desertanimal
Arachnoknight
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2011
- Messages
- 173
I used to live here, but now it's only that I occasionally have to go to Tucson to do some labwork that I get the opportunity to go desert herping. I was too busy in the lab to do any herping in Tucson, unfortunately. So this is all from my drive back up to Phoenix and in the Phoenix area.
Couch's spadefoot
spades!
Longnosed snake
red irises
for scale (pardon the pun)
Not the biggest Colorado river toad I've seen, but big enough.
Enough with the paparazzi!
Jackrabbits are so difficult to photograph. This was while driving, camera out the window, shooting blind.
Cow's tongue prickly pear.
---------- Post added 08-13-2012 at 10:35 AM ----------
Peter cottontail.
Landscape and my in-laws.
I think maybe this is a yellow ground scorpion? Vaejovis confusus?
Cool series. Taking photos of this guy . . .
. . . and it takes advantage of the insects that are attracted to the lights. Here's it's grabbing and stinging an insect.
Then it carries it off . . .
. . . and waits. Presumably for the little wasp to die?
After a little while, it pulls it to its mouth . . .
. . . and gets to eating.
Pretty neat, huh?
---------- Post added 08-13-2012 at 10:46 AM ----------
First tarantula of the night was uncooperative. Aphonopelma chalcodes, I presume.
Hadrurus arizonensis. At first, it ran around like crazy and stung my shoe with considerable leverage when I stopped it from running off the trail with my feet. After a few minutes under a tupperware, it calmed down and then wouldn't move for anything, making it a cooperative photo subject.
My fav scorpion picture of the night.
I was able to stop on this one's door before it got away.
It also took advantage of the insects drawn to the lights.
A lovely little Crotalus atrox, western diamondback.
Love its eyes.
It was very cooperative for this stage of photo-taking.
Until I tried to coax its tail out, and then it acted like the apocalypse was upon it.
And hid in a cane cholla. Deep, deep in a cane cholla.
Look at that nice tail! You can even see where the last row of caudal scales overlap the basal rattle.
You can't seeeee meeeeeeeeee!
---------- Post added 08-13-2012 at 10:56 AM ----------
Last tarantula of the night.
Another peter cottontail.
Kangaroo rat.
And a sphinx moth.
That's it so far, but I'm going out tonight and tomorrow night, too, so hopefully I'll have some more to add!
Couch's spadefoot
spades!
Longnosed snake
red irises
for scale (pardon the pun)
Not the biggest Colorado river toad I've seen, but big enough.
Enough with the paparazzi!
Jackrabbits are so difficult to photograph. This was while driving, camera out the window, shooting blind.
Cow's tongue prickly pear.
---------- Post added 08-13-2012 at 10:35 AM ----------
Peter cottontail.
Landscape and my in-laws.
I think maybe this is a yellow ground scorpion? Vaejovis confusus?
Cool series. Taking photos of this guy . . .
. . . and it takes advantage of the insects that are attracted to the lights. Here's it's grabbing and stinging an insect.
Then it carries it off . . .
. . . and waits. Presumably for the little wasp to die?
After a little while, it pulls it to its mouth . . .
. . . and gets to eating.
Pretty neat, huh?
---------- Post added 08-13-2012 at 10:46 AM ----------
First tarantula of the night was uncooperative. Aphonopelma chalcodes, I presume.
Hadrurus arizonensis. At first, it ran around like crazy and stung my shoe with considerable leverage when I stopped it from running off the trail with my feet. After a few minutes under a tupperware, it calmed down and then wouldn't move for anything, making it a cooperative photo subject.
My fav scorpion picture of the night.
I was able to stop on this one's door before it got away.
It also took advantage of the insects drawn to the lights.
A lovely little Crotalus atrox, western diamondback.
Love its eyes.
It was very cooperative for this stage of photo-taking.
Until I tried to coax its tail out, and then it acted like the apocalypse was upon it.
And hid in a cane cholla. Deep, deep in a cane cholla.
Look at that nice tail! You can even see where the last row of caudal scales overlap the basal rattle.
You can't seeeee meeeeeeeeee!
---------- Post added 08-13-2012 at 10:56 AM ----------
Last tarantula of the night.
Another peter cottontail.
Kangaroo rat.
And a sphinx moth.
That's it so far, but I'm going out tonight and tomorrow night, too, so hopefully I'll have some more to add!
Last edited: