Austin and more...

Ok, since no one else is posting, it's me again. We took a trip to Austin last week to visit Nicki's sister and her husband in there new house. They found a nice and surprisingly quiet neighborhood that is very close to everything. Those who know me know I wouldn't go anywhere without scanning the ground............and the trees, and under logs, and rocks... (you get the idea). I setup a light in their backyard, just to see what I could find. Their yard is surrounded by an 8' (or more) tall fence so I didn't expect much but did see: June beetles, hide beetles (Trox) and quite a few mantis flies. I drove down to the bank (the one under 35, across from Fiesta where Travis picked up a Calosoma one year and made the whole car smell like bleach) where we used to find "black searchers" (not C. calidum) but didn't find any. The nights there were still pretty cold and a bit windy. That Saturday we drove out to "Hamilton Pool" for a hike. I saw a "eyed elator" and large millipede there. The next day we did "Wild Basin" where I found: an assassin, this katydid (below) and a few Onthophagus hecate. While we were there my friend Tim (Ft. Worth Zoo) sent me a box of Gymnetis flavomarginata grubs.

On the home front, most of the P. truncatus that Travis and I found as grubs have pupated and two have eclosed. I'm hoping to make it out to Travis's house this afternoon for some collecting.

Steven