FieldHerpForum

Taking a break from the serpent-heavy posts, here's some of the snake food and bird feed I've run into lately.

Let's start with the herps:

Moltrecht's Treefrog, Rhacophorus moltrechti






Buerger's Brown Treefrog, Buergeria robusta. When I saw the first small, canary-yellow frog sitting on the large, dark brown one, I attributed it to hormonal confusion. Then I spotted the second pair....and the third...and the fourth. Turns out that the males of this species turn bright yellow when sexually aroused. I'd say we're very lucky that mechanism doesn't exist in our species








Miantian Treefrog, Chirixalus idiootocus. A species endemic to one small mountain range in Northern Taiwan; the one where I happen to live.






Chinese Tree Toad, Hyla chinensis.




Rice Field Frog, Rana limnocharis. Widely spread over most of East and South-East Asia. Comes in a large variety of colors.




Spectacled Toad, Bufo melanostictus. Around this time of year you can spot them in large numbers hopping around beneath roadside lamps, snatching up the swarming termites that meeting an untimely demise by flying into the light bulbs and crashing onto the asphalt.




Yellow-mouthed Japalura, Japalura polygonata xanthostoma. Very pretty male. Shot handheld in the rain at 300mm, hence the lack of focus




Now for some bugs:

A rare sight - copulating phasmids (no ID). And in a roadside ditch at that! For scale - the lady was about 4.5 inches long






Longhorned Beetle, Anoplophora macularia




(no ID) huntsman spider. Yes, it's as large as it appears




Striped Beetle, Polyphylla taiwana. Endemic to Taiwan, as the name indicates. If you hunt herps at night over here you'll sooner or later run into beetleheads. There's a staggering number of stag beetle species on the island, and people collect them like crazy.




A wasp nest in the making (Parapoliybia varia). These fellows were sitting on their construction site, fanning the nest with their wings. I don't know if that's to keep the brood cool or what? The nest wasn't finished and looked too small to hold a nursery. Any ideas?

Funny to see that phasmid sticking it to her...literally.

Wow, that Moltrecht's Treefrog is a stunner. Love those eyes. The Longhorned Beetle is public enemy number one here in Chicago. Alledgely came here in crates from China. Nice post.

Lovely photos, Hans. Very interesting about the Buerger's Brown Treefrog behaviour. That is a pretty dramatic change of colour.

The Yellow-mouthed Japalura was nice ... how common are they?


Regards,
David

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

"Sticking it to her".....excellent!

The japalura is very common around here. There are four or five species in Taiwan, but only two here in the North. Both look very similar.

Didn't know about the Longhorned Beetle being PE#1......they don't seem so numerous over here. Are you sure it's the same species? It's quite a large insect, over two inches in body length.

The first shot is cool, the frog looks pensive like he has a lot on his mind. Loved the inverts thanks for that dose.


Justin