Here are a couple of male Anuroctonus phaiodactylus that I found. All of the A. phaiodactylus that I have found outside of a burrow have been males (out looking for a mate?). The first was found on Stansbury island.



Here is one that was found closer to home just outside of Grantsville.


Same as above in white light. Sorry about the bad shadow from the camera.


Brian Nielsen

Very nice Brian! What is this "Stansbury Island" you speak of?

One tip for eliminating the shadow is to stand back another foot or so and use the zoom. It will eliminate the foreground shadow from the flash.

The scrops are much more attractive I think when they're under the black light, is that what your useing in the photos Brian?

[quote="Steve-o"]Very nice Brian! What is this "Stansbury Island" you speak of?

One tip for eliminating the shadow is to stand back another foot or so and use the zoom. It will eliminate the foreground shadow from the flash. ]

Stansbury Island is one of several islands in the Great Salt Lake. You can drive to it on a dirt road though Lol.

I use that technique sometimes. The biggest problems were that I wasn't taking enough care on the photos and I was having a friend hold the light which was actually harder than doing it myself.

Brian Nielsen

I think they look really neat under the black light. It is not quite the same color as what I see. Too me they appear more like an eery green color that is not coming through in the photos.

Brian Nielsen

great stuff Brian,
this species is surprisingly succussful here in the great basin.
I still have a hard time collecting them though, they just seem so
physiologically/ecologically adapted. Even when compared to other
scorpions. You would also be extremely surprised to see the distance in which
the males may move sometimes. As it being the ending peak of the breeding season for these ecotypes, this last week i marked a male A. phaiodactylus and recorded him about 120 ft. through dense sage hillsides and washes five days from previous recording.

Zach

That is neat Zach. What is your method of marking?

The UV colour isn't comiing through in the photos because the camera lense is designed for white (or natural light) rather than UV light. The refractive index of the lense isn't able to properly refract the UV light and give the true colours.

M

there are various 'glow in the dark'/flourescent-enamel paints available. The right self tested colors of nail polish can also work. look for "NON TOXIC".
You can mark each desired individual with simple combinations of dots, shapes, numbers(often difficult to clearly mark, and often needs more marking paint than needed), and colors. I try to keep applications minimal, and ofcourse take extreme caution to keep clear of egs/joints/trichobothria/and the eye tubercles. When you get to your desired number of marked specimens, you can make a photo or drawn record-ID book.
Download to a plam pilot, or print it out, and ID individuals in the field in minutes. (You could even just draw the pattern in a field/locality notebook when recording minimal specimens).
I have found it to be more enjoyable to mark one in nearby survey spots
than to collect them (preserving them is debatable), i use similar methods in sampling theraphosids aswell. But this method also works great in sampling
areas for estimated population size/density/ and community structures.

Zach

you can see the areola cups on the right chela in this photo. they look huge.

Great stuff, Brian!