Gigantic Bugs in Southern California

SloppyElvis writes "...and this time, Silicon Valley didn't create them. ;P CNN picked up this AP story about new species discovered in S.Cal. The most suprising news is this discovery came in such a densely-populated area. Beware, monstrous unknown creatures may be lurking in your backyard!"

hmm..

[hari]

I wonder if the timing of the news relates to the recent protest against dune buggies and other desert games.

Yikkes!

[catseye]

Jeepers, those things are huge. And really ugly. I'm suddenly reminded of why living in a northern climate isn't such a bad thing -- winter kill prevents giant beasties like this from (hopefully) taking residence.

I can't imagine they have many natural enemies (other than coyotes, as mentioned in the article) -- I know I definitely wouldn't want to see the spider big enough to eat one of those monsters. I wonder what has kept their population from exploding like with most insects?

-A.