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2009: 2008: 2007: 2006: 2005: 2004: 2002: | U.S.A. (California)2008 26 July–9 August, 2008:Funded by the REVSYS grant, the Global Survey and Inventory of Solifugae, and the AMNH. Collaborator Warren E. Savary (CAS) and student volunteer Zachary J. Valois (undergraduate, Salt Lake Community College) travelled 1,600 miles throughout southern California to collect vaejovid species needed for the REVSYS project. Extensive sampling occurred through varied biotic communities including coastal grasslands, chaparral and sage scrub, Mojave Desert scrub, Colorado Desert scrub, conifer/oak woodlands, and Great Basin conifer woodland. Valois flew from Utah to Oakland, California, to join Savary for the trip. During the fieldwork, Savary and Valois met with staff from the U.S. Geological Survey (San Diego County), the Irvine Ranch Conservancy (Orange County), Orange County Parks (Orange County), research staff from the San Diego Wild Animal Park (San Diego County) and the National Park Service (Ventura County), forging continued support and collaboration for the project. Photographs of the Santa Cruz Island endemic Pseudouroctonus minimus thompsoni were provided to the National Park Service for their use, and informal lectures on the biology of scorpions were provided toSanta Cruz Island visitors and resident NPS staff. The team spent a day at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, accompanied by the park ecologist and a USGS surveyor, where they collected numerous theraphosids, scorpions, and solpugids from USGS pitfall traps, again discussing scorpion biology and the fauna resident in their study area. They also spent an evening at the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, a protected area in heavily developed Orange County, accompanied by the conservancy’s head field ecologist, interns, and park rangers in search of Pseudouroctonus. Recent fires at that site have allowed non-native mustard grass to push out native vegetation, hindering the team’s efforts. Conservancy staff, however, expressed a keen interest in continuing with the search for additional specimens. A visit to the White Mountains and Owen’s Valley during the second week of the trip included a night in the field with naturalist Durham Giuliani. Mr. Guliani guided Savary and Valois to former pitfall trap sites where he had found material of interest to the team. Altogether, more than nineteen scorpion species, representing at least eleven genera, were collected during the trip. Significant taxa collected during the effort included the extremely rare Vaejovis spicatus, from the Little San Bernardino Mtns, the Channel Island endemic Pseudouroctonus minimus thompsoni, and an undescribed species of Paruroctonus. Specimens of Uroctonites montereus were collected from near the southern end of its range in the Santa Inez Mtns of Santa Barbara County, and a diverse array of specimens belonging to the Vaejovis confusus species group, the Paruroctonus boreus species group, and the genus Serradigitus were collected from several localities. | |
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