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.
Friday, July 30 2021
Happy Rattlesnake Friday! How stunning is the red on this Speckled Rattlesnake ( Crotalus mitchellii pyrrhus), uploaded by kingsnake.com user lichanura ! This Speck was found in Arizona. 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.

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Thursday, July 29 2021
These Uroplatus pietschmanni in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mcamo3 ,show us what amazing masters of camoflague they truly are! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Wednesday, July 28 2021
This variable kingsnake is on fire in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user Rod_McLeod. Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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Tuesday, July 27 2021
Love is in the air with this pair of Gran Canaria giant lizards ( Gallotia stehlini) in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user John-C . Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Monday, July 26 2021
Awesome feeding shot of a chameleon in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user 1Sun s! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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 A profile of the Southeastern Slimy Salamander.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett
Plethodon grobmani, the Southeastern Slimy Salamander, is a creature of pinewoods habitats. It was once fairly common in our neighborhood. Today (2021) following several lengthy droughts and a major attack of pine bark beetles (and the resulting death of old pine stands), this salamander is almost unknown here. At the turn of the century I would go across the street, enter the pinewoods, and in a half hour search say “howdy-do” to about a dozen slimys. Compare that to my occasional searches over the last 10 years when my exact total was one—a single salamander-- and it was not in the best of shape. Of course, as already mentioned, most of the pine trees in that area are gone also, victims of the infestation of pine-bark beetles.
In other locales, where the pine bark beetle plague was less pronounced than here, this white-flecked black salamander remains easily found in pine and mixed woodlands. Like others of this, genus this salamander has no aquatic larval stage. The egg clutch is deposited in or beneath moist fallen pines and development, from the newly deposited eggs, through metamorphosis, to emergence as a miniature of the adults occurs in the egg capsule.
Continue reading "Comments on the Southeastern Slimy Salamander"
Friday, July 23 2021
Happy Rattlesnake Friday! How stunning is the red on this Speckled Rattlesnake ( Crotalus mitchellii pyrrhus), uploaded by kingsnake.com user lichanura ! This Speck was found in Arizona. 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.

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Thursday, July 22 2021
Take a few moments today to follow the lead of this Giant Day Gecko in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user crazyrhacos and give yourself some time to relax! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Wednesday, July 21 2021
What a wonderful headshot of a Desert Iguana in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user dvl s! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Tuesday, July 20 2021
What a beautiful Cuban Knight Anole in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user StPierre68 simply could not be any cuter! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Monday, July 19 2021
Tick Tock. The week passes quickly but today is easier starting with the smile of a Nile Croc in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user CDieter! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
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 A Yellow Rat Snake from Central Florida .
By Dick and Patti Bartlett
Despite their need for papers and what the geneticists claim, I continue to follow the Linnaeus method and recognize subspecies. To that end, this is now and has been almost forever the Yellow Rat Snake, Pantherophis obsoleta quadrivittata. There are 4 other subspecies, including the nominate form, the northeastern Black Rat Snake, in this species group.
It is at the southeastern edge of its range that the Black Rat Snake slips gently into the yellow race. First the southernmost Black Rat Snakes assume a dorsolateral pattern of stripes and a greenish hue and as the greenish rats continue further south they become the traditional and long recognized yellow subspecies. But way south, down near Lake Okeechobee, when the Everglades was truly a river of grass, before the rice fields, the sugarcane, the sodfields, before the maze of drainage canals and Brazilian pepper, the yellow rat snake lost all but a vestige of stripes, assumed a deep orange color, and became the Everglades rat snake. Human influx = habitat destruction. And despite the efforts of the state, if such efforts, are actually real, habitat destruction continues, seemingly almost unabated.
But now back to comments regarding the yellow rat snake. They are real, and they continue to exist, perhaps in reduced numbers, over most if not all, of their long-described range. They remain rather common in our neighborhood, but houses are now quickly replacing the woodlands here. I can only hope for the best. Long live the Yellow Rat Snake.
Continue reading "Eastern Rat Snake No. Yellow Rat Snake, Yes"
Friday, July 16 2021
Happy Rattlesnake Friday and World Snake Day! Is there any more iconic snake than a Western Diamondback? Poised and ready in our herp photo of the day uploaded by kingsnake.com user Terry Cox is no exception! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!
We celebrate #RattlesnakeFriday to celebrate the wonderful venomous species that contribute to making our world greater and also use it as a way to support conservation efforts to protect these species worldwide!
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Thursday, July 15 2021
Our Herp Photo of the Day shows and amazing look inside the egg of a Russian Tortoise to be, uploaded by kingsnake.com user tortusjack!
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Wednesday, July 14 2021
That's a whole lotta bull. Bullsnake that is! Loving the colors on the one here in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user orchidspider has never missed a meal! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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