

 

[yen_saw]

Good eyes Yen. I cound't see a thing.

Thanks Martin & Mantidlord.Here it is. Sorry the stick insect on the first pic was blurry.

As always, Yen, your pix are a joy. I had forgotten how soft and verdant the desert is in Tucson is compared with Yuma! In that area, the holes in the ground, if they went out of site, were probably grasshopper mice holes. This far west they tend to be kangaroo rat holes. The trick is to see if they have any spider webs in the mouth, in which case they are abandoned (interesting that the Talmud and the Koran both tell a story about that). Although the ant nests close down around noon here, too, sometimes, as the shadows lengthen, I will see a "huge" shadow staggering slowly across the sidewalk. It is a tiny harvester with a huge chunk of leaf or a propeller seed pod, still wending his weary way homeward, long after his buddies settled down for siesta.

More pix please!

Thanks Phil. It makes lot of sense now. Is kangaroo rat the same as ground squarrel commonly found around Tucson? there were plenty of them in the canyon so those holes could be from these. A few times i have mistaken them for lizard until closer look.

Continue to look for more mantis and found a few more. Including a Yersiniop mantis, which was found hiding underneath dried grasses.

Ground mantis are easier to capture as they sprint across the empty space.

Have a pic right where a ground mantis was located.

Sweeping the net through the grasses and found this subadult male ground mantis.

Motte must have spotted another ant nest....

The heat was getting unbearable so we head back to the car and spotted this huge catepillar on mesquite tree right underneath us.

Also spotted couple of hatched out Stagmomantis egg cases.

Checking in to the hotel... this is where we stayed.

 

[yen_saw]

Checking in the lobby.....

Decided to get a drink and cool down. Nice place.

West side of the hotel.... so Motte and I decided to get a look after drink.

Plenty of holes on the ground with web. Some holes has spider lurking on the entrance.

Spotted a huge ant nest. Looks like some kind of harvester ants.

Get a closer pic on them... kind of scary because the sting by one of these is very painful.

Motte digging up a small ant colony

It was about 1 pm and the heat is killing me, so we head back to the hotel.

There were plenty of rattle snake warning signs everywhere around the hotel compound.

(to be continue)

 

[Rick]

Great pics Yen. Snake signs were cool. Too many people are quick to kill any snake they see.

 

[yen_saw]

Great pics Yen. Snake signs were cool. Too many people are quick to kill any snake they see.

Thanks Rick. Yes unfortunately the rattlesnakes get kill often, as human starting to take over their habitat. The hotel is new and out there in the desert, but i didn't see any snake during my 2-day stay there.After avoiding the hot sunny day we decided to travel to Box Canyon in the late afternoon with our rented car - Ford Fushion.

As temperature drops, ants starting to come out again. Plenty of ant species but with the dry weather ant nuptial flight is nowhere in sight.

Motte trying to dig up rock underneath to check any possible new nest by the queen, but could find one. It was clearly very dry still in the canyon.

Took a pic at the Box Canyon entrance before sunset.

Temperature drop quickly soon after sunset. In as little as half an hour the temperature went from 88F to 69F. Time to head back to the hotel.

Had our dinner in the hotel. Have to say food here in Tucson is reasonably inexpensive and good, half the price of what I usually get in Houston! Especially steak. I had Masala chicken while Motte had his favorite steak.

Sorry about sidetracking to the food! Since the hotel is also close to one of the 'hot spots' recommended by Dr. Yager for Yersiniops and Litanuetria. We decided to travel to a small town 25 miles South of Green Ville called Arivaca the next morning.

Spotted a cool restaurant right before the entrance to Arivaca rd.

 

[yen_saw]

Along the way to Arivaca, grasses are much greener than the Madera or Box Canyon which probably means this area might have been wetter or closer to water source.

Stopped by half way to check out for bugs. And spotted a huge fast moving darkling bug. I have heard these are capable of emitting some stink odor when disturbed so i left the beetle alone.

The sky is still cloudless and temperature raising fast in the morning.

There were plenty of great locations for witnessing nuptial flights in the wet season as we could find lot of different ant species along the route. After about 40 minutes of driving we finally arrived at this small town.

I found an empty lot directly opposite of the building on previous pic. Almost instantly saw an egg case on a small tree.

Get to 'work' immediately starting to check out bugs. Motte already down there looking for ants.

 

[yen_saw]

As it is still early in May, i expect any mantis to be real small. So i basically have to glue my face to the ground to have any chance of finding them. But this place is full of mantis! Soon i spotted one....

it is probably easier to find the ground mantis from the following pic (same mantis - different angle). They do blend into the surrounding well. The only time I can see the mantis is when they move. Ground mantis will make a short sprint and stop completely, not moving again until you get real close to them. So it is really easy to lose sight of it, especially under thick bush.

The ground mantis are really active during mid-day, that makes them easy to spot but not as easy to capture. HOwever, there were plenty of them so i must have caught about 20 in just one hour, but i have also lost at least as many during that hour.

We took a break from the hot sun from 1-5 pm and went back again to this 'hot spot' for another run. This time Motte join me for the hunt. I guess the 'hunting fever' caught us and both of us must have caught about 70 mantis in that late afternoon. Most of the ground mantis and about 6 Yersiniops sp. probably sophronica.

Catching the mantis in late afternoon is just the opposite of during mid-day when it was much hotter. Mantis is less active in the cooler temperature so they move less often unless you get very close to them. But once the mantis is spotted, there is a great chance it will be bagged as compare to the afternoon where the ground mantis will actively moving to avoid capture. That area muct have hunderds of ground mantis! MOst of them in early stage.

We passed by another 'hot-spot' recommended by Dr. Yager, Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, but decided to skip it.

The entire Arivaca rd. is heavily patrolled by border patrol, i reckon this must be a popular smuggling line... either drugs or illegal human trafficking activities. We were stopped by border patrol cars twice along the route..... gezzzzz. The sun-burn must have making me look like one of the illegal immigrant!

Man.... i still have load of pictures to upload... stay tune.

 

[revmdn]

Wish I was there.

 

[ismart]

Wish I was there.

Me too!

 

[pohchunyee]

Ha Yen,

You are not alone. I have been misidentified as Mexican 2X myself. Especially during summer time when I get real tan.

 

[yen_saw]

Ha Yen,

You are not alone. I have been misidentified as Mexican 2X myself. Especially during summer time when I get real tan.

Hey Chun, yeah the border patrol officers are just doing their job but guess i do look like one of the 'coyote' haha! We were there during the midst of the new unpopular immigration law in Arizona actually but they just let us go after showing them my butterfly net and Texas driving license. :lol:

Sorry i have been gluing to my chair/bed watching World Cup he he

The next morning we were ready to check out. Went for breakfast before leaving to another hotel at Catalina foothill. Had a chance to take the photo on the golf course which is on the East side of the hotel. Man i need the new Sony Isweep panorama shot haha.

After checking out we met a garderner who was telling us that during July when it rains, this hotel will be full of bugs crawling around. He took a pic for me and Motte at the entrance of the hotel block we stayed. I found a sun spider right outside the door.

After settling in the Best Western Inn which took a while because of the graduation day for University of Arizona (students celebrate in hotel after college graduation nowadays?). I have the honor to meet up with a very knowledgable fellow member here, Mike! He wore ant shirt so i could spot him easier haha! We went to Sabino Canyon the same time.

The park is beautiful....

The first animal spotted was a ground squarrel!

and they don't seem to be afraid of the us

Mike spotted a move group of ants with queen ant. So get his aspirator to work

haha got the queen

(to continue)

 

[revmdn]

You should grab a ground squirel.

 

[yen_saw]

You should grab a ground squirel.

I did not, but I saw a dog got them, not in the park though (no pet allow in Sabino Canyon), will post the little drama later........Moving along, Mike spotted an ooth.

Sure enough it has hatched out before. Probably just a month ago.

All the giant cactus around the canyon are good size. this is is probably 100-yr old.

Deeper in the canyon there are plenty of those huge cactus

Just one of the trails into the canyon. Spotted a quail on the far left

Closer look at the quail, colorful....

We only spend an hour and the sun set pretty fast

Well, we didn't see much but the dinner at Village Inn was good... right Mike?

 

[yen_saw]

The next morning, we went to Aravaipa Canyon. This time we have the honor of having another 2 insect field heavy weight coming along. This pic was taken at the end of the trip but thought it is good to introduce them up front. The person on my left is the popular figure in bug guide, Eric Eaton, who is the principal author for the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America. A wonderful and soft spoken guy. The person in the center is Dr. Margarethe Brummermann, who is currently working on Arizona beetle guide, and is also the lead for this trip. Of course, it wouldn't be fun without Mike joining the group

Aravaipa Canyon is a good 1 and half hour drive north of Tucson. Right before we reached the canyon, there was a snake spotted crossing the road. By the time we get down, Margarethe has already shoo the snake to the edge of the road.

It was a gopher snake according to Margarethe.

The snake is making a move towards Eric who was busy setting up his camera to shoot the snake.....

and before he knows.... the snake went underneath his feet!!

and sure enough the snake went up to Eric's pant!!!! guess the snake found a cool spot :lol: By now Eric is getting panic.....

Mike come to the rescue.... he is the hero

Well after that little drama i bet Eric doesn't wanna see anymore snake.... the snake found a 'natural' cool spot finally.

So we finally arrived at Aravaipa Canyon

This is the downstream of Aravaipa Creek. Always good to see water source, although it was still pretty dry on land.

(To continue)

 

[Rick]

Good haul with all the mantids Yen. Love that pic of the big cacti from a distance. I need to get out there someday. Would like to go looking for things somewhere new for a change.

 

[yen_saw]

Good haul with all the mantids Yen. Love that pic of the big cacti from a distance. I need to get out there someday. Would like to go looking for things somewhere new for a change.

Thanks. The mantis habitat is quite different from the one in Texas.The collecting method for Margarethe is by beating the bush wih stick and check the beat sheet for fallen insects

Saw a robber fly on the branch

One lucky robber fly got a fly!

Mike working on his aspirator again

Ha... must be the roach day huh Mike!

Spotted a dead bird

Flipped over the bird and found a colony of ant underneath it. By now everyone is taking a peep on it

Near the river, plants are geener, and easier to find bugs too.

THere are at least 4 different type of beetles on Margrethe's beat sheet.

Some of the beetles are posted on Margarehe's blog too

http://arizonabeetlesbugsbirdsandmore.blogspot.com/2010/05/aravaipa-canyon.html

(To continue)

 

[yen_saw]

Just upload some more pics....

Eric seems to have lot of fun checking the bugs around the creek

Not letting Eric have all the fun, i joinned in. The river is full of little fish.

Motte spotted something worth a pic.... wonder what was it.

It was a spider.

Some of us trying to flip over a wood trunk

Found couple of click beetle larvae

Due to the dry weather, insects usually concentrate around or close to the area with higher moisture, which include a fresh cow dung. Margarethe found some beetles in there.

Ant colony can be found in some dry cow dung too.

Even scorpian preferred to hide underneath it.

(next: more from Aravaipa Canyon)

 

[hibiscusmile]

It was like watching a movie, thanks Yen, I needed the break, and the little leaf guy is so cute!

 

[yen_saw]

It was like watching a movie, thanks Yen, I needed the break, and the little leaf guy is so cute!

Sorry Rebecca i know it is like a soup opera i have been slow to upload the pics since World Cup began Promise to finish up sooner.There were some moths and butterflies but not too many

Mike found an empty egg case o Stagmomantis sp. So mantis are actually wide spread in this region, just that we can't find them this early.

Saw a large funnel web, Eric trying to lure the spider out by touching the web with a stick

and there come the spider checking out what's up...

We found a dead cow, another great place to check out for beetle and its larvae

A sourvenier for me...

We move onto different spots along the Canyon, nice scenery.

 

[yen_saw]

There are some nice looking lizard too in the canyon.

The view of Catalina foothill sunset on the way back to Tucson after leaving Aravaipa Canyon

Back to the hotel, Motte busy downloading the pictures, and that was my last pic before i 'passed out' on my bed for an hour.

We were flying back to Houston the next day afternoon but couldn't resist the invitation from Margarethe so we decided to make a quick visit to Margarethe's home in the morning. Her house is just next to the beautiful Sagaro National Park. Here is the entrance to her place

We were greeted by 5 friendly dogs

I spotted something moving on the pebble path to the garden. Oh my god it is a horned toad!!! I have always want to see them in the wild....finally.

I have seen in the documentary that this lizard is capable of squirting red blood liquid at approaching enemy when threatened.

Very cool looking lizard. Glad to see this.

(to continue)