I got my dates all mixed up thinking Reading Week was the following week, but I was wrong, which meant that I had to hustle to book train and motel, toss everything into the trusty field pack and bag, and boogie. It was time to get out into the field for the work-free week. The journey would see me heading out east again into the fickle riches of the Ordovician of Ontario, and eventually Quebec. Setting the tone of the adventure was during my train layover in Toronto when a not-so-sane person wanted to pick a fight with me, which I would say is a fairly unwise life decision, particularly looking as I do wearing steel-toed boots with a bag of hammers. But my keen diplomacy de-escalated the situation and I was off on the rails to my first destination. Sadly, Saturday saw my initial site inaccessible, and I made the 25km trek on foot to another location that turned out to be a nothingburger. I retreated to my motel room and returned to my initial spot the next day. This was the spot that had yielded so much glory in my October visit, but had decided to be fickle and parsimonious this time around. Here are two scrappy Flexicalymene senaria. Sadly, the same cheirurids that were quite profuse in the last visit had gone MIA. A complete enrolled Bumastoides I extracted from a bloc. As was par for my luck on this trip, this specimen is now missing. Having checked all the gazillion pockets in my field pack and clothing, it is still MIA. I am hoping it will magically turn up at some point. It is just too cute to lose forever! This was by far the trip-maker. Although the yield was depressingly low for a week-long trip, this find on Day 2 is quite special, and had been sitting out weathering for years! Unlikely to be complete, but this is a ventral of Hibbertia ottawaensis, the rarest harpid we have in Ontario. A handful of specimens are known. Upon the recommendation of a friend, I have reached out to a professional preparator to perform a transplant and flip rather than make the attempt on my own and risk botching such a scarce example. Updates on this one to follow, no doubt. On the Monday, I took the next train to Quebec City to visit my friend who had located a new river valley source with some peculiar Triarthrus not typical of the region. When I arrived, so did winter. The site is highly contingent on there being no snow, so we had to wait it out for a few days, chewing the fat and drinking some beer.
The Triarthrus are indeed unique in their way. Although we failed to find any complete, there are at least two different species there. The nodes along the axis of a few of these suggest T. beckii. But note the size and 3D aspect to the glabella on some of these samples I took back. My friend suspects these may be a new species, but it's hard to say. The last big revision of this genus were done by Ludvigsen and Tuffnell a long time ago. So that was my trip: a lot longer for a lot less, but weather and circumstances intervened. The harpid was the highlight, ticking off a new species in my Ontario list (now up to 69). It won't be long until I write up my 2023 season wrap-up, so stay tuned. I may get out a few more times, but I will likely be keeping things more local. This past trip seems to capture the motif of my 2023 season, though. Misadventures and dashed expectations, yet the occasional "wow" find despite it all, making this year a sort of "good, despite the conditions and circumstances." Comments are closed.
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Kane Faucher
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February 2024
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