Valley of Fire/Moapa area..Hour north of Las Vegas

[DAWNoftheLEO]

Saturday September 27th

1 hour North of Las Vegas
Near Moapa reservations and Valley of Fire.
3 Hour span

My girlfriend and a pal of mine (Xavier) went out last night.
Here is a list of life we saw.


4 Coleonyx ssp (3 collected)
8+ Tarantulas (1 collected)
1 Kit fox
1 Desert hairy scorpion
1 Unkown scorpion
1 Kangaroo rat
Numerous unknown beautiful white moths
Numerous bats
Numerous beetles that emit high pitch noises * shrugs*
and lastly a shooting star.

Sadly no snakes, and boy did we look, lol only saw a few fresh tracks.

I need to take some pics of the Coleonyx, but 2 definitely at first glance appear to be C variegatus and at time of collection, all 3 seemed female.

My biggest mistake was bringing only 3 deli cups .

Pics, soon to come, I'm sure Xavier will post his BAD@SS pics!

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

SOunds like you guys had a great expedition!

 

[ExcessiveHerps]

Here you go Jaun, when we going out again? I'm upset to annouce I have but 2 pix to share.

I went herping last night just north of Las Vegas with a fellow herper and his girlfriend. We left just 30 minutes or so prior to sun set and reached our destination as the sun was setting. It was a good night just a few minutes in we saw a desert tarantula crossing the road in 7 years being in Vegas I never saw any before last night we stopped to take some pix and before we made it back in the car my friend Juan noticed another just a few feet from where we parked. Once we drove we only made it another few hundred feet at most before we saw our 3rd and by nights end we saw another 4 the last two we simply drove by having gotten our fill of photos of them.

These guys were a good 4'' in diameter and very impressive I never imagined the desert tarantula in our area got as big as ones seen in pet shops.

We also had good luck with banded geckos which is what we went out to find they show up on the road looking like little more than a washed out 4-5'' skinny twig of the 4 we found we caught 3. Yet seems I got too excited and only took 1 photos of the first and non of the rest yet I'm glad I was able to catch all but one this just means I have to go out again before summers end.

We also saw 2 scorpions one being an adult desert hairy these 3 or so inch inverts are pretty impressive and very fast I was lucky enough to get one nice photo of this ones defensive posture.

We also found a few mammals one being a kangaroo rat and the other a kit fox no photos of them but they are worth noticing. As much fun as herping was seeing the stars in a pitch black moonless desert sky with no Vegas lights was breathtaking. It seemed there was thousands and thousands of stars with in our view. I don't think I've ever seen a more impressive night and would be willing to go back to just stare at them. It inspired me to set up my tri-pod to try and capture what I was seeing sadly that was a huge failure and before I go out again I'd do well to research astrophotography alittle. We had hope to see atleast one snake it would have been the end of a perfect night yet we saw none at one of our stops we saw loads of tracks in the red sand some of which were obviously from small snakes it gave us some hope. Maybe within the next couple of weeks we will go out again and see even more animals. I know I'll have to take even more photos as only having 2 worth showing in unacceptable.

Xavier

 

[PacHerp]

wow, great photos Xavier! It looks like you guys had a blast.

 

[ExcessiveHerps]

Went out again tonight closer to home do. No herps excluding DOR whip tail and leopard lizard (only the 2nd I have seen). Found a really nice desert tarantula and a female in her burrow.

This guy had an amazing set of fangs

 

[DAWNoftheLEO]

The Texas cinnamons and the coleonyx are munching away, poor geckos were so dehydrated! Right on!

 

[DAWNoftheLEO]

And the tarantulas temporary hostel..anyone have any hints on care? I mean I can read and have, just like 1st hand.

 

[ExcessiveHerps]

Hey Juan,

I went out past APEX tonight the place I talked to you about before. I don't think I'll go again gone 3 times and only one herp found. The spiders were worth it this time do. We need to find some new locations

 

[DAWNoftheLEO]

Let's go asap as I hear no law on inverts and several Coleonyx per household ! !◙◙

Darn twigs in the road lol

 

[DAWNoftheLEO]

If anyone has any hints as to what they are i'd like to here em..

I don't know much, but I can try and have my opinions

In no specific order, c v variegatus c v utahensis and c v bogerti

 

[ExcessiveHerps]

Let's go asap as I hear no law on inverts and several Coleonyx per household ! !◙◙

Darn twigs in the road lol

:main_laugh: You want more:main_thumbsup: The one turlantura from yesterday was awesome fangs were insane! I'm up for going Friday or Saturday. Have to be up by 5am ever weekday so can't really go out late at night on weekdays.

Xavier