Herpetology

We are having a great start with our Friday Herpetology Lunch meetings for the Fall term. Our lunch on Friday, August 29th included 18 individuals representing seven countries (USA, Brazil, India, Malaysia, China/Tibet, Ecuador, Taiwan). Curator Rich Glor discussed how to assist with development of the division's new website and curatorial assistant Matt Buehler shared some examples of problematic specimens recovered during an assessment of the snake collection.

A resident of Lenexa, KS took the photographs above of a lizard on the side of his house in mid-August of 2014. It looks somewhat like a lizard dressed in a spiderman costume. Who can identify the species? Is this a species that has ever been reported in Kansas previously? Is it likely to be a permanent resident of our state?

Undergraduate researcher Catherine Chen recently presented the results of her research at the Summer Undergraduate Research Poster Session in the KU Union. Catherine's work investigated stereotypical display behavior in the lizard Anolis distichus.

A friend of KU Herpetology just sent the photos above and noted that the snake in these images "fell off a roof at ocean adventure" in Subic Bay, Luzon, Philippines. Anybody know what species it is? Both photos copyright William Ross from Ocean Adventure, Subic, Luzon.

Dominican naturalist, photographer, and professional guide Miguel Landestoy visited KU Herpetology for several days in early June to view specimens and records from the late Albert Schwartz. Miguel is working to track down some of Schwartz's most unusual discoveries and came to KU primarily to familiarize himself with a few species that are particularly well-represented in Schwartz's material, but rare elsewhere. Check out Miguel's photos on Flickr.

A friend of KU Herpetology in the Endowment office would like to know if we have any thoughts on the identify of the snake whose shed skin was found by some kids heading into a hole near her garage. The sender notes that while the images are reasonably well-lit and in-focus compared to the photos we usually receive that the basket weave chair may have been included to challenge us. Best guess wins a point in the KU Center for Herpetological Accuracy's Annual herp identification contest.

On Thursday, July 10th, KU Herpetology curator Rich Glor hosted a field trip by undergraduate students in the Kansas State Summer REU program under the direction of Drs. Bruce Snyder and Ted Morgan. The long-running K State REU program is analagous to KU's own REU program in ecology and evolutionary biology and has seen completion of a range of interesting undergraduate projects and publications, many relating to biodiversity science.  The members of the K State proved an impressive and engaged group with plenty of good questions. 

We are about to embark on our second week of fieldwork. Students have had the weekend at home to do laundry and regroup before we head off to Barber County and the Alexander Ranch. I’m told that this will be the first KU party to visit the ranch in 40 years.

Our hope is that with a little rain we might also be among the few to ever hear a chorus of the Red-spotted toad in Kansas. Our second stop will be Baxter Springs in Cherokee County, home to a number of salamanders found nowhere else in the state.

Last week was a great success. I’m so proud of the students! Many are pre-health care students headed for careers as nurses, doctors, and physical therapists. Perhaps unlikely participants in a field biology course, but here they are catching lizards, snakes and frogs. While handing a prairie king snake at the end of last week, one student remarked “If you’d told me a week ago that I’d be wrangling snakes for a photo session, I’d have told you that you were nuts!” Yet, here she was, pillowcase held over the snake on a picturesque rock set against a landscape of sandstone, mixed grasses, and desert plants at Wilson State Lake.

Our most exciting finds last week were the abundance of Collared lizards in central Kansas, the grass-swimming Glass lizard (which has no legs), some “horned toads” (really lizards), and two 5’ long Coachwhip snakes. Who knows what this week will hold. 

-David McLeod, instructor