miércoles, 05 de diciembre de 2018

New Species of Siren

Found this article while scrolling through my facebook feed and found this article. Just thought I'd share it with anyone who was interested.

https://relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/animals/2018/12/new-species-of-giant-salamander-siren-discovered-florida

Publicado el miércoles, 05 de diciembre de 2018 a las 11:34 PM por dominic dominic | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

viernes, 03 de junio de 2016

Summer Time!

This is going to be a short post but I thought I might as well say it. I am finally out of school for the summer which means some serious herping and arachnid hunting. I am looking forward to road herping now that I have a car and hope to encounter some seriously cool stuff. Also am looking forward for some cool adventures to put up on my youtube channel and share with everyone! Again I am looking forward to the next couple of months!

Publicado el viernes, 03 de junio de 2016 a las 11:19 PM por dominic dominic | 4 comentarios | Deja un comentario

martes, 26 de abril de 2016

A windy critter on a windy day

So I have been trying to find a windscorpion(camelspider, sunscorpion, etc.) For about 5 months now. One of the main reasons was because on April 23, I had an arachnid exhibit for the park I volunteer at. They were doing a huge bug festival(BugFest), and I was lucky enough to score a table. Well I had a scorpion, vinegaroon, harvestman, mite, spiders, but no windscorpion.

Anyway, so the next day my dad and I were working on a fountain in my courtyard. Well there was one area that needed to have small rocks in it so water can drain easily without damaging anything. So I had the lucky job of collecting and lugging buckets of rocks from the levee behind my house to my front yard.

So on my second to last trip I went to collect rocks. Well on my second grab I saw this thing that jumped out in a recognizable defensive position. I instantly knew I had found one. A little bit of me was angry because I could've used thus guy about a day earlier. Then I started laughing seeing how silly and what a coincidence this encounter was. Then I got excited and caught it.

Anyone ready this might be thinkin why the heck is this guy posting this. Well. . . I just thought it would be a cool and funny little story to share with everyone and just felt like talking about a personal encounter with a rare animal in my area. Thamy you all for stopping by and reading. I appreciate it! :-)

Publicado el martes, 26 de abril de 2016 a las 03:07 AM por dominic dominic | 1 observación | 6 comentarios | Deja un comentario

domingo, 24 de enero de 2016

2015 Herp Wrap-Up

Normally at the beginning of the new year I like to do a wrap up of all the herps, new and old, I have found in the previous years. I also like to see how many species of reptile and amphibian I have found. I thought I would try something new and share it to those interested haha ;-)

2015 was a great year for me herping wise. I would have liked to have found more species but hey I found some pretty cool stuff. Even though I didn't complete my list of the species I wanted to find, I found some other stuff that comes close to replacing them. In total I found 23 reptile species(including subspecies), 14 of which were new species for me. And for amphibians, I found 10 species(including subspecies) of amphibians, 3 of which were new for me.

The highlight species of my year are in the list below:
Red-bellied Newt
Sierra Nevada Yellowleg Frog
Southern Long-Toed Salamander
San Francisco Alligator Lizard
San Bernardino Ringneck Snake
Alameda Whipsnake
Giant Garter Snake
Southern Pacific Rattlesnake
Eastern Spiny Softshell

Although my list and my expectations aren't impressive by professional standards, I think I had a great year of herping.

2015 was a great year for herping but I plan to make 2016 even better!!!!!

Publicado el domingo, 24 de enero de 2016 a las 03:39 AM por dominic dominic | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario

lunes, 14 de diciembre de 2015

Possible new Slender Salamander species???

So in January of this year a friend and I somewhat accidentally discovered an isolated population of slender salamanders over here in Stockton. Ever since then I have been doing a little personal field research myself to learn more about this population. Well about a month into it I had a crazy idea that these guys might be so isolated that they are a possible new subspecies or new species altogether. Some novice evidence to my theory was a white-spotted belly which isn't common in the B. attenuatus I find in the coast ranges. Well today on December 13, 2015 I happened to find 4. The very first individual I caught was being very cooperative with me and I decided to count the costal grooves on them. This is a better way of identifying the differences in species but it is not always guaranteed. Well I counted, and I could be wrong, but I counted 24 costal grooves. B. attenuatus has 18-21. I could've counted wrong but if I am right I think I might have just discovered a new subspecies or species. I was thinking of getting a DNA test on these guys to see if they are still B. attenuatus or not. Any suggestions or ideas guys? I would be more than glad to take any of them and would be greatly appreciated if I get any!

Publicado el lunes, 14 de diciembre de 2015 a las 02:58 AM por dominic dominic | 3 observaciones | 3 comentarios | Deja un comentario

domingo, 27 de septiembre de 2015

Dragonflies Bite!

I don't know if this was already discovered or everyobe else knew, but this is just a personal discovery for me. . . Dragonglies bite! I was in the field behind my house when I passed by a huge dragonfly, probably female green darner, that looked dead. Well when I picked it up it curled into my finger and bit me. It didn't hurt, mainly because I let go and flicked it off so it wouldn't hurt, but it was just really weird. So next time tou see what you think is a dead dragonfly make sure it really is dead. Or else you'll also find out what it feels like to be bit by a dragonfly.

Publicado el domingo, 27 de septiembre de 2015 a las 07:44 PM por dominic dominic | 7 comentarios | Deja un comentario