Myrmekiaphila in the wild

Biollantefan54

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 3, 2012
Messages
2,254
I was in GA for a few days and it soon became apparent-Mrmekiaphila are EVERYWHERE. I probably seen at least 100+ of them, many of which were not even in the woods but just in the yard. I found a couple on the edge of the woods and the yard, man made trails by the house, rotting trees, the bases of trees, and of course, sloping banks. What was interesting to see was just how many different habitats they lived in! Rotting wood, hard clay, dirt/sand, etc, they don't seem very picky. Another cool thing I noticed was that if they lived on a bank, their burrows went horizontal instead of downward. Some also didn't even incorporate lids in their trap depending on what resources they had around them. It was extremely easy to find them....not so easy to catch them. Many of their burrows were in rock hard clay and it would be almost impossible to dig them out. Another reason was getting close enough to get them, if you didn't walk extremely gentle, they would dart to the bottom of their deep burrows. I did find out once they were startled, you could still lure them to the front of their burrow by 'tickling' it with something like grass or a pine needle. Any ways, here are some pics! :D



























 
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