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Post by ambrysus on Jul 28, 2012 12:55:58 GMT -8
I will be collecting next week at Lordsburg and Willcox Playas and several places in the Chiricahuas. I will be camping with Hg Vapor and blacklights. Anyone have any tips for collecting around Barfoot Park or on the playas?
Mostly interested in beetles and hemipteran
Thanks.
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evra
Full Member
Posts: 230
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Post by evra on Jul 28, 2012 14:38:41 GMT -8
The Chiricahuas burned last year. As of earlier this month, Rustler Park is kind of closed. You can hike in, but they won't let you camp there. Barfoot Park burned as well, but not nearly as badly. I still don't know how good the beetles are going to be up there though. Upper Pinery Canyon near Onion Saddle got totally wiped out. There are patches in the middle and lower part of Pinery that are still OK. This year has been pretty decent for Chrysinas, but not very good for most other beetles. Look on Desert Broom (Baccharis sarathroides) for Hemipterans. What specifically are you looking for?
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Post by ambrysus on Jul 28, 2012 15:03:24 GMT -8
Well, I specifically hope to find Carabidae (Calosoma, Chlaenius, Brachinus). Tiger Beetles, hence the playas. Surprisingly I could find NO info on tiger beetles at Lordsburg Playa, since Willcox Playa has 17 or 18 tiger beetles reported, you would think a very large playa 50 miles west would be collected also. I also collect scarabs, longhorns, buprestidae, erotylidae, endomychidae, and weevils.
Hemipterans I collect include reduviidae, pentatomidae, coreidae.
I have a vast collection of aquatic and semi-aquatic Coleoptera and Hemiptera. Really would like to find Rhagovelia varipes (Veliidae).
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evra
Full Member
Posts: 230
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Post by evra on Jul 28, 2012 15:31:12 GMT -8
People don't seem to collect in SW New Mexico much. That whole area is in a transitional zone between Chihuahuan and Sonoran desert, and at least for Lepidoptera, there is a huge difference once you go from one desert to another.
The tiger beetles on Willcox Playa come to lights, but there's not real access to the playa by vehicle I don't think. There is a trail you can walk out on that's just north of Kansas Settlement.
Calosomas come to lights big time, but I think there's only about two species that I've ever seen.
There are all kinds of scarabs and longhorns in all different places. Some are nocturnal and come to lights, others are diurnal and come to sap or flowers.
The big coreids are easy to find like Thasus neocalifornicus and Acanthocephala thomasi, which rest on their respective host plants. I find other smaller ones on the sap of Desert Broom as well.
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Post by bandrow on Jul 29, 2012 5:57:54 GMT -8
Ambrysus,
Check out the area along Blue Sky Road south of Willcox. There are some nice wet areas after rains that have some nice tiger beetles, most of which will also come to lights, but some not. The area was great for carabids (i.e., Brachinus) in early August of 2001, but that's a decade ago!
I also took Carabus forreri under fallen slabs of ponderosa pine bark near Rustler's Park - around 9-10 a.m. on a rather damp morning. Drier conditions would certainly have driven them deeper. Also, check for them at night with a headlamp, and lay a trail of banana slices to improve your odds.
Cheers!
Bandrow
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Post by politula on Aug 2, 2012 5:50:49 GMT -8
At Willcox, take the dirt service road that goes along the railway track in town. Go west 5 miles and park. Walk down to the salt flat edge. If conditions are good you will find pimeriana and horni as well as more common species.
Also, go 25 miles SE of Willcox on hwy 186. Check the meadows on S side. If there has been rain, (wet around the grass clumps), there might be pulchra, obsoleta, horni, debilis and others.
It's all about the rain down there.
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