Today we had a long but excellent hike from Tlalconteno to La Gloria, both towns in Veracruz close to the border with Puebla.
Read the rest of Hiking from Tlalconteno to La Gloria.
Hi Craig,
The black widow spider in the picture might indeed be mistaken for a beetle. The picture was taken with a very old digital camera, and the position is odd.
Thanks for the information regarding the grasshopper. I see them often and I like the coloration.
And as of the "clover" I was in serious doubt about that one, but couldn't come up with a better name.
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Hi, John.
I thought I could offer some tentative identifications. From "Hiking near San Luis Atexcac", the animal which you identify as a black widow spider looks suspiciously like a darkling beetle. They typically assume a head-down posture when threatened; their chemical defenses reside in the elevated abdominal tip. From Walking to the barranca", your grasshopper looks like a horse lubber, Taeniopoda sp. In the southeast USA, I'd say it was T. eques. I don't know if you have a different species in eastern Mexico. Lastly, from "Descent into the barranca", I'm not so sure your lucky clover was a clover (family Fabaceae). It looks like family Oxalidaceae/Oxalis family to me. I personally like Oxalis more than clover, so I think you were still lucky. You've got a great site. Craig