11/30/2021: Short-tailed vinegaroons on board

Two collecting trips were enough for me this year (my most ever in one year, as I sigh typing this), however ardent bug collectors Alan Jeon and Junkai Wang went on a blitzkrieg collecting trip through Florida last week. Both were kind enough to listen to my idiotic whims and collected many species that I didn’t establish after the March 2021 Florida trip or that I simply hadn’t gotten my claws on yet.

While we had collected short-tailed vinegaroons in March (some pictures courtesy of trip mate William Samojeden here), they were either very cannibalistic or drought intolerant in transit and by the time I got back to Michigan and started setting things up my collection cup was void of them. I have now received a group of about 7 and set them up in a deluxe suite crawling with lots of tiny prey items.

Schizomids are chronically understudied, but these Stenochrus portoricensis fortunately are common in the right places and easy to observe. Alan has had better success with schizomids than I have in the past, though this may have been due to my last set being a western genus and being kept in suboptimal conditions. S. portoricensis seems content in moist leaf litter surrounded by miscellaneous prey items and may be parthenogenetic as well, a recipe for more consistent success.

Vinegaroons are one of (if not my favorite) arachnid, so having a tiny relative that breeds readily in captivity would be super nifty. Fingers crossed and culture fruit fly-flooded for success!

-Kyle