Lake Hemet: Invertebrates
I’m having a hell of an annoying time trying to find a decent set-up for this blog that will accommodate tables and photos. If you don’t have your browser window maximized, the photos will be all bunched up. I bought textbooks for the Pattern Making and French classes that I’m taking next week. Imagine the look on my face upon discovering that the French textbook cost $182. Unbelievable. Enough bitching…
In addition to being camp cook, I handled invertebrate collection by means of pitfall trap. Pitfall trap equates to nothing more than plastic cup sunk in a hole in the ground. It’s a cheap and convenient way to sample an area for neat creepy crawlies and other ground-dwelling creatures. A pitfall trap can be any size including five-gallon buckets that yield some really impressive animals like larger lizards and mammals. In this case we used plastic cups that someone scored from a convenience store.
Upon arrival on Monday we dug twenty holes in four different sites and inserted cups for a total of 80 traps. Each trap was checked every morning and representative animals assessed. The 1908 expedition didn’t bother with invertebrates so we don’t have any comparison data. I am hoping that on the next trip I’ll be able to do a little more with collection methods.
In addition to insects, we trapped scorpions, spiders and lizards. We were hoping for a shrew in one of the sites, but there are either no shrews or they’re too smart to blunder into our traps.
A ubiquitous beetle that we found in great numbers is this:
Eleodes in defensive posture
a darkling beetle of the family Tenebrionidae, species Eleodes. These beetles are found in desert settings throughout the western part of the US and are active most often at dusk and dawn. One would think that this crepuscular habit of foraging would be to their great disadvantage - a jet black beetle against a light-colored sandy background is quite conspicuous to the keen eyes of nocturnal predators.
When this beetle is disturbed, it assumes the defensive rear-up posture that you see pictured above and readies itself to unleash a rank cocktail of offensive chemicals. It’s foul-smelling and irritating defensive fluid is highly effective against most attackers, especially ants, and is composed of 1,4-benzoquinones, several hydrocarbons and caprylic acid. What is all this stuff, you ask. It doesn’t matter, but trust me when I say you don’t want to know. It positively reeks.
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- Eleodes in defensive posture
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- This species is capable of only a mild sting
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- Always look before you reach in! One of many scorpions.
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- aka toe biter
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- Prionus beetle
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- ten-lined june beetle, a type of scarab beetle, captured in bat mist net
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- full frontal of the ironclad beetle
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- Ironclad beetle. Elytra tough enough to bend needles
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- Darkling beetle, aka "stink beetle"
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- Some of these cups captured an abundance of carrion beetles. Neat!
This species is capable of only a mild sting
