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It's a Sicarius terrosus, six eyed cave spider, doing the burying maneuver characteristic of the genus. As you might guess, from concealment they abruptly end the mortal existence of passers-by with a virulent cocktail of necrotic venom similar to that of Loxoscles species.  
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 18:20 |
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| # ? May 20, 2013 12:08 |
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Here's the video his avatar is from. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtXPmWJcuZY
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 18:24 |
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Thank you both, that's an awesome video. 
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 18:27 |
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the yeti posted:At the time, it was the best thing ever. As a kid I had lousy luck finding with salamanders so finding a slimy was pretty memorable. It's still pretty neat. And it's still awesome when you get to watch someone else get slimed for the first time. I was outside and took this photo:  You might be able to see the advantage in being a fall breeding salamander, vs. a spring breeder, especially when you breed in the same pools. The little guy is a spotted salamander larva that's a week or two old, and the other is an opacum larva that I collected as an egg this fall. The opacum has to survive the whole winter, often in a shallow pool that might freeze solid some years, but if he makes it, he's got a huge advantage over the predatory insects and other salamanders in the pool. Instead of competing with the other Ambystoma, for a while they get to eat them (though with tigers, that time period is short, and then after a while the tigers can eat them again). OneTwentySix fucked around with this message at Mar 30, 2012 around 19:50 |
| # ? Mar 30, 2012 19:48 |
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Utah only has one kind of salamander, the tiger salamander. 
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 19:48 |
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Sweden and Scandinavia has two salamanders, three snakes and three lizards.
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 19:59 |
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All this chat has convinced me to do Congaree's river trail tomorrow. It's long enough that the traffic should be low, maybe I'll be able to turn up some critters to photo.
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 20:07 |
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the yeti posted:All this chat has convinced me to do Congaree's river trail tomorrow. It's long enough that the traffic should be low, maybe I'll be able to turn up some critters to photo. I was considering heading to Congaree tomorrow too, my partner thoroughly shot this idea down with the whole "We're moving out in six days so you should probably pack" shtick. btw we gotta do a cola goonmeet sometime because there's a lot of us who seem to be interested in similar things.
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 20:42 |
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I need to make time to hit Sumter National Forest too since it's more upland habitat. Pahhh SIX WHOLE DAYS  Staying in the area?
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 20:54 |
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the yeti posted:I need to make time to hit Sumter National Forest too since it's more upland habitat. Just moving across the river, out of apartment into a rented house. Never been up to Sumter, I hear it's pretty great. I keep trying to make time to go west to the Smokies and see what I can find in some of the trails out there. Gotta say, OneTwentySix, that was a pretty amazing herp trip you had. I'm very jealous. I'm also going to infer from your name that you are in the area too, booyah!
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 20:59 |
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This thread is incredible. I thought I was afraid of critters, but the sheer enthusiasm in this thread is making me appreciate how pretty they are instead
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 21:12 |
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Stew Man Chew posted:Just moving across the river, out of apartment into a rented house. Never been up to Sumter, I hear it's pretty great. I keep trying to make time to go west to the Smokies and see what I can find in some of the trails out there. It was a lot of fun; I wasn't really expecting to find all that much, and didn't even spend that much time herping once I started finding mushrooms; I was in the woods for almost nine hours, but maybe only three or four of those were herping. I'm not sure what 126 (I-26?) has to do with being in the area; it was just a lucky number I had when I was 16, and never got rid of it, though now it's coincidentally also my house number. I am in SC, though. I'd really like to get down to the Congaree, too; I can't go on Saturday because I have to pick up my bees, but I was either going to go out for Aneides again in the NW part of the state, or head down to the Congaree on Sunday. I'd be glad to meet up with someone or a group, though, if people wanted to get together and go herping near Columbia; I've got two sites for aquatic sals (and my uber-net), a little stream where I saw a cottonmouth once, and going off trail in the park can turn up tons of cool herps. I've done a little herping in Sumter, but aside from a copperhead, haven't found much. That's not all that far from where I am (Spartanburg), though. And if anyone were to want to come out this way at any time, I've got a pair of really good herping sites in Spartanburg, and my spot for Aneides/four-toed salamanders in the mountains to the NW that I'd be glad to show someone around in. I suspect there are milk snakes and timber rattlers there, but haven't found any yet. Admiral Goodenough posted:This thread is incredible. I thought I was afraid of critters, but the sheer enthusiasm in this thread is making me appreciate how pretty they are instead It really is fun, regardless of what you're into. When you're a kid, it was a blast to go flipping logs or looking for bugs or whatever. The thing is, it never stops being fun, we just convince ourselves that that's just for kids. In reality, it's WAY better as an adult, because you can research locations, get to places you couldn't, and drive out on your own, and so on. And it's good exercise and fresh air.
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 21:48 |
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Chariot posted:Utah only has one kind of salamander, the tiger salamander. Tigers are neat, at least, but yeah, I could never live in Utah. At least tigers can be neotenes, which is cool in and of itself and sort of gives you a second species. axolotl farmer posted:Sweden and Scandinavia has two salamanders, three snakes and three lizards. That's depressing; makes Wisconsin seem like a herping paradise. At least your two sals are cool; I really like European newts, especially the Lissotriton.
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 21:59 |
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OneTwentySix posted:And if anyone were to want to come out this way at any time, I've got a pair of really good herping sites in Spartanburg, and my spot for Aneides/four-toed salamanders in the mountains to the NW that I'd be glad to show someone around in. I suspect there are milk snakes and timber rattlers there, but haven't found any yet. Talking my language now, hah. Have you got any experience with more notherly, Rutherford and Polk Counties, NC or in that area?
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 22:40 |
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No, I don't typically go that far; there's a salamander I want to find in there (Plethodon yonahlossee), but aside from a couple trips a while back, I haven't been up in that area. I might have spent an afternoon in a mountain stream in that area when I first got here, though.
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 22:52 |
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Utah at least has a ton of frogs, toads, snakes, lizards, and turtles; I find its lack of salamanders odd as a result. I've always preferred them ever since catching a big northern red salamander (Pseudotriton ruber ruber) while on a boy scout trip in the northeast US when i was 12. Several other salamanders were caught on the same trip (some 3-lined, some sort of orange newt) but the red one really stuck with me. 
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 23:13 |
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OneTwentySix posted:No, I don't typically go that far; there's a salamander I want to find in there (Plethodon yonahlossee), but aside from a couple trips a while back, I haven't been up in that area. I might have spent an afternoon in a mountain stream in that area when I first got here, though. Ah just wondering, that's the area where I grew up, learning about a nice spot or two would be cool
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| # ? Mar 30, 2012 23:36 |
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I'm planning to go out tomorrow with a couple of friends to a small wilderness area on the local college campus. There's a (small) prairie reserve, but most of it is a wooded area, with a small creek running through it. I'm in Central Arkansas, and it's an urban area. I'd love any suggestions on what critters I could find, and where to find them. I've got a really crappy camera, but my friend has a nice DSLR and he wants to take a lot of pictures, as he's still learning to use it. Any advice is appreciated, and any good pics will be shared!
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 01:30 |
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Arkansas is awesome for looking for things, especially the NW part of the state. In 2007, I drove from Wisconsin to Nebraska to pick up a friend, and then we hit up some sites in Arkansas. It was one of the best times of my life. Flip rocks near the stream, flip logs in the woods, though your best bet is to get out of the city and find a nice area. The NW part of the state is amazing; do a little caving, look around some pools, etc. I shared these photos a few years ago, back when I registered, but here are some of the things you can find in Arkansas.  We saw this red-sided garter snake in Kansas, I believe, when we stopped on the way down. They're a really pretty snake.   Plethodon albagula, western slimy salamander. You can find these guys all over the place; we found something like 20 of them in the mountains over six hours.  Plethodon angusticlavius, the Ozark zig-zag salamander. Very common under logs.   Ground skink, Scincella lateralis. Very common lizards. Bottom animal was eggbound and probably didn't make it.   Collared lizard; a little guy we found on a plateau.  Eastern fence lizard.  Dwarf American toad.  Nice scenery.  Gastrophryne carolinensis, narrowmouth toad.  Green treefrog, Hyla cinerea.  Little opacum I found; that was fun since my friend had been to that site for three years and hadn't found any.  Tiny Desmognathus brimleyorum.  Habitat shot in the mountains.  Eastern newt eft, Notophthalmus viridescens louisianensis.  Netting for newts in a small pond, ~10' x 20'. We found over 400 of them in that tiny pond.   Many newts.  Eurycea longicauda melanopleura, dark-sided salamander.   Eurycea lucifuga, cave salamander.     Eurycea spelaea; grotto salamander. Really, really awesome obligate cave-dwelling salamanders. We saw over twenty and I really, really want to go back some day.  A bat.  A moth.  Some sort of spider with babies.  Big Chinese mantis; second mantis I ever found. We also saw a snake or two.   Blue racer, Coluber constrictor.  Flatheaded snake, Tantilla gracilis  Smooth earth snake, Virginia valerae  Mississippi green watersnake, Nerodia cyclopion cyclopion  Prairie ringneck snake, Diadophis punctatus  Broadbanded watersnake, Nerodia fasciata confluens        Cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus All in all, we found a lot of animals: Snakes: 12 Dekay's snake Red-sided garters Tantilla gracilis Southern racer Cottonmouth Smooth Earth Snake Prairie Ringneck Snake Narrowbanded Watersnake Western ribbon snake Scarlet snake Mississippi Green Watersnake Scarlet Snake Lizards: 5 Eastern fence lizard Ground skink Five-lined skink Prairie racerunner Collared lizard Frogs: 8 Acris crepitans (blanchardi?) Bufo americanus charlesmithi Rana clamitans clamitans Rana catesbeiana Gastrophryne carolinensis Hyla cinereus Pseudacris crucifer Pseudacris triseriata Salamanders: 12 Ambystoma annulatum Ambystoma opacum Eurycea multiplicata multiplicata Eurycea multiplicata griseogaster Eurycea lucifiga Eurycea longicauda melanopleura Eurycea spelaeus Desmognathus brimleyorum Plethodon albagula Plethodon angusticlavius Siren intermedia nettingi Notophthalmus viridescens louisianensis So really, Arkansas is a great place to look for animals. We were in Central Arkansas for a few days and found some of those animals (most of the snakes), so there are definitely neat animals you can find there. I really want to go back again.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 02:15 |
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BlueFlowerRedSky posted:What a beautiful beetle! Although, for some reason, the first thing that I thought of when I saw it was The Metamorphosis Yeah, that's the only thing I can think it would be. They lay their eggs in pine bark, so I guess they would need a pretty robust poking device to get them in there.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 03:09 |
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OneTwentySix posted:
I need to find my old sally-ing photos.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 03:16 |
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Is it true that with watersnakes vs. cottonmouths, one "floats" and one swims under the water? I can never remember which is supposed to be which, but it's probably moot as I hear cottonmouths are big chickens and won't actually approach you.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 14:20 |
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They are built rather differently so one might be more predisposed to be more floaty, but I think that kind of rule is the same type of folklore as "cottonmouths can't bite underwater."
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 15:22 |
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UK Critterquesters, does anyone know when the best month to find the turtles that have been released into Hyde Park is? I remember in the last thread someone said that they can be found near the canal opening, but I never got around to going to Hyde Park last summer. This summer, however, I'm determined to see the turtles that have somehow managed to survive England. (Sorry, I know they're invasive jerks -- I have pet sliders in the US -- but turtles are my favorite animal and my least favorite thing about living in England is its lack of turtles, since I'm using to being able to find them very easily back home.)
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 16:31 |
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 I spent an hour hunting around ponds for salamanders and tree frogs, but all I found was one slug and some worms. I flipped over all the logs, rooted through the leaf litter, all that stuff. Found some (presumably frog) eggs, though. Would it be ethical to take a few to raise as pets, or is that a Bad Thing? What do you even feed tadpoles, mealworms? Daphnia?
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 16:42 |
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Depends on how rare the species is. Also you need to separate them eventually, or they'll start eating each other. Unless you've got a bunch of aquariums and a lot of space, I'd just leave them where they are.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 18:11 |
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axolotl farmer posted:Sweden and Scandinavia has two salamanders, three snakes and three lizards. Actually there's three types of salamanders in Denmark, there's a small population of alpine newts in Southern Jutland! What is the third kind of snake? I only know of the Green grass snake and the Common adder living here in Denmark. I'm guessing it's something we don't have down here. Apparently there's also a population of pond turtles somewhere in Jutland, which isn't just released pet turtles.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 18:17 |
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Welp I wasn't sure where else to share this. There's various little spiders around my place, I leave them be because they get carpet beetle larva for me and don't really bother anyone. Last night I saw a spider that was on the large side (for a tiny spider) crawling up the wall. I watched climb up to the ceiling, only to get caught in the web of the tiniest spider ever that was maybe a 10th of its size and was barely visible. Bigger spider was attacked, wrapped up and swiftly defeated. :') How that's possible I have no idea, it seems like sheer size difference would have made it impossible. Go little spider~
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 19:12 |
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Cichlidae posted:
Those look like spotted salamander eggs; were they fairly firm? Which would explain why you didn't find anything; the adults can be difficult to find during the day time. You might find Plethodons or other terrestrial animals, but the Ambystoma can be a pain. Go back at night with a flashlight and you might have a different story, if you're not too late. Those eggs look pretty fresh, though. Go ahead and take a few; a very small percentage of eggs make it to adulthood, and many years the water will dry up before they hatch. Break the mass up or get a small one, though; they can be expensive to raise so it's best to not take more than you can handle. Salamanders need live food, though; Daphnia work well for all sizes, and as they get bigger, you can feed blackworms; many small non-chain pet stores carry these, or you can buy them online. If you want to go for frog eggs, boil lettuce or cabbage or spinach, and the tadpoles will eat that (after it has cooled). Be sure to change the water frequently, though; tadpoles poo poo a lot. Hazo posted:Wow, great threat display! Was he just really ornery, or were you super close? I've snuck up on five or six footers who never cared one bit, much less did the mouth gape thing. I can't remember; my friend may have been poking him with his snake stick to get him to pose for a picture. We were also super close; when we rolled the log (huge tree that took both of us), he was about six inches from where our fingers had been. The other snake (in the water; we only saw two) was less ornery; we were flipping rocks looking for D. brimleyorum, and he'd been watching us for about twenty minutes, roughly thirty feet away.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 19:57 |
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OneTwentySix posted:Those look like spotted salamander eggs; were they fairly firm? Which would explain why you didn't find anything; the adults can be difficult to find during the day time. You might find Plethodons or other terrestrial animals, but the Ambystoma can be a pain. Go back at night with a flashlight and you might have a different story, if you're not too late. Those eggs look pretty fresh, though. Thanks for the advice! We'll go back tonight and grab a couple. Yes, they were quite firm, and much heavier than I expected. I didn't know a little thing like a salamander could hold so many eggs. I'm getting a 25-gallon tank setup next weekend, so I'd like to make a biome for them, depending on what ends up hatching. How long do you think the eggs would take to hatch? Edit: There were some other egg masses, too, but those eggs were very cloudy. I assumed that meant they were fungused, but perhaps there's another species that has milky casings? 
Cichlidae fucked around with this message at Mar 31, 2012 around 21:00 |
| # ? Mar 31, 2012 20:16 |
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Most of that is just water; the only parts the salamander really needs to produce are all the little embryos. When they lay the masses, they expand a ton, which helps protect them from leeches and other predators. Those other eggs are also spotted salamander masses, although the shape is really weird. There's a lot of variation in the masses. You get the clear masses like the first photo, the opaque masses like in the second one, and then you get the green masses, which is from an algae symbiont; it's actually found in the female oviducts, Oophila amblystomatis (literally means Egg-lover of Amb(l)ystomas.) Spotted eggs take 4-6 weeks to hatch, generally. You'll need two tanks; one for metamorphs, and one for the larvae. A gallon ice cream tub works fine for a few, or you can get a cheap 20 gallon rubbermaid tote and raise larvae in there. Those totes also work well for daphnia cultures, or you can use stagnant water and culture mosquitoes. For an adult/juvenile cage, this caresheet can give you some ideas. http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/A.../A_opacum.shtml I recommend coconut fiber (coir) for a substrate, but just be sure to keep it drat, and to have something on top of it (leaves, moss, bark) to keep humidty in. If you go again tonight, watch for newts; there may be some in the pond, too. And watch for frogs, there should be lots of cool things going on at night! If you wanted a frog to keep instead, a wood frog (or any of the tree/cricket/grass frogs, or a toad; stay away from most Ranids, though, since they don't do so well in captivity usually) might be a good choice. Wood frog eggs look like this:   (Sorry for crappy photos; those were taken with what was basically baby's first digital camera, eight years ago, when digital cameras were still expensive as hell. I couldn't find any better WF egg photos. Very distinct; the jelly does not hold its shape, and embryos are clustered tightly together. Wood frogs are early breeders, and the tightly clustered dark embryos helps keep them warm/warmer, though most ranids will have tons of eggs like that. The eggs will be laid in a large group, with tons of masses together, which is another anti-freezing adaptation; all those dark embryos in still water together can probably raise the temperature around them by a degree or more. OneTwentySix fucked around with this message at Mar 31, 2012 around 21:17 |
| # ? Mar 31, 2012 21:14 |
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Combaticus posted:Actually there's three types of salamanders in Denmark, there's a small population of alpine newts in Southern Jutland! There's the common adder Vipera berus, the grass snake Natrix natrix which are both very common. The third is the smooth snake, Coronella austriaca. Wikipedia says it's missing from Denmark, which is strange since it's found in Southern Sweden and Norway and all over Germany. 
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 21:45 |
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axolotl farmer posted:it's found [...] all over Germany. 
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 21:50 |
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You will never see a newt in Northern Europe unless you go looking for it. They're hard to see and nocturnal in the land phase and hidden in vegetation under water in the aquatic phase. The method for finding newts is to find a pond that looks like a newt habitat and drag a net through the vegetation on the bottom. Common vipers love rocks and sunshine, there's a lot of them on the Baltic sea coast. You pretty much only see them when they're basking on a rock. Grass snakes actually love water, they feed on toads and frogs. They like small ponds and lakes and it's common to see one swimming with just the head sticking up out of the water.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 22:00 |
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This thread is great, I'd love to participate more but I only really have one good picture of a wild critter (most of my photos are stuff in zoos): This was taken at the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farm on the big island of Hawaii. They have a nice little flower garden you can walk around in and I saw this lil guy on a bird of paradise and he posed for me! I have no idea what sort of bug he is but I think he's adorable.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 22:05 |
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The really long antennae says that the guy hanging out on the flower is a Katydid nymph.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 22:07 |
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 This is a baby cockroach that got infected by a parasitic worm. The worm was wriggling out of the cockroach when I took this picture.  These 2 male anoles are fighting over territory. Both photos were taken in South Carolina.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 23:10 |
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Arcanist posted:
A Nematomorpha? That picture is really neat, thanks for sharing! The anoles are pretty cool, too, but I've always wanted to run into one of those worms.
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| # ? Mar 31, 2012 23:12 |
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OneTwentySix posted:It's still pretty neat. And it's still awesome when you get to watch someone else get slimed for the first time. I'm roughly 100,000% certain that's an axolotl. Had one as a pet for about a year that was roughly that size :3 They make amazing pets but sometimes they'll eat a little pebble and get gas that makes them float for a day or so, but they never learn not to do it because they're dumb, lol. edit: Google is leading me to think maybe those are the same thing? I can't find anything actually stating that though, can anyone confirm this? shirtninjas fucked around with this message at Apr 1, 2012 around 00:36 |
| # ? Apr 1, 2012 00:31 |
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| # ? May 20, 2013 12:08 |
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shirtninjas posted:I'm roughly 100,000% certain that's an axolotl. Had one as a pet for about a year that was roughly that size :3 Most salamanders have gills when they're young.  Edit: Not to mention axolotl are native to Mexico.
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| # ? Apr 1, 2012 00:39 |
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