The site was selected because it is readily accessible and identifiable. It provides areas of many collecting environments from sand flats to sagebrush stands, and tallus slopes. Additionally, it afforded a good place to perfect capture techniques on spiders which have proved much more fleet of foot than those to which I am accustomed in the east!
Site 1 ... looking north across Lone Pine Rd.
Site 2: A steep hillside with nominally easterly exposure located alongside Tongue River Road; coordinates: 35703395 (Paddy Fay Creek Quadrangle). The site was selected primarily because of a series of openings in its face... either burrows or erosion washes ... which might offer locations for the collection of certain burrowing web building spiders not normally found in tallus crevices. Sparse sagebrush vegetation offers additional collecting opportunity.
Site 3: Isolated hilltop in the vicinity of coordinates: 35103447 (Paddy Fay Creek Quadrangle) offering steep slopes, rock faces, and sandy ground areas. This area is sparsely vegetated with sagebrush, Opuntia, and various grasses. On the west side, the hill falls away to a bottomland before beginning to rise again to another eastward-facing hillside of coarser gravel which is the location of several erosional slumps (which area is designated --
Site 3a: Vicinity of coordinates: 35103415 (Paddy Fay Creek Quadrangle). This site is an area of erosional sinks ... primarily gravel and coarse sand. It was selected for the most part because of a preponderance of holes in the steep sides which were presumed to offer good hiding places for spiders.
Site 3b: Vicinity of coordinates: 35203457 (Paddy Fay Creek Quadrangle). This is designated a sub-site of site 3. It is a series of larger rock outcroppings along the eastern flank of the site 3 hill itself but is considered separately because the collecting was specifically concentrated on the rock areas themselves.
Site 3c: A series of sand buttresses capped with a ropey schist located in the vicinity of coordinates: 34843462 (Paddy Fay Creek Quadrangle). These poorly formed sandstone walls afforded little in the way of specimens. Although pockets in both the sand and the cap rock offered quite respectable hiding places, little was found. The area was visited on a very hot day and little beyond grasshoppers and ants was in evidence.
Site 4: (Near Two Camp) A high ridge running nominally east-west in the vicinity of coordinates: 35953035 (Paddy Fay Creek Quadrangle). This ridge has a thick sand base particularly well-exposed on the south and west sides. The top is typically sage-brush rocky and the shoulders are pretty much universally sandstone/shale tallus.
Site 5: A cobble beach in the vicinity of coordinates: 31253841 (Big Hill Quadrangle). This is on the south shore of the Yellowstone River just downstream from an iron bridge (1902). The site is selected specifically for the several spider species which tend to frequent watercourses and hide under beach rocks. In particular it is hoped to locate some of the Dolomedes species.
Site 5a: A small island (at higher water) just downstream from the bridge site. The character of the shore is somewhat different from the main shoreline in that it is cobble all the way into the water. Additionally, vegetation is significantly more lush and varied from the mainland which is more actively grazed.
Site 6: This site is a concrete "tunnel" which passes under Interstate 94 (it is the access for the Tongue River Road). Coordinates: 34323651 (Miles City Quadrangle). It was selected because on one of my many passes through it, I had noted some dust-covered webs which appeared to be similar to the flat, tangled webs made by members of the Oecobiidae. [Today, however, (July 14) the temperature had reached 105 degrees and I figured the tunnel would be a bit cooler. While the "Oecobiid" webs were not in particular evidence today, there were a number of other spiders present: Steatoda sp. (males), Robertus sp. and others. A series of small spiders (Dictynidae?) were taken just outside the tunnel (north end) as was a very nice Tibellus sp. female and egg case.]
Site 7: Spotted Eagle Recreation Area: small lake surrounded by varied lowland habitats including slough areas of heavy emergent vegetation (in particular Typha angustifolia), small grasslands, and open woods. Traditionally included within the boundaries of Ft. Keogh.
Site 8: A series of mud/sand escarpments and bottomland along the road in pasture area S2B. The site is relatively protected from most winds although from appearances is subject to rapid (although temporary) flooding. This characteristic is not believed to be prohibitive of the presence of trap-door spiders based on experiences in similar areas of the southeast US.
