The brassy and white markings and range of the Tellico Salamander renders it a rather easily identified member of the Slimy Salamander group.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

This group of salamanders, all of the genus Plethodon, is very aptly named, for not a single one out of the ~47 described species is tied to an aquatic habitat in any manner. To a species they are woodland dwellers that live their lives in woodland settings. Moisture is, of course, as necessary for these salamander’s survival as it is for any and all amphibians, but the moisture is accessed by rainfall, fog, and mists, and for some species, in streamedge situations (but not immersion). These salamanders are small and slender, varying from 3 ½”, (Red-backed, Peaks of Otter, and many others) to the nearly 9” of Yonahlossee and Bat Cave Salamanders).

All are oviparous, their egg clutches being laid in decaying logs, beneath rocks, or other such moisture holding situations including burrows. There is no aquatic larval stage, the young emerging from the egg- capsules as miniatures of the adults.

While some Woodland Salamanders are easy to identify, others are difficult. This is especially so of the 13 species that comprise the Slimy Salamander group. Some of these latter are identifiable only by locale or genetic studies.

And now, enjoy the photos.

An uncommon striped pattern on McDowell's Carpet Python.By Dick and Patti Bartlett

Excluding the Green Tree, Amethystine and Oenpelli pythons, Australia is home to 3 species and 6 subspecies of heavy bodied, moderately sized (to about 8 feet/ 2- 1/3 meters) Carpet Pythons.

• Morelia bredli, Centralian or Bredl’s Carpet Python
  
• Morelia carinata, Rough-scaled Python
  
• Morelia spilota, Diamond Python and Carpet Python
  
  
  • M. s. cheneyi, Tableland Carpet Python
    
  • M. s. imbricata, Southern Carpet Python
    
  • M. s. mcdowelli, McDowell’s Carpet Python
    
  • M. s. metcalfi, Interior Carpet Python
    
  • M. s. spilota, Diamond Python
    
  • M. s. variegata, Northern Carpet Python
    

Except for the southeasterly most member, the one that is usually referred to as the Diamond Python, the carpet pythons are often referred to simply as Carpet Snakes by Australians. All are constrictors, all are nonvenomous, all are capable of biting, but their readiness to do so varies individually. All are accomplished climbers but may be found terrestrially in habitats as diverse as gardens, attics, or the remote outback. All are oviparous, reproducing by egg clutches that are protected by the female. All feed primarily on small mammals and birds.

All (except the Diamond Python which is black with a variable but often speckled pattern of white or cream) are colored in various shades of yellowish, cream or tan with a darker pattern. But sometimes the dark color prevails, and the light markings are reduced in size or number. Subspecies may interbreed where their ranges abut or overlap. The resulting hatchlings may be patterned non-typically. Encompassing all species and suggested subspecies the ranges include southern Western Australia, then hops to eastern South Australia and northward well into western Queensland, then throughout most of New South Wales and northward in the coastal forests and plateaus to Cape York. Then after another break in range it may again be found in northern Northern Territory westward to newest Australia. Bredl’s Python, seen as a full species by some and as a subspecies of the carpet python by others, seems more arboreal and ranges widely in southwest Northern Territory. The uncommon Rough-scaled Python is found in northwest Kimberly Region of Western Australia.

This is a typical Green Tree Python.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

Long the only species in the monotypic genus, Chondropython, the green tree python has now been lumped with the diamond/carpet pythons in the genus Morelia where it remains despite nomenclatural controversy. Hobbyists still often refer to this snake by the shortened name of "Chondro." The species name is viridis, this meaning green. And this name fits the vast majority of the adults well, for almost all adults are green (occasional occurrences of yellow, blue, or albino adults have been verified) with or occasionally without white vertebral markings. But for the hatchlings it is a misnomer, for by locale they vary from bright yellow to a rich maroon-brown with reddish-brown or white highlights. These snakes are adult at 4 ½ to 5 ½ feet. The head is large, the neck slender, and the body laterally compressed.

Whether juvenile or adult, this is a beautiful snake. Adult coloration is assumed at an age of about 9-12 months and a length of about ~20 inches. It is an oviparous species, laying from a half dozen to two dozen eggs. Incubation periods of 49 to 60 days have been mentioned.

The diet consists primarily of rodents and occasional lizards. Prey is killed by constriction.

This beautiful python is a rainforest inhabitant of northeastern Australia, the Papua and New Guinea mainland and many of the surrounding islands. Adults are considered snakes of closed canopy forest while hatchlings and juveniles seemingly prefer more open and sunny perches.

This snake is a herpetocultural favorite and is bred extensively in captivity.

Sheltopusik may be patterned or unicolored. They are interesting lizards are are popular with herp keepers.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

Called by many different names around the world -- glass lizards (USA), Slowworm (England and Europe), Sheltopusik (Eurasia), and Legless Lizards California, Baja, Australia) -- all are legless (or in the case of the sheltopusik essentially legless), secretive, many are burrowers, and many have fragile, easily autotomized tails.

Glass lizards (seUSA, , Eurasia, Europe, Asia) have functional eyelids, ear openings, and an expandable fold along each side of their body. These may exceed 3 feet in length and lack the suppleness of a snake. Tail readily breaks from body (autotomizes).

Sheltopusik (aka European or Giant Glass Lizard) (Balkans, Crimea, Caucasus, Southwest and Central Asia) have eyelids, ear openings, lateral grooves. The tail is less easily broken off than in most smaller species. (a fold of skin running the entire body length from behind head to but not including the tail. The latter is easily broken off). Usually about 30 inches but rarely to about 50 inches long. May bluff or bite, but they are defensive, not aggressive.

Legless lizards (Western California and Northwest Baja) have tiny eyes with functional eyelids, no ear opening, short blunt tipped tail that is barely discernible from the torso, and seldom exceed 10 inches in total length. Despite being short and thick the tail can be autotomized.

Slowworms (England, Europe) have functional eyelids, tiny ear openings, and are usually under 18 inches in length. Tail readily breaks from body.

Although a few species of the legless lizards of Australia also occur in PNG, most are endemic to Australia.

And remember, no matter how similar these may seem to snakes, they are all harmless lizards.

These interesting reptiles feed primarily on arthropods and worms.

Despite folk tales to the contrary, allow me to assure you that the autotomized tails of these lizards do not reassemble and rejoin the body. A broken tail is a broken tail and if the affected lizard again has a tail, it is a regenerated one. When fully regrown the tail is sometimes as long as the original, but always discernible by aberrant scalation or other differences.

Like most racer type snake the Horseshoe Racer has big eyes and periscopes for prey.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

Once considered common, this long, dark, fast snake now seems uncommon to rare in many parts of its extensive range. Adults of the Horseshoe Racer, Hemorrhois (formerly Coluber) hippocrepis ssp. (there are 2 subspecies, the validity of one being questionable) may attain a length of 5 feet. As are other racers, this slender, alert snake is a periscope hunter, lifting its head above surrounding vegetation when seeking its prey. It consumes rodents and birds, lizards and amphibians. Carrion is also eaten.

An oviparous species, clutch size has been recorded as 6 to 8 eggs.

The ground color may vary from tan to brown or gray. Against this the pattern of large black or black edged deep brown dorsal and smaller lateral spots are very evident. Both common and species name are derived from the light horseshoe shaped marking on the top of the head and anterior neck. There is also a dark interorbital bar. The venter is orange(ish). The preferred habitat includes open rock-strewn land, grasslands and brushy regions as well as yards. This snake ranges from Algeria to Portugal and Spain and includes several islands.

Brown phase Cape Cobras are one of the more common colors.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

The Cape Cobra, Naja nivea, of southern Africa is variable both in color and pattern. Most common colors are various shades of brown, with or without sparse or heavy stippling that may be darker or lighter than the ground color. Beautiful yellow to copper colors, again with or without stippling, are also commonly seen. Juveniles are often more brightly colored than the adults. Average adult size of this very venomous cobra is from 4 to 4 ½ feet. However specimens to and just over 6 feet have been recorded. Hatchlings, 6 to 20 per clutch, are 12 to 16 inches long and are equipped with venom at hatching.

Preferred habitats of this cobra are even more varied than its color. It may be found in desert, semi-desert, grasslands and brushy regions as well as all combinations between. It seeks refuge in the rodent burrows, unused termite mounds, crevices. It is often seen near waterholes as well as streams. It may enter dwellings when attempting to escape the heat of the day.

This is primarily a diurnal, terrestrial snake, but it is well able to climb and often raids the nests of sociable weavers. Besides these birds it eats all manner of small vertebrates, and is known to eat road killed snakes and small mammals. The Cape cobra is not one of the spitting varieties. Because it is often common near dwellings, is dangerously venomous, and tends to stand its ground if surprised, this is considered one of the most dangerous of Africa’s venomous snakes.

An adult female Patch-nosed Salamander
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

In 2009 a new species of “miniplethodontid” salamander was described. Although looking much like the brook salamanders of the genus Eurycea, research determined that this pretty little miniature was sufficiently different from the brook salamanders to warrant the erection of a new genus—Urspelerpes. This genus contains only the single species, U. brucei. Because of the nose-spot this salamander was given the common name of Patch-nosed Salamander.

It is an uncommon denizen of the leaf-strewn montane streams and stream edges of northern GA and adjacent SC.

As mentioned the yellowish patch on the nose tip is characteristic. Including tail, adults are about 1 7/8th inches long. Unlike the Brook Salamanders on which males and females are similarly colored, the males and females of Urspelerpes differ in color. Females tend to be patternless while males are strongly patterned with a pair of dorsolateral stripes.

Variable bush vipers are often yellow to orange and may or may not be banded.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

This small bush viper is appealing to hobbyists who enjoy venomous species. A true viper, Atheris squamiger has no temperature sensitive labial (lip) pits. The variable bush viper attains an adult length of 18 to 30 inches. Females are usually larger than the males. Scales are strongly keeled. Despite the snake’s small size the venom is known to have caused several human deaths. There is apparently no specific antivenin.

The colors vary populationally. The snakes in one population may all be of pretty much the same color while other populations may vary from green to yellow or orange. Some snakes may be banded, others may be basically unicolored. Neonates are often dusky olive but the color may change radically as the snake grows.

This species is found in rainforest areas over West and Central Africa. They apparently prefer flowering shrubs over the taller forest trees.

Note the very well developed rostral horns of the Rhinoceros Viper.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

In its natural habitat of fallen, often wet, forest floor debris the almost gaudy colors of the Rhinoceros Viper, Bitis nascicornis, may render the snake nearly invisible Found primarily in the rainforest belt from West Africa to western East Africa, this magnificent, heavy bodied, 2 to 3 ½ foot long snake is both beautiful and dangerous.

The head is narrower than the body. Two to 3 pairs of upward directed, elongate (horn-like) scales are present on the tip of the snout. Color and pattern consist of saddles, bands, and other markings. The top of the head is blue or green at the edges but with a central black arrow. The overall appearance of this snake is often darkened or nearly obliterated by a coating of mud. The females are the larger gender

A nocturnal ambush predator, this primarily terrestrial snake seems a bit less likely to strike during the daylight hours than at night. Prey varies from small mammals to amphibians, and reportedly, fish.

Neonates, which may number from 6 to 36, are about 8 ½ inches in length.

Strongly neurotoxic, the venom also contains hemotoxin.

Old adults are usually much darker than this half-grown example.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

The elapine (cobra relatives) Australian and Papuan genus Pseudechis contains at least 6 species. Although the snakes in this genus are commonly grouped as “Australian black snakes,” this generalization can be misleading, for some are gray with dark flecks, another is an almost uniform olive-brown, and the one we are about to discuss, Pseudechis colletti, Collett’s Black Snake or simply Collett’s Snake, is a beautiful mixture of red, pink, or off-white and black when a juvenile but does darken considerably as it ages. The venter is usually colored similarly to the light lateral barring.

This elapine is adult at 4 1/2 to 8 feet in length, is rather heavy bodied, and is endemic to the drier regions of the interior of the northeastern Australian state of Queensland. Males are longer than the females. When frightened or defensive this snake may flatten its head and neck like, but not as wide, as the hood of a cobra.

It is dangerously venomous, producing a virulent cytotoxic (blood cell destroying) venom that may be combined with neurotoxins. Despite this it is reportedly commonly kept in Australia as a captive, but because of export restrictions is less commonly seen in captive collections of other countries.

Clutches contain up to 20 eggs.

The diet consists of frogs, lizards, snakes, and small mammals.

Fowler's Toads are often rather precisely marked with 3 pairs of dorsal spots.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

Fowler’s Toad, Bufo fowleri, ranges widely in sandy habitats from central New England to southeastern Iowa, eastern Texas and the panhandle of Florida. It is one of the more precisely marked toad species. In some parts of its range it may be the dominant species, in other it is a comparative rarity. Where I (Dick) grew up in central New England, Fowler’s Toad was abundant but always 2nd in a lineup of 2. The American Toads would arrive first at the breeding ponds to voice their slow-pulsed melodious trills. Then a couple of weeks later, when many American toads had already left the calling sites, the rapidly pulsed, very non-melodious, “whirring notes” of Fowler’s Toads, back then a subspecies of Woodhouse’s , could be heard. Occasionally we would hear a vocalization that confused us and when we tracked it down it would be as intermediate between the 2 species in appearance as it was in voice—a hybrid between the 2. Mother Nature at work.

Often said to be cannibalistic, very little is known with certainty about the hylid frogs of this genus.
by Dick & Patti Bartett

It had been 2 days in the Peruvian rainforest and the rainforest was acting like a rainforest should act--it was raining, hard then softly, then torrentially, then softly. It was a wonderful day. Everybody could get caught up on photographing and then we'd hit the trails again for after dark amphibs.

Darkness approached, Danilo prepared our evening meal, we ate, checked flashlight batteries, put on hats to try and keep some rain out of our eyes, and we were on our way. I chose the medium trail and a couple of herpers decided to accompany me. Another few chose the short trail and one, with the guides, chose to hike the 5 milelong loop.

When we began the rain had almost stopped but when the Gods of rain determined we were all so far away from camp that there was no way we could avoid getting drenched, the torrents came. Band after band found its way through the treetops, each one harder than the last. I needed windshield wipers on my glasses. Going was slow. The trails were ankle deep mud and footing was precarious on the slopes. But all of that was forgotten when I spied that small frog sitting crossways on a vertical sapling--Hemiphractus proboscideus, a Long-nosed Casque-headed Treefrog.

Who said herping in this weather wasn't worth the effort?

Slender of tail and narrow of head, meet the Indopacific Tree Gecko.
by Dick & Patti Bartlett

Perhaps the least well known of the gecko fauna in the USA, this tiny arboreal gecko, known by three appropriately descriptive common names, Indopacific tree gecko, Indopacific slender gecko, or common dwarf gecko, the tiny Hemiphyllodactylus typus, ranges widely over much of southern and eastern Asia and many tropical islands of the western Pacific.

Of more slender build, with a narrower head and skinnier tail than the various house geckos that many of us have now become familiar with, the favored habitats of the Indopacific tree gecko are—are you ready for this—trees! But with that having been said, tree geckos are occasionally found on both the exterior and interior of houses. So far, in the USA they are known only from Hawaii. This tiny (2 ½ - 3 ½” total length) non-communal, olive-colored, lizard waif is so thin-skinned that on many examples the body cavity is translucent. It is an all female, parthenogenetic species.

The diet of this arboreal lizard consists of tiny insects.

Cerastes cerastes, one of the MidEastern Sand shufflers.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

"Now you see them, now you don't" describes many of the world’s sand-dwelling, sidewinding, chubby but small viperine snakes. You may be looking right at them, know that they have moved neither forward nor backward, but they, with a barely visible sideway to and fro shuffling, have disappeared from sight. And it took these sand-adapted snakes only a minute or 2 to sink almost straight down in the yielding desert sands

There are many species of these specialized snakes in the Mideast and Africa and a few in Asia and the western USA. Although all are perfectly able to crawl straight forward and often do so when not in a hurry sidewinding, throwing a loop of the body forward, usually while facing obliquely away, is a more effective and efficient method of moving across loose sands.

Among these snake are species such as the small Saharan sand viper, Cerastes vipera, adult at from 8 to 18 inches with females being the larger (this is true of many snake species). Once burrowed, this species usually leaves its eyes exposed but even the eyes can be difficult to pinpoint. Vipera is considered an ambush predator and its primary prey is lizards. If during their occasional surface activity, the snake happens upon nestling mice or gerbils, these may also be eaten. This little snake has a broad range through North Africa and the Sinai Peninsula.

The Mideastern deserts are home to several other sidewinding snake species. Among these are whiskered vipers, 3 species of horned vipers, and several subspecies and species of sawscaled vipers. Many of the rough-scaled species will often warn you of their presence by assuming a series of tight “S”s and noisily rasping their strongly keeled scales together.

Africa hosts Peringuey’s Vipers and various Horned Vipers, all able to move in either straight and typical fashion or by sidewinding.

In the USA we have the 3 subspecies of pit vipers, the small rattlesnakes, that are aptly named “Sidewinders” of our southwestern deserts.

A captive puff adder.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

The Puff Adder (Bitis arietans) is probably the most common and widespread of all African snakes.Except for rainforest and montane regions, this dangerously venomous and irritable snake may be found over most of the southern 2/3rds of the African continent. It can also be encountered in Oman, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Capable of both linear (slow and in a straight line like a caterpillar) and serpentine (side-to-side) movement, when possible the Puff Adder relies mostly on its camouflaging colors for protection and exemplifies the term sedentary. When frightened, either purposely or accidentally, these snakes coil and expel the breath in loud, easily heard puffing-hisses (hence the common name) and often strike savagely.

Adult at 30 to 40 inches in length, rare examples of this very heavy bodied adder may attain a length of 4 feet. They are primarily terrestrial, often common in grassland habitat, but are able to climb and may bask a few inches above ground in shrubs. They swim readily.

In keeping with its sedentary behavior, the Puff Adder is an ambush predator, waiting quietly for its prey of mammals, birds, amphibians, and lizards to approach within striking distance.

Reproductively active Puff Adder male often follow the pheromone trails of females and engage in combat matches. Live bearing, a clutch usually numbers between 20 and 50. The neonates are 5 ½ to 7”. The largest clutch recorded numbered 156 newborns.