Most anticipated are Speckled Rattlesnakes, Crotalus mitchelli pyrrhus, in red white and blue, all in situ.
As you read this Jake and I are hopefully either on our way back to the Sonoran Desert or already there. We’re traveling westward with a list of “hope to sees” almost as long as the wheelbase of the car. These “wannasees” run the gamut from cacti and other succulents to rattlesnakes, racers, and a few birds and mammals. About the only thing we don’t list are the invertebrates, and by this omission we probably miss seeing some of the most interesting of the desert fauna.

The good part about a list this long is that you’re bound to see at least a few of the species; the bad part is you never see all. But that’s OK because we use our failures to start another list. It’s never ending. Primary on our list this time are several rattlesnake species. But equally important are most of the little burrowing forms that seem to be increasingly hard to find. These vary from shovel-noses to sand and leaf-nosed snakes. I’ll let you know how we do in a July blog, but wish us luck. Most assuredly we’ll need it.

See ya/Dick & Jake

This aberrant marbled salamander was found in South Carolina.
At a total length of 3 ½ to 5 inches, when adult the pretty little marbled salamander, Ambystoma opacum, is only about half the length of the more familiar spotted salamander.The marbled salamander ranges southward from extreme souther NH to peninsular Florida and then westward to central western MO and eastern TX. Clad in a pretty barred dorsal pattern of white on black (male) or silver-gray on black (female) these are secretive little woodland caudatans that often require a lot of log rolling to be found.

Unlike many of the mole salamander, rather than being a spring breeder in ephemeral ponds and puddles, the marbled salamander is an autumn breeder. And rather than seeking a pond already filled, after the terrestrial courtship and fertilization, the female opacum finds a moist depression, one still lacking water but that in some way known to the salamander will (hopefully) soon be filled by the forthcoming late autumn rains, and there it lays its clutch of eggs. Once submerged larval development begins, eggs hatch, larvae grow and metamorphose, and the little salamanders find some nearby moist terrestrial site to dine, grow, and eventually repeat the rather complicated procedure. If the rains fail to materialize, the eggs, waiting patiently, have been known to remain viable for several weeks.

Newly metamorphosed marbled salamanders are dark gray to black with variably busy grayish-white dorsal and lateral patterns of flecks and specks.

This Sonoran Collared Lizard was in the Collection of Will Wells.
Tom had directed me up some rather horrible road that ascended into the mountains in the interior of Organ Pipe National Monument. The Trooper bounced and spun its way upwards. Tom sat there, intermittently singing to himself and complaining about the bumpiness of the ride. We had just gotten some nice photos of chuckwallas on granitic roadside outcrops, and now hoped to add to the collection photos of the Sonoran collared lizard, C. c. nebrius. Somehow, with a memory that often reflects that Tom is in his autumn years, he remembered seeing some specimens of this drab lizard on an earlier trip he had made through these mountains.

Eventually he directed me to park near a boulder-strewn expanse of weakly sloping mountainside, and issued a series of instructions: don't scare the lizards, don't take any pictures until I've taken mine, don't this...don't that...and above all, don't take its picture against a contrived background (this latter referring to my taking photos of difficult species in "naturalistic," as opposed to natural, setups). Tom pointed to a distant rock and stated that it had been there that he had seen the first collared lizard on his previous trip.
"You mean like the one that's sitting there now?" I asked.

And sure enough. There sat an adult male Sonoran collared lizard.

Although this race is second only to the Chihuahuan collared lizard in drabness, actually sighting a specimen was nonetheless exciting. It added a new dimension to our overall picture of this wary and wonderful lizard species.

Although not brightly colored, big-headed turtles were popular with hobbyists.
The chelonian family Platysternidae is represented by a single southeast Asian aquatic turtle species. This is the Big-headed turtle, Platysternon megacephalum. This species is distributed in one or the other of its 3 valid subspecies (megacephalum, shiui, and peguense), in southern China (including Hainan Island), southwest through northern Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, and northern Thailand to southern Burma where although it is a weak swimmer it dwells in cool rocky mountain brooks and streams easily climbing up and over submerged and streamedge rocks and logs on its strongly clawed legs.

This is a dusky colored turtle dorsally and yellowish ventrally. Juveniles have a horizontal black edged yellow stripe on each side of the face posterior to the eyes. The jaws and snout may be peach colored. Overall it blends well with the stream bottoms and muddy edges that it calls home.

This medium sized but rather flat turtle attains a shell length of about 7 inches. The carapace of the adults is weakly serrate on the sides and rear. The carapace of a juveniles is more strongly serrated especially on the rear of the carapace. The extremely long tail is nearly as long as the shell and may be curled upwards or to either side. Whether when curled the tail may assist in anchoring the turtle in current seems as yet an ongoing question. The head of this aptly named turtle is huge in all aspects—length, width, and height--- and cannot be withdrawn into the protection of the shell. The skull is enlarged and bony and provides a great amount of protection. The eyes are directed forward. The jaws are strong, the beak is sharp, and the turtle is not at all hesitant to bite. Food includes fish, gastropods, molluscs, aquatic insects, and worms.

This turtle is seldom bred in captivity and its reproductive habits in the wild are not well known. Clutches reportedly consist of 2 eggs and the species is not known to multiclutch.

In bygone years this species was rather readily available in the pet trade.It is now only occasionally so and when available high prices are asked. It is apparently often seen in food shops in the orient and is readily eaten by humans.

Note the tiny eyes and lack of eyecap on this burrowing snake.This primitive snake possesses a vestigial pelvic girdle that is represented externally by a pair of cloacal spurs. It is an ovoviviparous (live-bearing) species. It is non-venomous, and its diet consists mainly of other ectothermic species (caecilians, frogs, burrowing lizards and burrowing snakes). The coral pipesnake is found in the Amazonian rainforests as well as in the Guyanas and Trinidad. It is adult at 22-28 inches in length including the very short tail. Rather than dedicated eyecaps, the small eyes are covered by large translucent scales. Modified ventral scutes are present but are very narrow.

I believe this snake is so seldom seen due to its burrowing propensities, not because it is rare. We seem to find one on the crawl after every torrential rainy season shower. These examples were found in Amazonian Peru.

As you can imagine, the finding of one is always a pleasure.

Daytime green, the polkadot treefrog may have spots of yellow or red.
The Polkadot Treefrog, Hypsiboas (formerly Hyla) punctata, a Kermit lookalike, occurs pretty much throughout South America from Colombia to Argentina and from Bolivia to Brazil’s Caribbean coast. It is also found on Trinidad and Tobago. Swamps, marshes, irrigated gardens, slow-flowing oxbows, and many other moist and wet sites are home to this 1 ½ inch long frog.

In fact, it was about 20 years ago that, in company of several other treefrog species, I met the polkadot species in a water lettuce choked oxbow of Peru’s Rio Orosa. Drawn to the oxbow by the squawks, churrs, and whistles of the frogs, it soon became apparent that the chuckling notes were produced by the little reddish popeyed treefrogs with the Kermit facial expressions. Polkadot treefrogs! I collected a couple to assure that we could all get satisfactory photos (the frogs were returned to the oxbow the next night).

Yes, when found they were reddish with brighter orange dorsal polkadots and a greenish overcast. But they were not that color the next morning! In fact, except for the Kermit-like expression, they looked like different frogs. All were decidedly green, some pale, some bright lime. On some the polkadots had remained orangish, on others the dots were bright yellow. The night to day color change (metachrosis) was remarkable.

But within the last couple of years something more remarkable than mere metachrosis has been accidentally learned. The polkadot treefrog, fluoresces!

As stated in an article by Amanda Ellis: “According to (researcher) Carlos Taboada and colleagues the fluorescence intensity represents about 18−29% of the luminosity under twilight conditions and is suspected to play a possible role in the communication, camouflage and mating of the frog.”

Be this as it may, Patti, Jake, and I have seen hundreds of polkadot treefrogs at dusk and later and we have never noticed any indication of fluorescence under natural light. Now I’m really wondering about my field acumen.

Except fot the 3 obvious rows, all other scales on the Dragon Snake are minute.
Even to those among us who realized that the Dragon Snake, Xenodermus javanicus, existed, it was a species shrouded in mystery. The only detailed account of the species that I had seen were a couple of dozen sentences in John Coburn’s “The Atlas of Snakes of the World” published in 1991 by TFH. But even this was a bit incomplete. And although that volume was replete with photos, a photo of the “Dragon Snake” was sadly lacking.

But now let’s jump forward a couple of decades.

Dragon Snakes are no longer a species known only to a few taxonomists and herpetologists. This strange little nonvenomous snake is now occasionally available in the pet trade. They are still rather high-priced, but they are available. They do not appear to be super-hardy, but that may well be a case of conditions at the collecting and holding facility and/or parasitism. As usual, articles have now been written, some conflicting, but all ostensibly in the best interest of what is now thought of as an interesting snake that requires rather exacting captive conditions. This is my effort. Don’t hesitate to look elsewhere for additional or different information.

A few details here: It is certainly understandable why the dragon snake was overlooked for so many years. It is pretty much a brownish to charcoal snake—a mud-colored snake, if you will---that is nocturnal and that spends the daylight hours in creek-side burrows. They are very slender and seem to be slow moving. There is sexual dimorphism, the males being a slim 16-20 inches long and the females being a bit stouter and adult at 24 to 32 inches.

Most records are from the southeastern Malay Peninsula at elevations from sea level to about 4400 feet. This may account for some articles recommending captive temperatures of 72 to 75F. However, if records are correct, the dragon snakes now available to American hobbyists are being collected and shipped from low elevations in Java where temperatures are warmer. These snakes seem to do well at the higher room temperatures commonly found in North Florida.

Despite the 3 rows of strongly tuberculate scales on the dorsum, the skin of Xenodermus is delicate. The sides are finely scaled with much interstitial skin showing between. This is also so of the skin between the 3 rows of tuberculate dorsal scales. This skin tears easily. Use care when handling. According to keepers this snake is also very prone to moisture blisters and requires a moist subsurface but a dry surface. Success has been had with sphagnum, pads of artificial turf, and treefern trunk substrates. If frightened, including handling, rather than gliding away as most other snakes would do, the little xenoderm often becomes motionless and rigid, then resembling a twig more than a living animal.

Although dragon snakes are known to eat minnows of small size, it seems that they are preferentially a frog eater. This has been shown it seems by the readiness of most (if not all) to accept tiny treefrogs and greenhouse frogs while some refuse minnows. Care must be exercised by the keeper to assure that the prey items are not too large or that the snake is not unduly disturbed after eating, lest regurgitation occur.

If you have the facilities and time this might be a good snake to experiment a bit with. Please keep us posted. We’d all like to know how you attained your success.

A pair of scrub lizards, female at bottom.

Trash was everywhere. Old carpets. Broken furniture. Vegetative debris. Mattresses. Deteriorating wood. Cut trees. All this and more lay atop the sandy substrate that several lizards, one amphisbaenid, anurans, a few snake species, and one tortoise, the gopher tortoise called home.

We flipped, flipped, then flipped some more. The dunes seemed bereft. Only a small gecko and dead ground skink, and lots of roaches were seen. With the trash come the bugs.

But as I stood contemplating the wondrous success of the cockroaches (did you know there are over 4000 species worldwide?!) I heard a scrambling sound in a small oak next to me. I glanced over just in time to see a small grayish lizard leap from the trunk and land running. Scrub lizard, Sceloporus woodi. These small cousins of the fence lizard are not always easy to find. They top out at a length of about 5 ½ inches but are often smaller. They occur in 4 disjunct sandy regions of Florida—one such area being on the southeast and the southwest coasts and 2 in the center of the state.

This wary lizard is adept at evading detection, squirreling around a tree trunk or limb at the slightest sign of disturbance. Both sexes bear a prominent lateral stripe on each side, The male has only vague (if any) dorsal markings between the stripes but has an elongate black edged blue patch on each side of the belly and 2 blue spots on the throat. Females lack the ventral blue markings but have irregular stripes across the back.

These interesting insectivores don’t seem as common today as once. If you get a chance to look them up it may be best to do so now.