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Ah, the time of year when people start showing me snakes they valiantly decapitated and asking if "its' a copperhead???????"  (Never once in my life has it been a copperhead or anything else venomous.)
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| # ¿ Mar 29, 2012 13:00 |
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| # ¿ May 25, 2013 08:45 |
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PREYING MANTITS posted:Timely post! Because I'm curious what this is. I'm going with northern water snake, maybe the midlands subspecies based on where you are and that they seem to be a little more brightly colored. They can be ill-tempered, but harmless. Capable of musking and making GBS threads prodigiously if picked up 
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| # ¿ Mar 29, 2012 19:12 |
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Every kid should catch a slimy salamander when they're young enough it overhangs their hands held together.
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| # ¿ Mar 30, 2012 12:45 |
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I remember my hands suddenly being coated with what felt like snot, rubber cement, and rotted wood more vividly than the salamander, really.
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| # ¿ Mar 30, 2012 15:08 |
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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. In retrospect I was 8 and my hunting ground wasn't the best.
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| # ¿ Mar 30, 2012 16:34 |
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Kildeer are the absolute worst for that. They're all around near where I work and apparently love to nest in the mulch where people walk to their cars.
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| # ¿ Apr 1, 2012 23:53 |
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Cardiovorax posted:I live near in a particularly mountainous region, so I'm afraid I'm out of luck there. Thanks for pointing that out, though, I'll pay particular attention the next time I'm in the vicinity of a wetland area. the thought of a ground nesting bird laying in a hilly area... The kildeer that nested near where my car was parked never did the wing injury behavior, it only spread its wings and made a racket (found a video) Does that mean I've misidentified it? I didn't think there were any similar species.
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| # ¿ Apr 5, 2012 02:22 |
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That's a big fence lizard so far as my experience runs. Love the belly colors on those guys.
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| # ¿ Apr 6, 2012 19:50 |
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Erethizon_dorsatum posted:Beautiful olive green carapace! I think you've got a western painted turtle there.
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| # ¿ Apr 9, 2012 11:36 |
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Erethizon_dorsatum posted:Could be! What did I miss that IDs it? All the red color, particularly on the plastron (underside) is one giveaway. Yours is pretty worn but it's still there. The carapace (upper shell) shape also differs, with sliders tending towards a peak or ridge over the spine, while painteds (and your guy, seemingly) have a smooth uniform colored bowl shape. How the shell looks will vary with the age and wearing of the turtle, though, so I think the red coloring is the real telltale.
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| # ¿ Apr 9, 2012 13:29 |
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Charlie72 posted:Thanks. Now I know the not too uncommon around these parts, so next time I see one I'll try to get a closer picture. Belly crawl. They're wary suckers.
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| # ¿ Apr 13, 2012 00:57 |
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A 5' gator showed up at work. Oh, the perils of putting in water features near a coastal river
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| # ¿ Apr 18, 2012 17:00 |
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Casu Marzu posted:This is a really out-there question, but I was out in a wetland area in central WI this morning on a hike, and I heard the oddest call just before sunrise. I know most of the bird calls in the area, but this was so out there. If it was 50 degrees warmer, a lot more humid, and I closed my eyes, I could imagine this call being from an ape or monkey in the tropics. It was a very loud WHO-who? repeated every 20 or 30 seconds for quite some time. The call was also very low and resonant, nothing like I'd expect out of a bird. Great horned owls sound exactly like a person imitating an owl in a low voice
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2012 21:50 |
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Earthworms drown underwater, don't they? I guess it could be some other segmented worm but I sure as hell would have guessed leech too.
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| # ¿ May 15, 2012 20:52 |
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Pianist On Strike posted:Cool! That's what I figured, the size seemed right. It was just cool to see a nice clean skull just lying in the driveway. Crane fly? No idea about species though.
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| # ¿ Jun 24, 2012 23:44 |
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I seem to have found some kind of god-king robber fly in northern kentucky. It's hard to tell scale from this photo but this guy is easily twice the size of any of the ones I've seen before.
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| # ¿ Jul 14, 2012 16:57 |
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MaxMaxIncomeTax posted:Saw a cicada shell in my backyard yesterday. 
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| # ¿ Jul 16, 2012 22:35 |
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Nice Scolopendra heros you have there!
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| # ¿ Jul 20, 2012 13:58 |
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Saturniid19 posted:This species is often mistaken for Manduca quinquemaculata since it is seen on tomatoes but Nighthand's is actually a tobacco hornworm, M. sexta. M. sexta has a red horn, M. quinquemaculata has a blue or black horn. It seems like nitpicking, but it's a very common error and it bugs me. Especially interesting to me, since that means apparently all the 'tomato hornworms' I've seen at reptile shows as supplementary food are really tobacco hornworms (unless irl they're not so drastically different in color)
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| # ¿ Aug 21, 2012 20:14 |
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I got a brief 8 legged hug today  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKWKp34SyOY
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| # ¿ Aug 29, 2012 01:15 |
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That doesn't look like any stink bug I'm familiar with, it's shaped a lot like either a leaf-footed or a wheel bug. In any case yeah it's definitely possible but a cluster of 'things' would be more indicative of eggs as opposed to a bug turd.
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| # ¿ Sep 8, 2012 05:21 |
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Yeah, I'm no expert on the different species, but I'm going with leaf footed bug of some kind, similar to this: http://bugguide.net/node/view/322453/bgpage
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| # ¿ Sep 8, 2012 05:49 |
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Mr. Vile posted:http://www.upi.com/Science_News/201...90391351640008/ Holy poo poo so cool  I assume they're on the rare side if they're only just being described, but it'd be so cool if they make it into captive breeding.
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| # ¿ Nov 1, 2012 23:37 |
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Hard Ron posted:Dude YES! That is exactly what I was thinking of. Holy poo poo, they really ARE real... I'm pretty sure those things are loving hellspawn. Only explanation for something like that existing. Jesus Christ those are terrifyingly awesome Oh Igor. That dude's photos, jesus.
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| # ¿ Nov 10, 2012 14:54 |
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| # ¿ May 25, 2013 08:45 |
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saihate posted:The mantis in the picture you quoted is still alive and even laid an egg case! (it's been like 3 months?) I'm not sure what to do with the egg case. I also had another mantis which I put into the freezer a few days ago because it was too weak to catch food You'll wanna chill that egg case (or put it outside secured in a bush) unless you want baby mantids everywhere in the dead of winter.
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| # ¿ Dec 7, 2012 23:39 |
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Don't want to repeat the mistake from a few years back where the mantis got eaten by the food crickets. 
