pondkid
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- May 6, 2009
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- Location
- Lafayette, IN
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- Asa
Here are a few pictures from a herping day trip I took in mid-May. Sadly my good camera did not get charged the night before (my fault), so I had to use my back-up camera I keep in my truck. The picture quality is low, but I'm sure you'll get the general idea. If you think I have mis-identified a salamander, please let me know. I get some of the smaller native salamander species mixed up. And yes, that's me in the picture in one of the streams I searched.
The weather was warm (~72F) and partly cloudy. A good soaking rain had happened overnight, so everything was thoroughly damp.
In one of the limestone bottomed streams, I found the northern two-lined salamander (Eurycea bislineata) to be in abundance. They fell into the category of adults (~6cm), large larvae (~5cm), or small larvae (~2.5cm). I found nothing other than these three sizes. I'm guessing the large larvae are last year's crop and the small ones are this year's offspring.
Under flat rocks and rotting logs on the stream banks I found the zigzag salamander (Plethodon dorsalis), red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus, of which I don't have a picture), and slimy salamander (Plethodon glutinosus). All three species were easily found, sometimes with all three present under the same rock. At one point, in one 10'x10' area, I found over 40 salamanders. It is nice to know that there are still some strongholds for these guys even in a heavily agricultural area.
Other non-caudates found included the American toad (Bufo americanus), northern watersnake (Nerodia sipedon), eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina, and isn't he a beauty?!), and northern cricket frog (Acris crepitans).
Basically, I considered it to be a successful day. It's great to wander around in the woods and streams finding critters.
The weather was warm (~72F) and partly cloudy. A good soaking rain had happened overnight, so everything was thoroughly damp.
In one of the limestone bottomed streams, I found the northern two-lined salamander (Eurycea bislineata) to be in abundance. They fell into the category of adults (~6cm), large larvae (~5cm), or small larvae (~2.5cm). I found nothing other than these three sizes. I'm guessing the large larvae are last year's crop and the small ones are this year's offspring.
Under flat rocks and rotting logs on the stream banks I found the zigzag salamander (Plethodon dorsalis), red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus, of which I don't have a picture), and slimy salamander (Plethodon glutinosus). All three species were easily found, sometimes with all three present under the same rock. At one point, in one 10'x10' area, I found over 40 salamanders. It is nice to know that there are still some strongholds for these guys even in a heavily agricultural area.
Other non-caudates found included the American toad (Bufo americanus), northern watersnake (Nerodia sipedon), eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina, and isn't he a beauty?!), and northern cricket frog (Acris crepitans).
Basically, I considered it to be a successful day. It's great to wander around in the woods and streams finding critters.
