Labels

Creatures from the Black Lagoon

I've been spending more time outside lately (not running, unfortunately...) which has really upped my wildlife encounters.

Birds around the house, one worm in the dirt so far, many grubs, a bunny who just ran in ever-decreasing circles while I chased it with the mower. (It's a reel mower. I'm not as ripped as I will be by the end of summer. The yard is quite large. The bunny was in no danger.)

There was the opossum my girlfriend's dog decided to gO MEET AUGH GET AWAY FROM THERE. Obviously, no photos of that. We were preoccupied with getting the dog away from the (larger-than-the-dog) opossum.

A small, grey-black snake with a tihn yellow ring around its neck and a hint of bright-red showing on its tail underside, squiggled across muddy, weedy ground.
This is not an ophidiophobia-friendly blog. Sorry.
There were also a few of these little dudes! They're some kind of ringneck snake; a quick search suggests the Southern subspecies, but frankly I didn't note much in the way of identifying marks and it's been a long time since I was last up on common snakes around here.

A small snake, upside down, showing golden-yellow with black bars on most of its belly, with bright-red on its tail, squiggled across muddy, weedy ground.
Be afraid!!!!! I'm scary!!!!!!
Yeah, okay, I used a stick to flip this one upside down so I could see its belly better. Normally the snake would curl over just the red tail-tip to warn off predators (as it's doing in the first photo). It righted itself almost immediately.

A shot upward into a small aquarium with many stems of grass and cattail loosely arranged in the water, a bright light shining in from above, and a small, black-spotted salamander nymph with tiny limbs and a vast tail.
This seemed much clearer on my phone.
Mom's had two salamander larvae of uncertain species in a tank on the kitchen counter for a few weeks now, and they've gotten all four legs and much more color than they started with. They're also clearly much more voracious than they were—I saw one wrench a snail out of its shell and gulp it down. The small crayfish in the tank have wisely retreated to the uppermost layer of vegetation, where they're less at risk of being snacked on.

A shot into a small aquarium with many stems of grass and cattail loosely arranged in the water, a bright light shining in from above, and a small, black-spotted salamander nymph with tiny limbs and a vast tail diving down and to the right.
Reflections everywhere!
The babies more very quickly when they want to, and otherwise seem to just drift along.

A small, black-spotted salamander nymph with tiny limbs and a vast tail diving down and to the right. It looks grumpy, as they often do.
How on earth do NatGeo photographers do it?
Isn't it pretty?! The gills are all pink-fringed, and the spots and speckles are really striking against the greeny-tan base skin color.




And then there's this. It's about three inches long and straight up AMAZING to watch move. As you may be able to tell from the background chatter, we weren't sure what it was or what it might turn into when it grows up.

A weird, algae-furred beetle nymph, like a long segmented worm with six spidery legs at one end, massive curving pincers, and a tiny forked tail, lurking at the bottom of a glass jar with a few stems of grass and cattail.
Predator has nothin' on this critter.
Seriously, what in hell is this?

Thanks to a handy "what in hell is this" chart or two, we worked out that it's a predaceous diving beetle nymph. It's just...mysteriously coated in algae, and bigger by quite a bit than its adult form.

All in all, the local water features must be pretty healthy—you don't get salamanders and frogs and tadpoles and weird insect nymphs and snakes in unhealthy environments. (The opossum and the rabbit are just proof that I live in North America, really.)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment