Reptile & Amphibian News Blog
Keep up with news and features of interest to the reptile and amphibian community on the kingsnake.com blog. We cover breaking stories from the mainstream and scientific media, user-submitted photos and videos, and feature articles and photos by Jeff Barringer, Richard Bartlett, and other herpetologists and herpetoculturists.
Tuesday, January 15 2019
This Wood Frog in our herp photo of the day, brings back memories of summertime herping. Uploaded by kingsnake.com user casichelydia . Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Monday, January 14 2019
So very underestimated but how many of you caught a Garter like the one in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user snakekate for your first field find? Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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 External gills, functional eyes, tailfin--the larval grotto salamander has all three.
Currently there are 191 named species of salamanders in the USA. This large amphibian grouping is contained in 8 families of which the largest by far is the Plethodontidae with 147 species plus well over a dozen subspecies. With the use of genetics it is probable that an additional 25+ species will soon be added to this family.
The plethodontids vary in size from 2” long dwarfs to what are considered in this family comparative giants of 9”. Among these are species that are entirely aquatic throughout their lives (paedomorphic taxa), others which are just as entirely terrestrial, and many that are in between these two extremes. Most seek seclusion beneath logs and rocks in damp woodlands, some prefer a similar microhabitat along stream edges, and others live beneath rocks and leaf litter submerged in streams, creeks, or rivulets. Terrestrial taxa have well developed, fully functional eyes, some aquatic forms have reduced vision, and some aquatics are blind. And then there’s the grotto salamander, Eurycea (formerly Typhlotriton) spelaea, a most remarkable little beast that may be encountered in the cave systems of Southeastern Kansas , Northeastern Oklahoma, Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas.
Troglodytic when adult and in its later stages as a larva, after hatching the larvae often follow connecting underground streams from the darkness of caves to the daylight outside. At that point they are pigmented, being a weakly patterned olive brown to tan. They then have functional eyes, 3 pairs of external gills, and a well-developed tailfin. During the daylight hours they, like many aquatic salamanders, hide beneath rocks and stream bottom debris. On cloudy days and at night they are more inclined to depart their lairs, swimming and foraging in the open.
After a larval duration of several years the 3 or 4 inch long larvae follow their home streams back into the darkness and undergo a metamorphosis that is typical in some respects but atypical in others. Simplified, typically the gills and tailfin lessen in size and function until they are fully resorbed and the larvae become capable of existing terrestrially. Atypically the pigment of the now subterranean salamander is gradually lost and rather than becoming lidded and terrestrially functional as do the eyes of other plethodontids, the eyes of the grotto salamander degenerate and the lids fuse, producing at adulthood a pinkish, sightless, terrestrial, troglodyte.
Welcome to the wonderfully complex world of Mother Nature.
Continue reading "Grotto Salamander"
Friday, January 11 2019
Happy Rattlesnake Friday! What a great field find Copperhead from Brown County, Indiana in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user ReptileProducts ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here! As always on Friday, we celebrate all of our venomous reptiles for their contribution to the world, not just rattlesnakes. They all need our help to change misconceptions.

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Thursday, January 10 2019
Love the darker phase of this greyband in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user trevid ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Wednesday, January 9 2019
What an awesome shot of this pair of Common Toads in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user Krallenfrosch ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Tuesday, January 8 2019
This lovely Gila monster poses perfectly in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user vegasbilly ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Monday, January 7 2019
What stunning colors on this male Sceloporus orcutti in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user eve. Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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 Yep! I sure do recognize red pygmys now!
The spring of 1953 was a long time ago, but it was then that Gordy Johnston took me on my first long distance herping trip. In his VW Beetle we traveled from MA to our destination of northeastern NC in just a few hours. I was entranced. Heat, humidity (not that at that time of year the heat and humidity is any stranger to New England), immense live oaks, more pine trees than I had ever seen before, and the possibility (read that probability!) of new herps (back then the words herps and herpetoculture had not yet been coined –right Philippe?).
I’m sure that we found may herps on that trip, but of these one in particular sticks in my mind—a red phase Carolina pygmy rattlesnake, Sistrurus m. miliarius. And the reason I remember it is because when I found it I had no idea what the little snake was.
Even back in those long ago days the woodlands were far from pristine. Logging, especially of pines, was big business. This seemed especially so on the Albemarle Peninsula and the vicinity of Lake Mattamuskeet. Itinerant sawmills were scattered here and there through the woodlands and wherever one of these sprang up clearings were begun, and like Topsy, they grew and grew as the trees were cut and cleaned (debarked and trimmed). Soon sunshine shone where before had been comparative darkness and the trimmings of the trees grew into piles of seclusion for many herps. At some point the sawmill packed up and moved, leaving behind the trimmings and the tin-roofed open shelter that had protected the machinery from the elements.
Gordy and I had happened upon one of these vacated mill locales and we were busily turning the tree trimmings when I turned up this little red snake. As surprised as I was, the little snake coiled and struck at my nearby hand. Hmmmmm.
“Gordy, I’ve got a baby copperhead here.”
Gordy hurried over and carefully edged the little snake into a gallon jar. We both stared. Its dark saddles on the orange-red ground entranced us—and even after staring at it and realizing that copperheads were usually banded, not saddled, when we left with it and a big kingsnake that also confused us (it was a red phase mole king, Lampropeltis calligaster rhombomaculata) it was with the thought that we had found a strange appearing copperhead.
It was not until we had returned home that a more knowledgeable friend looked at the snake and commented about the tailtip button that we realized we had actually found a pygmy rattler, a red one, a phase that we had had no idea existed. Ahhhhhhh—those good old days (no internet, very few books, and youth---learning could be a real challenge!
Continue reading "Our First Red Pygmy"
Friday, January 4 2019

Several Cane Toads remind us that necessity is the mother of invention as they found a novel way to get out of an area being flooded by an overflowing dam. They hitched a Lyft, wait make that lift on the back of a local python named Monty. It is Australia after all, pythons just wander the streets there I hear!
"I went out and the lake had overflowed," he says, and realised the toads, who nested around its edge, were fleeing the rising waters.
"Thousands of toads were all trying to find somewhere to go," he says. "And then I saw Monty our local python with a bunch of hitchhikers on his back."
A variety of theories abound from it being staged to male toads with a little romantic confusion, but we just think it is a cool story! Check out the full story and video here!
Photo courtesy of Paul and Andrew Mock, originally shared at https://tinyurl.com/y8dzldea
What a gorgeous hybrid ( Crotalus mitchellii pyrrhus x stephensi) in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user -SoloViper- ! If I were to give it a catchy name it would be Specklemint Rattlesnake. Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Thursday, January 3 2019
If this axolotl in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user tadpoleo doesn't make you smile, I am not sure what will! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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My very first bulk cricket order was from Jurassic Snacks in the early 90's.This was well before the internet, we herpers were still working on long distance calls and mail order lists. Everyone has that story, especially us old timers. After lamenting my issues of fitting the square box full of crickets into the rectangle aquarium to a friend, he let me in on the trash bag trick. This tale from a twitter user had tears coming from my eyes.
This tale from a new bearded dragon owner in Minnesota might very well be the funniest thing you have read this week.
Having never ordered internet crickets before, I naively assumed that I’d open up the box and find the crickets in some sort of sealed bag or other contraption to facilitate easy transfer to their final storage place. I also assumed that given the near-zero temperatures we were experiencing that morning, any crickets in the box would be groggy and disoriented and easy to manage.
I was wrong on both counts.
I have not lived in the home I received my first cricket order since 2000, but I am convinced the house still has crickets roaming the halls. To read the full story, I strongly suggest you click here.
Inset photo of post feeding beardie courtesy of TazziesMommy
Wednesday, January 2 2019
Love this shot from the field! Found on the UC Santa Cruz campus, this Black Salamander ( Aneides flavipunctatus) is getting a closer look at us in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user sc_shark ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Tuesday, January 1 2019
Baby pictures never get old. Let's welcome this little ball python to the world in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user TerryHeuring brighten your day!! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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