It was in the 1980s when I first made a concerted effort to see a flattened musk turtle, Sternotherus depressus.



My interest had been piqued by the news that a single almost white example was in the live collection at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In those long ago days, except to differentiate leucism from albinism, we didn't differentiate between the various causes of inhibited pigmentation. Since the little turtle did not have the dark eyes associated with leucism, I then and still do refer to the turtle as an albino.

I was happy to have seen the captive specimens at the university, but it was not until just a few years ago that I took the time to look them up in the wild. Since they are a federally endangered turtle species, I thought that they would be difficult to find. This was not at all the case.

After arriving at 2:00PM on a sunny spring afternoon and making my way down a considerable slope and through painful tangles of cat briar, I reached the river's edge. Within 5 minutes I had seen my first couple of depressus. They were in deep water and I wasn't able to photograph them.

But in just another few minutes I had found another near the shoreline and a fourth in a small disjunct pool. Photos were taken.

It was a good day.

Although they have a superficial resemblance to the eastern glass lizards, the western genus Anniella, is contained in the family Anniellidae. Until very recently the genus was comprised of only 2 species, one in California and northern Baja and a second endemic to Baja California. Initially, based on coloration, the American species, Anniella pulchra, was thought to have 2 subspecies. A. p. pulchra, the California legless lizard, occurred over most of range with the black legless lizard, A. p. nigra replacing it in the Monterrey Bay and peninsula region. Examples intermediate between the California and the black in coloration were found elsewhere south of the range of the black examples.



The subspecies concept had fallen into disfavor with geneticists, so for a while, no matter its color or where within its range it occurred, the California legless lizard was considered a single entity.

However, genetics, now in vogue, eventually came into play and within the single species researchers determined that there were 5 clades. A "clade" is a group consisting of an ancestor and all its descendants, a single "branch" on the "tree of life," and that ancestor may be an individual, a population or even a species whether or not still extant. Researchers hypothesized that there were now 6 full species contained in what was until their assessment a single species.

So add now to the still extant A. pulchra, the hypothetical species A. stebbinsi, A. alexanderae, A. campi, A. grinnelli, and A. stebbinsi.

And we still have to add A. geronimensis, from south of the border.

As 2 friends have told me, these and similar recent hypotheses by other researchers seem to be solutions to problems not yet asked. Believe me, the solution to the non-problem regarding the legless lizards does not stand alone.

These lizards, no matter their name, are accomplished burrowers. Besides making their own burrows when substrate is of the proper consistency, they may seek seclusion beneath surface debris or may enter and follow a burrow premade by a small rodent or large insect.

Most that I have found have been only a half inch or so beneath the surface or beneath boards atop a yielding sand substrate or in shallow seaside burrows.

Many years ago, I decided (to my own satisfaction) that although most caiman are hatched feisty, the 2 species of the so called dwarf caimans of the genus Paleosuchus are hatched actually evil.



We see the smooth-fronted species, Paleosuchus trigonotus, on almost all of our trips to the Peruvian Amazon and no experiences I've had with them has altered my opinion in the least. In fact, if anything, my interactions involving this caiman, be they hatchlings or adults, have cemented my opinions ever more firmly.

The scales of this brown-eyed caiman are heavily ossified, providing an alternate name of armored caiman. Comparatively small though they may be, these 4 to 6 foot long alligator relatives are strong, have very sharp teeth, immensely strong jaws, are perpetually ready to do battle, and our guides and I have learned to afford them much respect.

A couple of years ago, a few early arriving clients (experienced herpers, all) got together on a rainy night before my arrival and decided to roadhunt the road to Nauta. After all, isn't that what herpers do? Somewhere along the way they encountered a 30 inch long smooth-fronted caiman, just sitting on the wet pavement minding its own business.

They stopped to look at it. It looked like, with minimal repositioning it would make a fine photo. One of the group attempted to reposition the little beast with a stick only a few inches long. Now this would have been fine for a spotted salamander, but for a 30 inch smooth-front?

Nope. It didn't work. Didn't even come close to working. And the result? Another herper learned respect for "little-but-feisty" beastie. I just wish I had been there to watch the action.

It's always good to start a trip with a little entertainment.

There's no question that the pattern and colors of this snake are an effective - a very effective - camouflage.



In more than 20 years of tromping through the Peruvian rainforest, we have seen only two speckled forest pitvipers, Bothriopsis taeniatus, and so well did they blend with the background foliage that we almost missed seeing both of them.

Actually, I consider that low number very surprising. The only snake that we search assiduously for and have found fewer of is the emerald tree boa. Of that taxon we have found only one, and unlike the pitviper that one example was not on our normally utilized preserves.

This pitviper may have a ground color of tan or gray to forest or olive green. The pattern is complex and variable, consisting of flecks, blotches, and bands of darker browns, grays, and greens to a green much brighter than the ground color. This pitviper is a slender snake. Adults are often three to three and a half feet in length, but some may attain a length of a few inches over five feet. This snake may spend as much time on the ground as in the trees.

It is a live-bearing snake that reportedly has a small number of young. The neonates are more precisely marked than the adults.

Everywhere and nowhere best describe where you may find this tropical American lance-headed snake. Certainly the fer-de-lance, Bothrops atrox, is one of the commonly seen venomous taxa on the Project Amazonas Biological Stations and in nearby villages, as well on trails far distant from all activity. Many seen are neonates or juveniles but some are 4 foot long adults.



Depending on weather patterns, this snake may be seen in some numbers on one day and night and then be absent, or at least not seen, for several days.

Such was the case on one rainy trip. Small puddles along busy trails on Madre Selva Biological Preserve had drawn sizable populations of breeding frogs and the presence of the frogs had, in turn, drawn the fer-de-lances. Day or night for two days following the storm, we could check the perimeters of the puddles and find 3 or 4 of these snakes, often with body distended by a belly full of frog. However, by the third night we found that they had mostly dispersed and by the following day we saw none.

Then there was the time when a fer-de-lance wasn't present when we left the tambo (2-person cabin) to walk to the kitchen, but one was coiled tightly between the stepping stones when we returned a half hour later.

On another occasion, we hadn't seen a fer-de-lanc in the week we had been at the station. But one evening one person (who later told me he hadn't believed all of my warnings), was distracted in conversation with his son and almost stepped on one that was crawling slowly across the camp clearing.

We were sure glad it was "almost."

As I say, these brown on olive-brown snakes are everywhere, and nowhere. If you're in Amazonas use care - always. Plan ahead when out at night. Carry a flashlight and use it.

Although eastern glass lizards, Ophisaurus ventralis, live in our yard, finding them on demand is a definite problem. I have never been able to do so yet! When it comes right down to it, whether I'm looking for them in my yard or elsewhere, I seldom succeed - at least on the first try.



There are 4 species of glass lizard (family Anguidae) in the United States. Three of the four, the mimic, the island, and the eastern, are restricted to the Southeastern United States. The fourth, the slender glass lizard, has two subspecies. The eastern subspecies is found from Kentucky and Virginia to Louisiana and Florida. The western subspecies ranges from a disjunct population in Wisconsin to Nebraska (barely) and southward to south Texas and west Louisiana.

Glass lizards are accomplished burrowers. In addition to making their own burrows when substrate is of the proper consistency, they may enter and follow a burrow pre-made by a small rodent or large insect. They also often seek seclusion beneath surface debris.

I have been fortunate enough to have found four eastern glass lizards in our yard, three beneath sheets of tin or plywood and one found about 12 inches below the ground surface while I planted a tree. The island and the mimic glass lizards seem a bit less urbanized and are most often encountered in open sandy woodlands or meadows.

Despite being seldom seen, of the four American taxa in this genus of oviparous lizards, only the mimic glass lizard is considered uncommon.

As a herping youngster in New England, I eventually found several eastern milk snakes. On my first trip to the New Jersey Pine Barrens with my mentor, Gordy Johnston, I had seen several Coastal Plains milk snakes Asa Pittman's, an at erstwhile dealer. But a drawing I saw of the southeastern scarlet kingsnake, (then Lampropeltis doliata doliata, now Lampropeltis elapsoides, but for a very long time between these two names it was known as Lampropeltis triangulum elapsoides) ran continually through my young mind.



I finally met a scarlet kingsnake, again with Gordy, but this time in southeastern South Carolina at a place called Okeetee. Our encounter with the scarlet kingsnake might have been on our very first trip to Okeetee. If not then, it was on our second.

At the partially shaded edge of an otherwise sunny field, a long dead pine had toppled. Probably before its impact the bark had loosened in large sheets, and after impact had loosened even more. Bark had broken free in patches and fallen to the ground beneath the trunk. Other patches had merely loosened and were still lying atop or wrapped around the trunk.

Beneath one of these patches, I found the most beautiful snake I had until then seen - a 12 inch long scarlet king!

Since then I have seen dozens more but only this one, and the largest (a 25 inch monster found years later in central Florida), remain so firmly etched in memory.

There are several snake species in Amazonia that undergo extreme color changes as they progress from hatchling/neonate to adulthood.



The orange to green color changes of two, the two species of emerald tree boa, are well known. However, there is a lesser known species, the rusty whipsnake, Chironius scurrulus (a colubrine) about which you seldom hear, that undergoes color changes as great as, but exactly the opposite of, those of the boas.

This slender snake, adult at over six feet in length, is leaf green and largely arboreal as a hatchling. Predominantly terrestrial (actually a largely river-edge, frog eater that swims well and fast) it is rusty brown as an adult. Between these two color extremes the snake appears more faded, a rather nondescript greenish-gray and then grayish-red.

It is a species that we always enjoy finding on our Amazonian Peru tours.

But enough talk. Meet the rusty whipsnake.

Four Days Before Christmas, and all through the 'hood,

The rain was torrential, conditions were good.



Jake said, "It's the night. We really should go."

I checked the computer, barometer's low.

So off in the storm, wipers on high,

The rain still fell in sheets from the lowering sky.

Traffic was heavy on roads, wet and black,

But for 50 long miles we stayed right on track.

We turned toward the pond, it had been a long ride,

But the "sallys" were active. We're both glad we tried!

Road herping central Florida style with Jake: December 21, approximately 67 degrees Fahrenheit, and heavy rain.

Species seen: mole salamander, Ambystoma talpoideum; tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum; spring peeper, Pseudacris crucifer. Also seen: southern toad, green treefrog, and southern leopard frog.

For decades, attempting to ascertain whether this little Jamaican/Cuban gecko, Sphaerodactylus argus, has been extirpated from or remained extant in Florida has been problematic.



The ocellated gecko was first seen on Key West in 1944. It was probably introduced to Florida in produce or construction shipments. But from its first sighting until 2005, it was seen so infrequently that its continued presence here had been questioned by biologists. So infrequent were the sightings - in some cases the hiatus between sightings was nearly 2 decades - that in at least 2 cases it was surmised that the lizard had been extirpated from America's herpetofauna.

But we now know it's here, and there is a fairly robust population.

On Key West in 2005, I collected a half dozen adult ocellated geckos and several eggs that I only knew to be a Sphaerodactylusof some species. When the eggs hatched, I had 2 ashy geckos and several ocellated geckos.

Later in the year, another friend saw a dozen adults and a third person collected a large number for the pet trade. Within the last 2 years many more have been seen. It seems that for the better part of 7 decades this little lizard has been hiding in plain sight.

Introduced to the Lower Keys from Cuba, when adult this tiny lizard is rather nondescript ashy gray in color. The color is actually a complex pattern of ash - sometimes in reticulations, sometimes as fine dots--over a ground color of olive-brown.

But when even tinier, as a 1 1/4 inch long hatchling, it is one of the most beautiful lizards in the United States.



Hatchlings have an olive green body that is often suffused with pale orange, a gray-green head, and a fire orange tail. The limbs are pale orange. Head and body bear precise bands of dark pigment. Dark blotches are present on the top anterior 1/3rd of the tail. Pretty? You betcha! The intensity of color and pattern fades with the lizard's growth.

This is a common gecko on the Lower Keys but is most common on Key West and Stock Island. Hiding by day beneath debris or behind bark on both living and dead trees, it emerges at night and may then be seen on the walls of buildings, trunks of trees, or atop debris.

One of the turtle species that Ron and I encountered on the Colima trip was a semi-aquatic creature of primarily terrestrial habits. Known as the Mexican spotted wood turtle, the subspecies we happened across was Rhinoclemmys rubida perixantha, the more northerly of the 2 known forms.



We encountered 3 of this (as we later learned) uncommon little chelonian. All of these little brown turtles seen were active at night in a flooded field just east of the city of Colima.

The most conspicuous things about these turtles were the intricate and busy head patterns of broad, dark edged, yellow bars and spots. Although the yellow head patterns precluded R. rubida being mistaken for R. pulcherrima, at 6 to 8 inches in length the former were also of smaller size.

Very little is yet known about the diet of the Mexican spotted wood turtle. It is thought that like others in the genus the species eats a good amount of vegetable matter and is an opportunist feeder on invertebrates. It is known that captives relish worms, caterpillars, and land dwelling molluscs.

Hopefully, as the Behler Center works with their group we will learn more about this beautiful and delightful turtle.

In his little Austin Healey Sprite, Ron and I zipped across the border in Brownsville, Texas heading into Mexico's interior. We had no idea where we were going or where we would stop. We were young, had enough time and hoped we had sufficient dinero to get us to wherever and back home again. We did. Barely.



As it turned out we encountered torrential rains in the Pacific Coast state of Colima, and with the rains there were herps--herps of kinds we had never seen before in the wild, and many that neither of us had seen anywhere.

The rain flooded low lying fields and now treefrogs of a half dozen species were vocalizing. Mexican wood turtles walked the wet roadsides and swam across larger flooded areas. Lyre snakes, parrot snakes, and our hands down favorite - brown vine snakes - were crossing or sitting quietly on the highway. We were surprised that the latter were active as they are considered diurnal species with poor night vision but it seemed probable that the heavy rains prompted divergence from the norm.

Although Ron and I were known for unplanned trips, this one was by far the longest yet (a longer trip, it too, unplanned, to southern Chiapas was to come later). This multi-thousand mile trip for 2 adults in a 2-seat Sprite from Tampa to coastal southern Colima was more than just a bit crowded. But now, 50 years later, I still look back on with fond memories.

We spent only a few minutes flipping fallen palm fronds that lay on a grassy slope between a busy highway and a saltmarsh before we found the first of the several hatchling-sized ornate diamond-backed terrapins, Malaclemys terrapin macrospilota, we were to find that day.



After seeing several of the turtle babies while he searched the area for kingsnakes, Billy pointed out this tract of roadside habitat to us and, sure enough, the turtles were here. All were beneath the fallen fronds and all were at least partially dug into the sandy substrate.

Although it had probably been several weeks since they had hatched, all that we found during our search were still of hatchling size, and all but 1 or 2 were quietly tucked in, legs and neck withdrawn, eyes tightly closed. Since we still had weeks of warm weather ahead of us, it seemed strange that so many babies were this quiescent.

But compared to Mother Nature, what do we know?

The ornate is the subspecies of diamond-backed terrapin that is found along most of Florida's Gulf Coast. It ranges from the northern Keys to Okaloosa County on the panhandle. Of the many subspecies, the ornate is most consistently the prettiest having a black flecked light gray head and usually an orange center to each carapacial scute. Hatchlings are particularly pretty and usually have very prominent vertebral tubercles.

Do not expect to see diamond-backs in freshwater habitats. They are restricted to salt and brackish waters.

The ringing peeps of a vocalizing ornate chorus frog, Pseudacris ornata, lack the upward slurring of the much more common spring peeper.



Although only one and one quarter inches in length, the ornate chorus frog, a heavy bodied species, looks larger. And this little frog of the southeastern United States, in some of its many colorations, is truly ornate. The ground color may vary from mud-brown, through russet, russet and green, to a clear pea green. There are often dorsal spots or stripes of a contrasting color. Black lateral and groin spotting is invariable and there is also a black eyestripe.

Despite its size, the ornate chorus frog can be perplexingly difficult to locate. It is ventriloquial to some degree, and a call that seems to be originating from close at hand may actually be originating from some distance away. On rare occasions, such as overcast, drizzly nights, ornate chorus frogs may sit on open muddy banks or float in the open while calling. But in most cases they call while tucked well away in tangles of blackberries or secluded in emergent grass clumps.

In some areas, such as its southernmost range on the Florida peninsula (the latitude of Lake Okeechobee), this frog is now present in reduced numbers (or extirpated). In fact, its current range in Florida may start well north of the Tampa Bay region. But in some more northerly areas it still seems common.

Take the time to look it up. It is a beautiful anuran.