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| Site location |
Rod Crawford and I were finally able to join forces again, and also had the pleasure of Jerry Austin's company on this trip. After a productive first stop at
Lady Bug Canyon to help Rod round out a partial sample taken there decades earlier, we proceeded into the higher elevations of Wenas Valley until we found some accessible ponderosa pines (
Pinus ponderosa).
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| Sample site |
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| Fallen cone microhabitat |
The roadside pines here had dropped so many cones that before I knew it I'd tapped 111 of them. I collected 28 spiders and 5 species. Among them was a male specimen of a very rare, undescribed jumping spider from the genus
Habronattus (Salticidae), found only once previously in Washington. Present also was another state rarity,
Meioneta cf.
delphina (Linyphiidae). In contrast to these rarities, the "pine cone spider"
Euryopis formosa (Theridiidae) made up a full half of the sample.
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| The beautiful (and prickly) ponderosa pine cone |
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