Most anticipated are Speckled Rattlesnakes, Crotalus mitchelli pyrrhus, in red white and blue, all in situ.
As you read this Jake and I are hopefully either on our way back to the Sonoran Desert or already there. We’re traveling westward with a list of “hope to sees” almost as long as the wheelbase of the car. These “wannasees” run the gamut from cacti and other succulents to rattlesnakes, racers, and a few birds and mammals. About the only thing we don’t list are the invertebrates, and by this omission we probably miss seeing some of the most interesting of the desert fauna.

The good part about a list this long is that you’re bound to see at least a few of the species; the bad part is you never see all. But that’s OK because we use our failures to start another list. It’s never ending. Primary on our list this time are several rattlesnake species. But equally important are most of the little burrowing forms that seem to be increasingly hard to find. These vary from shovel-noses to sand and leaf-nosed snakes. I’ll let you know how we do in a July blog, but wish us luck. Most assuredly we’ll need it.

See ya/Dick & Jake

This aberrant marbled salamander was found in South Carolina.
At a total length of 3 ½ to 5 inches, when adult the pretty little marbled salamander, Ambystoma opacum, is only about half the length of the more familiar spotted salamander.The marbled salamander ranges southward from extreme souther NH to peninsular Florida and then westward to central western MO and eastern TX. Clad in a pretty barred dorsal pattern of white on black (male) or silver-gray on black (female) these are secretive little woodland caudatans that often require a lot of log rolling to be found.

Unlike many of the mole salamander, rather than being a spring breeder in ephemeral ponds and puddles, the marbled salamander is an autumn breeder. And rather than seeking a pond already filled, after the terrestrial courtship and fertilization, the female opacum finds a moist depression, one still lacking water but that in some way known to the salamander will (hopefully) soon be filled by the forthcoming late autumn rains, and there it lays its clutch of eggs. Once submerged larval development begins, eggs hatch, larvae grow and metamorphose, and the little salamanders find some nearby moist terrestrial site to dine, grow, and eventually repeat the rather complicated procedure. If the rains fail to materialize, the eggs, waiting patiently, have been known to remain viable for several weeks.

Newly metamorphosed marbled salamanders are dark gray to black with variably busy grayish-white dorsal and lateral patterns of flecks and specks.

This Sonoran Collared Lizard was in the Collection of Will Wells.
Tom had directed me up some rather horrible road that ascended into the mountains in the interior of Organ Pipe National Monument. The Trooper bounced and spun its way upwards. Tom sat there, intermittently singing to himself and complaining about the bumpiness of the ride. We had just gotten some nice photos of chuckwallas on granitic roadside outcrops, and now hoped to add to the collection photos of the Sonoran collared lizard, C. c. nebrius. Somehow, with a memory that often reflects that Tom is in his autumn years, he remembered seeing some specimens of this drab lizard on an earlier trip he had made through these mountains.

Eventually he directed me to park near a boulder-strewn expanse of weakly sloping mountainside, and issued a series of instructions: don't scare the lizards, don't take any pictures until I've taken mine, don't this...don't that...and above all, don't take its picture against a contrived background (this latter referring to my taking photos of difficult species in "naturalistic," as opposed to natural, setups). Tom pointed to a distant rock and stated that it had been there that he had seen the first collared lizard on his previous trip.
"You mean like the one that's sitting there now?" I asked.

And sure enough. There sat an adult male Sonoran collared lizard.

Although this race is second only to the Chihuahuan collared lizard in drabness, actually sighting a specimen was nonetheless exciting. It added a new dimension to our overall picture of this wary and wonderful lizard species.

Although not brightly colored, big-headed turtles were popular with hobbyists.
The chelonian family Platysternidae is represented by a single southeast Asian aquatic turtle species. This is the Big-headed turtle, Platysternon megacephalum. This species is distributed in one or the other of its 3 valid subspecies (megacephalum, shiui, and peguense), in southern China (including Hainan Island), southwest through northern Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, and northern Thailand to southern Burma where although it is a weak swimmer it dwells in cool rocky mountain brooks and streams easily climbing up and over submerged and streamedge rocks and logs on its strongly clawed legs.

This is a dusky colored turtle dorsally and yellowish ventrally. Juveniles have a horizontal black edged yellow stripe on each side of the face posterior to the eyes. The jaws and snout may be peach colored. Overall it blends well with the stream bottoms and muddy edges that it calls home.

This medium sized but rather flat turtle attains a shell length of about 7 inches. The carapace of the adults is weakly serrate on the sides and rear. The carapace of a juveniles is more strongly serrated especially on the rear of the carapace. The extremely long tail is nearly as long as the shell and may be curled upwards or to either side. Whether when curled the tail may assist in anchoring the turtle in current seems as yet an ongoing question. The head of this aptly named turtle is huge in all aspects—length, width, and height--- and cannot be withdrawn into the protection of the shell. The skull is enlarged and bony and provides a great amount of protection. The eyes are directed forward. The jaws are strong, the beak is sharp, and the turtle is not at all hesitant to bite. Food includes fish, gastropods, molluscs, aquatic insects, and worms.

This turtle is seldom bred in captivity and its reproductive habits in the wild are not well known. Clutches reportedly consist of 2 eggs and the species is not known to multiclutch.

In bygone years this species was rather readily available in the pet trade.It is now only occasionally so and when available high prices are asked. It is apparently often seen in food shops in the orient and is readily eaten by humans.