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I’ll start out with a few non-herps:
First off here are a few pics of a couple cool little
fish that Bill Peterman (WEP) and myself found while snorkeling on the Meramec River in central Missouri.
Cottus bairdi,
Mottled Sculpin
I’ve always told myself that I needed to learn to identify the crayfish that I come across while
turning rocks and looking for other critters. This summer, while the herping was slow, I did just that. Lucky for me Missouri
is rich in crayfish diversity providing me the opportunity to stay quite busy this summer. Hunting for crayfish “crayfishing”
turned out to be almost as fun as herping; so if you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it.
Here’s just
a few of species I found this summer:
This is the species that sparked my Crayfish quest this summer Cambarus maculates
the freckled crayfish. This species is endemic to a portion of the Meramec River drainage. (I’m still working out the
fine points of crayfish photography so don’t judge too harshly)
Here’s another C. maculates from a different part of the drainage. I thought this guy looked more
like a Maine Lobster than a crayfish.
This next one is Orconectes medius the saddlebacked crayfish, again from the Meramec River drainage.
Here is a couple photos of Orconectes hylas or woodland crayfish from the Black River drainage in the
St. Francois Mountains.
Finally, here’s Orconectes Harrisoni the belted crayfish; this quick, medium sized crayfish is
only found in the Big River and its tributaries.
Just one more Arthropod before I move on to the herps.
This mantis was found on my spare tire
just the other day on a herp trip so I took advantage of the opportunity and grabbed some photos.
Ok, now for some herps:
This youngish calligaster was found crossing a county highway near my
home town of Farmington.
This large calligaster was found under a tarp behind my place of work.
Ryan Thies (serpentryan) and I found this nice looking sirtalis over on the Illinois side of the river.
Just the other day I visited a large artificial desert here in Missouri where I found one of my favorite
Missouri herps, this gorgeous flagellum.
Notice how they have a look of black velvet.
In the same area I found plenty of juvenile collaris.
Plus a few adults
On my way home from the artificial desert I stopped to flip some tin. I flipped the first piece of tin
and uncovered a large contortrix that I let slip away without a photo. Then I came upon a sort of sunken tub where I had the
good fortune to rescue four carolina triunguis that seemed hopelessly stuck. Here’s one of them:
I hope you enjoyed them, Mike
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