Read the previous part of this blog entry in: Arachnids near Coyolillo - part 2
Esme and I walked a bit further, and under one stone close to a mango tree I found a beautiful blue millipede. I had seen this species, or very similar before. Even though it looks more like a centipede, since it has two pairs of legs per segment it must be a millipede, despite the flat appearance. The length of the animal is about 7 cm.
We followed a kind of track in a mango grove that a line of stones to the right. When I lifted one stone I saw a tarantula I had seen quite often in Mexico. It looks like the Costa Rican tiger-rump, and might be the same species that is sold in the trade as Cyclosternum fasciatum. I often call this species "Mexican tiger rump" in jest.
The tarantula was looking for a place that kept it out of the bright light, and decided that walking up my right leg, would provide an excellent hiding place. Since I was sitting on my knees it ended up in an awkward place, which made me and Esme both laugh for quite some time. And yes, I was a bit worried, since my jeans have quite a big hole in an even more awkward place.
After Esme had taken a few pictures she managed to make the tarantula walk a bit back, and I was able to let it walk on my hand, and put it back on the ground. It started to walk on top of the dead leaves on the ground, looking for a better place to hide. I put my hand in front a few times to make it stop, and took a few more photos.
After I had taken quite some pictures of the tarantula we continued our walk. We saw to the right and in front of us that the mango grove ended, and a green meadow with some trees and several huge boulders lay ahead.
Before we explored the meadow, which looked like an excellent place to find scorpions (Centruroides gracilis), I looked under a piece of dead wood, and was able to take a picture of the lizard hiding under it.
Read the next part of this blog entry in: Arachnids near Coyolillo - part 4