1997 Spring Field
Meet
White Oak Creek WMA
Cass, Titus,
Morris, and Bowie Counties
18-20 April 1997
This year's annual Spring Field Meet was held
the weekend of 18-20 April 1997 on the White Oak Creek Wildlife
Management Area in Cass Bowie, Titus, and Morris Counties. The
site is located 18 miles east of Mt. Pleasant in the floodplain
of White Oak Creek and the Sulfur River. The area is part of the
Texas Public Hunting Lands Program, and consists of relatively
undisturbed hardwood bottomlands. Many of these counties
particularly Titus and Morris Counties, are poorly collected, so
our meet resulted in a significant contribution to the
documentation of Texas herpetofauna.
The following list of
species was collected by the 60 or so participants (* denotes
county records, B=Bowie Co, C=Cass, M=Morris, T=Titus, A=All):
AMPHIBIANS:
Ambystoma maculatum (B), A.
opacum (M*, B), Acris
crepitans (A), Hyla chrysocelis/versicolor(C, M, T),
H. cinerea (B, C, T), Pseudacris
crucifer (C*), Bufo
woodhousei (T*), Rana
catesbeiana(M, T), R. clamitans
(M, T*), R. sphenocephala (A), Gastrophryne
carolinensis (B, M, T*)
REPTILES: Kinsternon
subrubrum (B, M), Sternotherus odoratus
(M*), Terrepene
carolina (C*, M*, T),
Trachemys scripta (M), Anolis carolinensis (B, M,
T), Eumeces fasciatus (A), E.
laticeps (M*, T), Scincella
lateralis (A), Ophisaurus attenuatus (M),
Coluber constrictor (M, T), Diadophis punctatus (B),
Elaphe obsoleta(B, M, T*),
Lampropeltis calligaster
(B, M*), L. getula (B), L. triangulum
(B), Nerodia erythrogaster
(T*), N. faciata (M), N. rhombifer (M),
Opheodrys aestivus (B, M, T), Regina
rigida (M*), Storeria
dekayi (C, M*), S.
occipitomaculata (C), Thamnophis
proximus (B, M*, T),
Agkistrodon contortrix (C, M, T), A.
piscivorus (B*, C*, M, T*), Crotalus
horridus (B, C, M*, T*)
In all, the Society collected 20
county records for 16 species of amphibians and reptiles. Of
particular note was the fact that Texas' only threatened species
of rattlesnake, C. horridus,
appeared quite plentiful. The Hibbitts family found six
themselves . . . another 4 or 5 were collected as well.