Joshua Tree Trip Report – April 24-26, 2009
This past weekend was my third and final trip to Joshua Tree for a while. I ended the month completing 3/4ths of my New Year’s resolution of visiting the Mojave Desert every weekend in April. The trips began taking the toll during the five hour drive through Friday-afternoon traffic and the seemingly endless search for a campsite (I finally found one after an hour-long search in the dark).
The entomological theme of the weekend would have to be beetles, beetles, beetles! The trip offered a good amount of bug photo opportunities, but beetles seemed to be everywhere. The Mojave had quite a few flowers still in bloom, as did the Sonoran, and the bugs came out in great numbers to sample the flowering feast. It is interesting to note that I found at least one or two small beetles for each flower in the Sonoran Desert, and yet the same flower just 40-50 miles to the north in the Mojave would be in bloom, but without any guests crawling around inside the pollen-filled flower.
I spent most of my free time hiking around, peering inside flowers like the purple Mojave aster (Xylorhiza tortifolia) or the pink beavertail cactus (Opuntia basilaris) for insects. It’s amazing how much life I found living on just one healthy golden cholla (Opuntia echinocarpa) in the desert. I spent at least a half hour at one 4-foot tall cholla looking at beetles, ants, stink and assassin bugs, jumping spiders and bees. Looking up from my camera from time to time, I would see lizards climbing through Mojave yucca, or a butterfly landing briefly on a desert sunflower (Gereae canescens).
During the course of the weekend, I photographed over a half dozen beetles, many of them I found and photographed for the first time. I had a difficult time identifying some of these, so if you could help, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment:
This is a master blister beetle (Lytta magister) the largest beetle I’ve ever captured! It is so large, in fact, I saw it crossing the road while I was driving 45 mph. According to the excellent Field Guide to Beetles of California, the master blister beetle can grow as large as 33 mm. However, from the mandibles to the end of the elytron, this specimen measured 38 mm! I captured it and photographed it on this creosote bush before releasing it. (They normally feed on Encelia farinosa, or Brittlebush).
This not-yet-identified weevil seems to be saying, “What are you lookin’ at, buddy? Haven’t you ever seen a snout beetle eating before?”
This is a small 3-4 mm metallic wood-boring beetle (Anthaxia sp.). This is the only photo I could take before it flew off. They seem more skiddish than other beetles I’ve photographed. With those eyes, I bet they have better vision than most beetles as well.
This one was photographed on the same flower as the Anthaxia and weevil above. It measures about 3-4 mm.
I first photographed this mystery beetle last weekend. Here it wades through the jungle-like bloom of a teddy-bear cholla cactus (Cylindropuntia bigelovii). It measures about 3-4 mm and has fine white hairs covering its elytron and pronotum.
A cactus bee (Diadasia opuntiae) takes a rest inside of a teddy-bear cholla cactus flower. It was common to find these bees rolling around in the pollen for many minutes at a time. I guess life is good for these solitary bees without a queen bossing them around. I’m not sure of the gender differences of cactus bees, but we nicknamed them “bachelor bees” since they always seem to lay around and drink nectar all day.
A stink bug nursery is set up on the tip of a golden cholla cactus spine. The white objects are the eggs and the dark objects are the newborn stink bugs, each measuring about 1 mm.
This ant was patrolling a golden cholla cactus when I found him.
Did I mention you should post a comment? Yes, please post a comment if you can help identify any of the insects or if you just want to share something. Here’s more photos from my trip:
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vessel sink
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Fabian Fröhlich