Seattle Invertebrates

 Hi everyone. I'm currently on vacation in Seattle, where today I went to a nature reserve called Schmitz Preserve Park.

Schmitz Preserve Park sign

The reserve is located in the West of Seattle and is a 53 acre park around 15 blocks east of Alki Point and Beach (where I found some sandhoppers!).

I went down some stairs to see this! Definitely didn't disappoint 😁 

I was very sure that I would find a lot of invertebrates here.

When I found the first log that I could flip, I found this possibly Ambigolimax valentianus and some Porcellio scaber. But there was one that did sparked my interest

There was this one scaber that had a faint calico pattern. I've never personally seen P. scaber before because they aren't found in my country and its hobby stock, but looking at pictures of the wild types I don't think many specimens are like this one.

Pretty cool to see

I also saw this Condica illecta perching on a small rock.

After that, I decided to go further.

As I went further, it was becoming a more moist environment, probably because of a little stream of water that was flowing around. (Not pictured)

The first few pieces of bark only consisted of these Harpaphe haydeniana and some nightcrawlers.

But as I went further the diversity of species increased.

I spotted a few of these slugs, which I think the genus is Arion.

One of my favorite gastropods in the US for sure, super cute 

I found an isopod species that I've also never seen in-person before, and they were huge. Way bigger than I thought, and the largest terrestrial isopods I've ever seen.

They were Oniscus asellus, and the largest ones I found were reaching around 1.2 cm in length. Pretty impressive if you ask me 😄

In a huge piece of bark I found this little group of huge slugs. I think they are also Arion.

After sifting and searching around foliage, a quick movement caught my eye. It was a ground beetle of I assume the genus of Pterostichus.

Look at those mandibles!

I also flipped an absolutely massive piece of bark to find a gorgeous, fully red centipede. I think it's Scolopocryptops sexspinosus.

Unfortunately the image is blurry, because I only got a single picture as it was bolting and burrowing quickly.

And yeah that's basically the majority of inverts that I got a photo of.

I also saw a lot of salmonberries growing in the wild, and I find them pretty beautiful.

I wonder what they taste like 🤔 

But yeah, that's basically it. Thanks for reading, and goodbye! 👋