Nor Cal Trap doors (with Cody )

Ricky Ortiz84 · Nor Cal Trap doors (with Cody )

Well today Cody, Traci, and I went out to a super secret location..... so dont ask

And went looking for local trap doors it started off slow mainly I think due to the fact we were not entirely sure on what we were looking for but once we found the first one it was cake finding the rest.
Here are some old not occupied burrows we found

After Cody dug those up with no luck I found a nice looking one that had what looked like a solid mud lid on the opening I guess they use this to prepare for winter I'm guessing, and I started my dig and these guys have some really really deep burrows and the ground is pretty hard this time of year lol anyways after some digging I managed to tease the mom to the top of the burrow and then she darted back down then babies started coming out and we all got excited.
a shot of Cody taking over getting the mom out.

Here is mom

and a baby you can really see the chevron pattern on the abdomen.

we also found a couple smaler ones the one that is on the carpet bit Cody lol.

Cody also spoted this really cool little guy no one wanted to hold it though lol

Cody thanks for comming over and hanging out with me I had a blast cant wait till spring maybe it'll be alot easier to find their burrows when there not all closed in for winter!!
here are a couple of Codys cool centipedes!

BayLee

Great outing.
WOW, what is that red fuzzy thing?
Cool looking!

CodeWilster

Jeez Ricky you got those pics up quick!!!

Thanks for everything I had a great time. I'll post the terrible pics I took with my video camera in my trapdoor thread probably on tuesday, once I get my last habitat visit uploaded and posted.

BTW, my hand is all better! :)

EdgarOrtega

Great outing and post, Ricky. Looks like you guys had fun. Sorry, I could not make it.

Lony, that fuzzy red thing is a velvet ant, or "cow killer".

BayLee

That is what came to mind first but I did not want to assume

CodeWilster

It was interesting to note that it was red in front and back as well, most I've ever seen are only red on the abdomen. Diff species? Diff sex, maybe?

BayLee

Could very well be.

CodeWilster

We did miss you Edgar! Next time, right?

Oh and for those who care, that species of trapdoor (folding-door, technically) is Promyrmekiaphila sp. MOST LIKELY P. clathrata but I will take a look at them with my scope and compare features to my species descriptions and the whole shabang soon for a concrete ID :)

Oh and Ricky I love that shot of the polymorpha!

Ricky Ortiz84

EdgarOrtega

Edgar in a hole.. thats funny on a number of different levels. :laugh:

Ortega Spiders are the best!

CodeWilster

Still working on the pics but here is that last video Traci took of when we finally got that gal outa there! What an awesome day and experience...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elOBGFbxbVs