Field Herp Forum

Jeff, in case you have an iPad, I think the Apple app store also offers a version that works on a pad.

Cheers,
Björn

Although not a book (which is what the ‘Reading Room’ sub-forum usually deals with), the free phone app “Calamaria of Borneo” is essentially a field guide. Available for Android as well as iOS, it helps you to identify the 21 species of sometimes overlooked and often mis-identified Calamaria spp. (r...

Hans, The tree frog with the red webbing is Rhacophorus pardalis. And your natricine is almost certainly a Xenochrophis maculatus; not Amphiesma sarawacense. Juvenile maculatus are that colorful; adults are more drab. (I assume that your snake had no striking checkerboard-pattern on the belly? That'...

Hans, there's really nothing to add - you nailed it.

/Bjorn

Hans, you're indeed right - it is a B. cynodon. As I wrote in your recent post featuring shots of a juvenile specimen D.O.R., some (or even all??) subadults may have a olive-grey "basic" color (and then the usual darker crossbands etc.) In addition, B. cynodon is THE Bornean Boiga sp. know...

Hans, regarding your notion, "I've heard that the Blue Corals in Sabah are of a very intense blue - sky blue, in fact." -- Aren't you mixing it up with specimens from West Malaysia (and Singapore, Southern Thailand)? The subspecies occuring there can indeed be a bright sky blue on the lowe...

Hans, I've caught a couple of these guys in Sabah and Sarawak, and while all of them hooded when provoked sufficiently, I have yet to see one "spit". None of them were inclined to strike; it was more the usual threat display. While you might be drooling from sheer joy while socializing wit...

Actually, that Boiga is a B. cynodon. The juveniles look like that - quite different from the adults - across much of their range (at least the Malay peninsula, Borneo, and Bali). They don't seem to attain the warmer, salmon-tan color, with black and yellowish crossbands, until they reach a fairly l...

That's a Dryophiops rubescens. Nice find.

/Bjorn

Encik Kura-kura, Regarding your two snakes w/o ID: The roadkill looks like Coelognathus flavolineatus. That olive-colored neck and dirty-white upper labials, and a tendency for some dark spots ventrally, gives it away. They vary quite a bit in coloration though; I've seen one (adult too) that was ye...

Oh, right - sorry for my somewhat senile generic assignment. I have a hard to keep up with all name changes back and forth. But to backtrack a bit: as for making the initial ID that we're dealing with a slug snake (as opposed to e.g. Stegonotus), check those cool chin shields. Fused and asymmetric; ...

Hans, That's a Pareas laevis, judging from the ventral count (although the cloaca is hidden in your photo so hard to arrive at an exact figure), the number of upper labials, and what seems to be just one scale between the eye and the nostril. Also the coloration fits. Those characters all fit P. lae...