Selected photos by Rod Crawford and Laurel Ramseyer from our 9 June 2016 spider collecting trip to sites near Liberty, Kittitas County, Washington. First we collected at "Liberty Meadows" (widely known as such but unnamed on maps), a mile SW of Liberty ghost town. There were practically no spiders in the meadow grass, but trees, pine cones and other habitats got us 16 species, several very interesting. We spent the rest of the day in fir/pine forest 3 miles up the Lion Gulch road, with varied, more mesic habitats (including pine cones), ending with a nice 31-32 species sample. Laurel made some of the best catches, though a rare Steatoda from meadow pine cones was juvenile. Don't miss Laurel's account also!

The first 16 photos below are from the Liberty Meadows site.

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Liberty Meadows, aerial view     (USDA-NAIP, 2015)	Main meadow, a vast expanse of spider-free grass      © Rod Crawford
Frontier marshal, net in hand, sets out to clean up Liberty © Laurel Ramseyer	Deceptively lush-looking grass, not rich in spiders!            © Rod Crawford
Pines scattered in meadow much more productive     © Rod Crawford	Almost robotic-looking solitary wasp           © Laurel Ramseyer
Xysticus juvenile with ant prey           © Laurel Ramseyer	Male Misumenops sierrensis from shrubs            © Rod Crawford
Laurel sampling pine cones         © Rod Crawford	Lots of pine cones to sample!            © Laurel Ramseyer
Steatoda fulva group juvenile from cones        © Laurel Ramseyer	Nice record of Philodromus rodecki                © Laurel Ramseyer
Oxyopes scalaris, also from pine foliage  © Laurel Ramseyer	Shrubby habitat at meadow edge added species             © Rod Crawford
Truck-trailer, home of the 3 canine spectators    © Laurel Ramseyer	Pine forest to north; note smaller Douglas-firs          © Rod Crawford

Next, we drove 3 miles up Lion Gulch to a more mesic forest with a fine stream and riparian habitats.

Our Lion Gulch site               (USDA-NAIP, 2015)	Abies grandis dominated the conifer foliage       © Rod Crawford
Teratological jumping spider palp with no bulb    © Rod Crawford	Theridion neomexicanum from fir foliage          © Rod Crawford
Juvenile Callobius in pine cone      © Laurel Ramseyer	Laurel had plenty of cones to sample            © Laurel Ramseyer
Alder tree on stream bank           © Rod Crawford	Alder foliage            © Rod Crawford
Pocket of alder litter              © Rod Crawford	Two views of male Dipoena lana           © Rod Crawford
Lush-looking lupine produced 1 spider      © Rod Crawford	The creek of Lion Gulch                 © Rod Crawford
Meanwhile, Laurel got way up on the hillside      © Laurel Ramseyer	The creek was more than a trickle            © Rod Crawford
What's that, a forest skyscraper?        © Laurel Ramseyer	No, it's a strange but natural rock tower              © Laurel Ramseyer
Chipmunk licking side of rock tower: what is this, Big Rock Candy Mountain?      © Laurel Ramseyer	Prospector's campsite…             © Rod Crawford
…with all the amenities        © Rod Crawford	Lumber pile concealed some spiders          © Rod Crawford
Jigsaw puzzle pine bark        © Laurel Ramseyer	Well-covered prospect pit             © Rod Crawford
Bassaniana from under bark scales      © Laurel Ramseyer	Web of undescribed Novalena #1          © Laurel Ramseyer
"Ghost town" of Liberty bids farewell      © Rod Crawford	Early evening cloud formations decorated our homeward drive    © Rod Crawford

This page last updated 18 June, 2016