Favoritos de artificialfauna

Speckled Forest Pit Viper - Mapanare
Bothrops taeniatus
www.matthieu-berroneau.fr

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(Larger, darker snake) My mom texted me a photo of two snakes she found hanging out together while she was watering plants. ~3.5 hours later, they were still in the same area and I took some more photos. Sometimes the larger snake would move away a foot or two, and eventually the smaller one would slither over to it again. (will create a duplicate post for the other snake)

The consensus among people I've talked to so far is that this is most likely a hybrid or the offspring of a hybrid between Masticophis flagellum ruddocki and Masticophis lateralis lateralis. That being said, I'm interested to see if anyone thinks otherwise. Anyone know of other Masticophis hybrid records besides taeniatus x lateralis?

@meandthealiens and I found this snake in treeless desert habitat (more suitable for M. f. ruddocki).

Dicephalic neonate found in a residential yard. GTS 861. VW ABC 015. Note several spinal kinks. Specimen survived several months, fed sporadically, died and was preserved.

See: Wallach, Van, and Gerard T. Salmon (2013) Axial Bifurcation and Duplication in Snakes. Part V. A Review of Nerodia sipedon Cases with a New Record from New York State, 102-106. In Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society 48(8).

Taken on monthly Birding on Broadmeade group walk on Lake Creek Trail in Williamson County in northwest Austin.

Two small Blotched Water Snakes were hunting minnows in the creek near the third low water crossing. At first we wondered if this was one snake with two heads, but finally one head moved somewhere else.

Beautiful leucistic Cal King found while road cruising in the Mojave! This lavender morph is common in the pet trade but rare to find out in the wild. It was very far from human habitation so it is definitely not an escaped captive bred snake.

Trifecta!! Competing in tug-o-war with a common garter snake for adult female cascades frog prey. Amazing rare observation!
Published observation in Herpetological Review as a note:
Garwood, J., and N. Garwood. 2020. Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi (Valley Garter Snake) and Thamnophis atratus hydrophilus (Oregon Aquatic Garter Snake). Foraging Competition. Herpetological Review 51:881-881.

Seen early morning outside my office front door, constricting a large gecko that, in turn, had a grip on the snake. Fortunately for the snake the gecko only had hold of a skin flap at the snake's throat, narrowly missing its trachea.
I placed an inverted basket over the pair so that the drama could play out undisturbed by foot traffic.
Later, when I removed the basket it was evident that the snake had prevailed. Only sign of the gecko was a lump in the snake.

Extremely odd behavior from a Watersnake and Ribbonsnake... has anyone else observed something similar to this before? Both healthy adults with no visible injuries and both escaped rather quickly under their own power without coaxing.

I originally walked up on this pair around noon but the ribbon snake took off before I could get a picture of the odd behavior so I immediately left and came back about three hours later to find them both in the exact same position. So it’s fair to assume it’s a reoccurring arrangement between the two of them. The minimal research I have done has turned up nothing but I would love to hear from someone more knowledgeable about this sort of thing!

Individual was observed at night (time estimated) just after a heavy rain crawling around buildings at the research station. It was still raining lightly when found. It was removed and photographed the next day and released in the same area. Time is estimated, it was well after dinner but not before midnight.

Blue form of White-lipped Island Pitviper, from Komodo Islands
www.matthieu-berroneau.fr

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Found this lil one which I have never seen a color morph like this for a Mud snake. I determined it to be one based off the visual/physical features such as the “tail spine”, pattern, head/eye shape, as well as a divided anal plate.

This observation is for the individual in the first photo. All these photos are of Andrena in the same patch of Phacelia dubia, but the photos may include multiple individuals. A number of individuals were collected.

Would love some ID help on this one, as I wasn't having great luck with DiscoverLife on it. This lone female was seen in a nesting aggregation of A. regularis on a dirt hiking path at the edge of woods and field.
I'll spare you the ~100 or so photos I took and summarize the features that were visible in one photo or another:

• broad pale foveae
• weak but probably(?) complete tergal fasciae. By viewing various angles I think they are complete but definitely sparser in the middle.
• Fine, distinct, somewhat crowded punctures on scutum
• Vertex ~1-1.5 ocellar distances
• F1 equal or slightly greater than F2+F3
• pygidial plate with raised internal triangle
• m+cu vein meets submarginal cell at around 2/3 of the way
• tibial scopa pale (with dark hairs extending from basitibial plate)
• tergites appear crosshatched, not shiny.

I was not able to get any shots showing the face head-on, as the bee kept turning away from me. One oddly-angled photo appeared to show a long malar space and an unpitted midline but I cannot be certain. Good-sized, a little larger than the male A. regularis roaming about.
Flowers blooming at this location nearby were Salix, Hepatica, and Sanguinaria. I do have some footage of it digging as well, but it only shows the abdomen. Soil was dense, clay-loam I am guessing. Not sand.

Surprising for me. All over on Dasiphora fructicosa; rather late date. Flowering phenology of Dasiphora varies from place to place, can be as early as June (often August-September in fens around here). Wide vertex and apical areas of tergites, fairly dense punctures on scutum (vs. virginiana). Det confirmed with voucher specimens. Seems these guys and virginiana are probably most plausible Trachandrena in August-September in the northeast...

First record for NJ I think? Found immediately at this location where Parnassia glauca is common (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/58853177). Saw both males and females. Difficult access (and probably sensitive habitat) at this location, so keeping it obscured for now. One photo gives an idea of the habitat - an A. parnassiae female is visible on Parnassia in the center on the photo. Another photo shows both male and female.

1000++ nests over the entire base path on a town ballfield. Photo 1 shows the area around 1st base bag. Photo 2 is a closeup of a portion of this same area. Photo 3 is home plate.

Greater number of nests observed in the clay-colored substrate on the base paths compared with the grey substrate on home plate and the pitcher's mound.

A few individuals of Nomada lehighensis were observed parasitizing the nests. See observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/213534760

Two live collected specimens showing the variation in aperture colouration. Hundreds of this species congregate in the shallow, intertidal sand flats of North-West Tasmania to breed. These specimens were highly selected among them.