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| Sample sites (click to enlarge) |
The summit of Chelan Butte offers towering views of the Columbia River to the south and east, and of Lake Chelan to the northwest. It also offers a scattered grove of ponderosa pines (
Pinus ponderosa) and a modest number of fallen cones.
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Chelan Butte sample site
overlooking Columbia River |
At this early season and high elevation (3,700 feet), however, those cones didn't offer much in the way of spiders: 3 juveniles and 1 species (
Titanoeca nigrella, family Titanoecidae) from 38 tapped cones, or an average of only 0.08 spiders per cone.
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| Lake Chelan State Park sampling site |
About 2,500 feet below, however, I tapped 31 spiders and 8 species from 80 ponderosa cones outside Lake Chelan State Park (elevation 1,190 ft), an average of 0.4 spiders per cone! We had seen a similar elevational contrast the previous day at
Nason Creek Rest Area & Southwest Leavenworth. Besides spring being noticeably more advanced at the Lake Chelan State Park site, the vegetation there was also structurally more complex than on the summit of Chelan Butte.
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| A pearl of great price was hidden away in this cone: a spider's egg sac. |
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