Our camp west of the Skyline Trail
Bo and I camped out off of the Skyline Trail on Monday night on an arthropod night observation trip. I had hoped to observe feeding behavior of the harvestman, Leptobunus sp., and the bristletail, Petridiobius sp., but we did not see much activity. I was able to collect a good series of each species, which, when combined with my collections from last year and from earlier this year, are enabling me to put together their life histories.
It looks like the bristletails have a two-year life cycle, with 1st instar immatures appearing in late June or early July. These grow to about 7mm by the same time the following year. They reach maturity and a length of about 9-10mm the following season. I still know nothing about when they mate and lay eggs.
Dissections of a few harvestmen revealed that they are mature and that females have ovaries with developing eggs. So far it seems that they have a one-year life cycle, with immatures appearing in late summer and maturing the following season.
