29-May-2018 East Wenatchee and Culver Gulch, Washington

Site location map. Click to enlarge.

Two gridspaces in one day! Were we crazy to attempt such a mission, which also required over 300 miles of driving? I am happy to report that it was completely doable because we had a 10-15 species head start in both gridspaces (the goal is 21 or more). In addition, Rod Crawford had selected sampling sites that were so easy to access that we could dedicate all of our non-driving time to collecting. I never even had to put on my hiking boots. And so we made our first trip of the year over Snoqualmie Pass into eastern Washington to collect at Kirby Billingsley Hydro Park in East Wenatchee, and Culver Gulch, which is the site of the ghost town of Blewett.

Hydro Park

Location of Hydro Park.

Swamped picnic table and shore

The partial sample from this gridspace had come from a commercial fruit orchard, so Rod chose a collecting site that should provide a complementary suite of species. Hydro Park seemed just the ticket, with riparian habitats, buildings to collect house spiders from, and even some pine trees where I could tap fallen cones.

Female Phidippus audax from fence

Female Theridion murarium.
Copyright Rod Crawford

As it turned out, some of the riparian habitats were damaged or unavailable due to very high river levels. In addition, the interior of the bathroom building had recently been painted and was completely spider-free. Still, we were able to collect 16 species, only two of which duplicated previous records. I picked at least six identifiable species from fences, signs and building exteriors including the eastern U.S. transplant Phidippus audax (Salticidae) and the native but seldom collected Theridion murarium (Theridiidae).

Plenty of insects in lawn cones,
but no spiders

Rod spotted some Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) cones that had fallen on the lawn. I wasn't going to bother tapping them, since cones on lawn tend to be spider-free. But I decided to take a look after all, since I was waiting for Rod to finish sifting litter anyway. And for all I knew, lawn cones might be more spider-friendly in eastern Washington! Nope. I gave up after 25 cones since the only thing they contained was insects. Oodles and oodles of insects.

Good cone source at
eastern park entrance

Fallen cone microhabitat

Luckily Rod's online trip-planning had revealed another cone tapping possibility at the other end of the park, and that one panned out. Small groups of pines (I'm uncertain of the species) had been planted on either side of the eastern park entrance, and cones and a thin layer of needle litter had been allowed to accumulate over the landscaping gravel used to surface the planting beds. The spider fauna wasn't rich, but it was present. I tapped 50 cones and collected 9 spiders from at least 6 species. Those identifiable were Bassaniana utahensis (Thomisidae), Theridion melanurum (Theridiidae), and Erigone aletris (Linyphiidae).

Culver Gulch

Location of Culver Gulch cone sites

Last July Rod and I collected spiders along Ruby Creek, a tributary of Peshastin Creek. Unfortunately the habitats were drier than we'd expected, and we fell a few species short of the minimum gridspace goal of 21. But that meant that this visit, we only needed to pick up a few species to put us over the top. It was very doable.

Fallen cones in an old gold
rush town...

...held these silver-sided beauties
(Euryopis formosa)

We stopped along SR-97 at the historical marker for Blewett, a former mining town situated near the confluence of Culver Gulch and Peshastin Creek. There were numerous fully open Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) cones on the dry and dusty ground at the edge of the parking area, so I got right to tapping. Almost immediately I found my old heartthrob, the beautiful "pine cone spider" Euryopis formosa (Theridiidae). As usual, we didn't find the species in any other microhabitat there. In total I collected 7 spiders and 3 identifiable species (Dipoena sp. #1 and Micaria pulicaria were the other two) from a set of 50 cones.

Cones among blooming
lupines

Stamping mill ruins

Next I crossed SR-97 to check out the cone tapping possibilities under a small ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa) that Rod had spotted. It was too small, unfortunately, to produce cones, but it did lead me to another lovely set of open Douglas-fir cones (not to mention the ruins of the old Blewett stamping mill!). I tapped 50 cones there and got nothing but E. formosa, 2 males and 13 juveniles. The E. formosa type specimen was collected in Bear, Idaho by the mining engineer Leslie Maurice Cockerell. I wonder if any of Blewett's miners ever noticed the creature with the precious metal sheen living amongst them.

Yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) picnicking on the lawn at Hydro Park.