Speckled Forest Pit Viper - Mapanare
Bothrops taeniatus
www.matthieu-berroneau.fr

Follow on 500px

Follow on Facebook

Follow on Instagramm

Tiralongo F., Pillon R. (2019). First record of Vanderhorstia mertensi Klausewitz, 1974 from Greek waters: the westernmost record from the Mediterranean Sea. In: New Mediterranean Marine Biodiversity Records. Mediterranean Marine Science, 20(3): 645–656.

Experts - What is going on here? This male American Kestrel sure did seem to have the hots for this female Merlin. He kept trying to get close to her and even brought her a few treats (insects?) from the grass beneath the fence. She accepted the treats but didn't seem thrilled with the attention. However, when he flew off, she followed him...

This image is part of an observation I made a couple of days ago, but there was so much going on, including three different avian species, that it merits further comment. Here I am focusing on a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron (seen in the background) as it peeks out of the brush at a much larger Great Blue Heron, attempting to drive off a Red-shouldered Hawk which has landed on the island. A discarded shopping cart and other assorted trash, washed down the river by a recent storm, adds to the sense of discord, as does the turbulent water boiling in the background. Interesting to note, the hawk remained calmly on the fallen branch throughout the display (which included lots of loud squawking) until the large heron quieted down, before flying off.
So how is this observation about the Night Heron? I simply could not get over the look of that juvenile bird reacting to the conflict.

The recent storm probably stirred a bunch of them close to the surface near the shore where the gulls could grab them. The gulls have to puncture and drain them in order to be able to swallow them. Witnessed this at least 7 times on 11/21/2019.

The first time I had ever seen this, i videoed the entire event as well from entry to exit. It was as if this species swims all the time. I sent it to a frogmouth expert and she had never seen that before. The bird chose to swim and flew away very easily after its swim. There appeared to be no explanation for the bird swimming as it was not particularly hot or anything unusual.

First discovered carcass at 7:30 AM, there were 3 Western Yellow Jackets feeding on the tail and one on the head (second picture). I came back 5 more times to observe the consumption of the carcass by the yellow jackets. At 9:10 AM, there were 3 Yellow Jackets on the head and none on the tail (third picture). At 11:30 AM there were no Yellow Jackets as it was probably too hot (fourth picture). At 4:15 PM, there were 7 Yellow Jackets (fifth picture). At 7:00 PM, there were 19 Yellow Jackets, all at the upper portion (pictures 1 and 6). The next morning at 7:15 AM, the carcass was gone. There were a few bones with some flesh being eaten by Yellow Jackets. Other references to this observation are https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32776472 , https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32777138 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32777936

NUMBER: 20190727
SPECIES: Striped Gooseneck Barnacle, Conchoderma virgatum Spengler, 1789
DISTINCTIONS: Most barnacles live near the surface while this one prefers mid-water, often mobile habitats. It occasionally attaches to wounds or hard parts of marine fishes (Photo), mammals, turtles, or snakes. Sometimes even to their associates or parasites (Williams, 1978, Williams and Williams, 1986). Often called a parasite but actually filter feeder like most other barnacles (Williams and Bunkley-Williams, 1996, 2019a).
SIMILAR SPECIES: Rabbit-ear Barnacle, Conchoderma atrium (Linnaeus, 1767) has 2 finger-shaped anterior projections (aka ‘ears’) lacking in C. virgatum and lacks the black stripes of C. virgatum (photo; Williams and Bunkley-Williams, 1996). It rather commonly occurs attached to acorn barnacles on whales but rarely on fishes (Mignucci-Giannoni, 1998). Dulcic et al. (2015) summarized 12 species of fishes known to have had this epibiont.
HOST: Australian Herring, Arripis georgianus (Valenciennes, 1831)(photo). This is the first record of this barnacle attached to this fish.
LOCATION: One barnacle is attached in scar tissue in the midline at the insertion of dorsal fin and 2 barnacles in a hemorrhagic lesion in midline between the eyes (photo). The first barnacle could be attached to a denuded first dorsal spine, the second 2 appear deeply embedded and may be attached to the skull of the fish. This barnacle appears to prefer the security of attachment to hard parts; however, Dulcic et al. (2015) found it attached to the skin of a fish. The present lesions were not caused by the barnacles, but probably by a predator; however, Dulcic et al. (2015) thought abrasion by swaying barnacles expanded lesions. Others have suggested barnacles aid healing.
LOCALITY: Busselton Jetty, 3L Busselton, Northwest Australia 6280, Australia http://www.busseltonjetty.com.au
LATITUDE, LONGITUDE: 33°38'12.84" S, 115°20'24.36" E (-33.6439, 115.3446)
DATE POSTED: 27 July 2019
PHOTOGRAPH: by Lachie Ramm
DISTRIBUTION: Occurs in tropical and temperate seas worldwide but rarely on marine vertebrates. It is known from Australia, but this is the first record from western Australia and the Indian Ocean off Australia (ALA, 2019: map).
DATA REPORT: Naturalist (Naturalist.org) Observation #30986750
IMPORTANCE: The occurrence of this barnacle on a fish is both rare and generally unusual (Williams, 1978, Williams and Williams, 1986). The present record represents a New Host Record and a considerable Range Extension.
OBSERVERS: Dr. Ernest H. Williams, Jr.,1,2,4,5 and Dr. Lucy Bunkley-Williams1,3,4,6
AFILIATIONS, ADDRESSES: 1Extraordinary Professors, Potchefstroom Campus, North-West University, South Africa; Adjunct Professors, Research Field Station, Florida Gulf Coast University, 5164 Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Springs, FL 34134; 2Dept. Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico (retired); 3Dept. Biology, UPR (retired); 4920 St. Andrews Blvd, Naples, FL 34113-8943; 5e-mail ermest.williams1@upr.edu; cell 239-227-3645, ORCID 0000-0003-0913-3013; 6Cell 787-467-2179, e-mail lucy.williams1@upr.edu, ORCID 0000-0003-1390-911x.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: We thank Lachie Ramm for posting his photograph and Michael Dowgiallo for improving the photograph.
REFERENCES:
ALA. 2019. Conchoderma virgatum (Spengler, 1789). Atlas of Living Australia. https://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:b1e16974-eb95-4f7c-9c79-a4bd66d0ad3a
Dulcic, J., B. Dragicevic, M. Despalatovic, I. Cvitkovic, D. Bojanic-Varezic and M. Štifanic. 2015. Lepadid barnacles found attached to a living Lobotes surinamensis (Pisces). Custaceana 88: 727-731. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281372848_LEPADID_BARNACLES_FOUND_ATTACHED_TO_A_LIVING_LOBOTES_SURINAMENSIS_PISCES
Mignucci-Giannoni, A. A., E. P. Hoberg, D. Siegel-Causey, and E. H. Williams, Jr. 1998. Metazoan parasites and other symbionts of cetaceans in the Caribbean. Journal of Parasitology 84: 939-946. Google Scholar [220]
Williams, E. H., Jr. 1978. Conchoderma virgatum (Spengler) (Cirripedia, Thoracica) in association with Dinemoura latifolia (Steenstrup and Lutken) (Copepoda, Caligidea), a parasite of the Shortfin Mako, Isurus oxyrhynchus Rafinesque (Pisces, Chondrichthyes). Crustaceana 34: 109 111. [22]
Williams, E. H., Jr. and L. B. Williams. 1986. The first association of Conchoderma virgatum (Spengler)(Cirripedia: Thoracica) with a euryphodid copepod in the mouth of a fish. Galaxea 5: 209 211. [79] Google Scholar
Williams, E. H., Jr. and L. Bunkley-Williams. 1996. Parasites of offshore, big game sport fishes of Puerto Rico and the western North Atlantic. Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, 384 pp. (book). [also Caribbean Journal of Science Special Publication 9: www.caribjsci.org/publications.html; http://www.uprm.edu/biology/cjs/biggamefish.pdf] [190] [free online]
Williams, E. H., Jr. and L. Bunkley-Williams. 2019a. Life cycle and life history strategies of parasitic crustacea. Chapter 5 and Pages 179-266 In: N. J. Smit, N. L. Bruce, and K. A. Hadfield (Eds.). Parasitic Crustacea: State of knowledge and future trends. Zoological Monographs 3, Springer Nature Switzerland, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17385-2 [417]
Williams, E. H., Jr. and L. Bunkley-Williams. 2019b. New host, Australian Herring, Arripis georgianus (Valenciennes, 1831), and Australian Indian Ocean locality record for the Striped Gooseneck Barnacle, Conchoderma virgatum Spengler, 1789, off Busselton Jetty, Australia. Research Quality Report, iNaturalist.org, 16 August (open access) [422]
Williams, E. H., Jr. and L. Bunkley-Williams. 2019c. Partial melanism in the Australian Herring, Arripis georgianus (Valenciennes, 1831) in southern Australia. Research Quality Report, iNaturalist.org, 19 August (open access) [423]

Captured in a Sherman Trap and weighed/measured/identified/handled by Katie R. Smith under permit.
Identified based on tail length (92 mm), dark skin surrounding eye, bicolored tail hairs, blunt tail tip, narrowed tail base, orangey pelage, docile behavior.