Fauna and Flora of the El Segundo Sand Dunes No. 12: Utilization of the Black Widow Parasite, and Further Data on Spiders and Parasites

Abstract

One of the most important products of the El Segundo sand dune survey has proven to be the egg parasite, Baeus californicus Pierce 1938, reared from the egg sacs of the Black Widow, from one little dune bowl on the shore side just within the Playa del Rey zone of the dunes. Research this year shows a great diminution of the black widow in the type location of the parasite, but also proves that the parasite does not occur anywhere else. Its ability to get out of this dune bowl is handicapped by the almost barren sands surrounding it. How it got there and whence it came is still a mystery, but it is probably an introduction through the washing ashore of something containing a parasitized egg ball. It probably came from some part of tropical America.