The beetles shown above turned out to fluoresce! We never found glowing scorpions, but the beetles
looked pretty neat. It was never determined why they all spent the night three inches above the ground
atop a small plant.
There were spots in Saline Valley where it was difficult to avoid stepping on the millions of
sphynx moth caterpillars. I never
counted, but would estimate that the highly populated regions (which were very localized) had at least
three fully grown caterpillars per square meter. All were running across the desert in search for
uneaten plants of the correct species. Average caterpillar length was 2-2.5 inches.
