Stop 9
Invertebrates

Vinegaroons (an arachnid) are just one of the invertebrates that you can see in the desert.

There is a mind-boggling array of invertebrates essential to providing critically important services, including cycling energy and nutrients though the system.  They carry out these vital functions by eating and being eaten, pollinating most of the desert's plant life, distributing seeds, creating holes that aerate the soil and increase water infiltration, and recycling dead plants, animals, and animal wastes.

Large harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex rugosus) and honey pot ants (Myrmecocystus spp.) are just two of the species in a diverse set of invertebrates (animals without backbones) that live here.