I was very happy that my first Iguana iguana was in a tree over the Amazon River, instead of in Florida or New Jersey or some other exotic locale:
Zoom shot:
Forest Whiptail (Kentropyx pelviceps):
I enjoyed watching a small crew of Ameivas on Bug Patrol around the perimeter of our camp – the ones I watched caught and ate an amazing amount of bugs in a short time period. Amazon Whiptail (Ameiva ameiva):
Amazon Forest Dragon (Enyalioides laticeps):
Anolis bombiceps:
Female Amazon Green Anole, Anolis punctatus:
Cocha Whiptail (Kentropyx altamazonica):
Fringed Leaf Lizard (Sternocercus fimbriatus)
We saw some awesome invertebrates – here’s a selection:
Peanut Bug (Fulgora laterneria)
Carnivorous Katydid (Copiphora sp. Copiphorinae)
Tropical Forest Flatworm:
(don’t touch them, you can get planarial disease)
Very cool Bark Mantid:
Leaf-tailed Mantid:
Phoneutria fera, a big spider with a very nasty bite:
Pamphobeteus cf antinous, these tarantulas reach about nine inches in length:
Some snakes. Here’s a subadult Boa constrictor constrictor:
Juvenile Amazon Tree Boa (Corallus hortulanus):
(posed on heliconia for effect)
Adult hortulanus:
This is one of two adult Peruvian Rainbow Boas (Epicrates cenchria gaigeae) that Karl found on a trail near our camp one morning:
The iridescence is simply amazing.
And a balled-up juvie:
Another somewhat iridescent species, the Common Swamp Snake (Liophis reginae semilineatus):
We found a semilineatus one night, uncharacteristically high in a tree:
A good-sized example of the Common Forest Whipsnake (Chironius exoletus):
One of the critters I wish I had better pictures of - Cateye Snake, Leptodeira annulata:
A short break from snakes. I’m into leps as well and there was no shortage of cool butterflies and moths. Here’s one of the Blue Morpho species:
Owl Butterfly (Caligo teucer) (Nymphalidae)
I caught this in our cookhouse and set it free. Tomato Butterfly (Temenis laothoe) (Nymphalidae)
Mira Doctor (Ancyluris mira) (Riodinidae)
Emerald Moth (Racheospila ecuadoriata) (Geometridae)
Green-banded Urania Moths (Urania leilus) (Uraniidae):
More snakes. I love this Short-nosed Leaf Litter Snake (Taeniophallus brevirostris), which reminds me of Storeria occipitomaculata:
Common Bird Snake (Pseustes poecilonotus polylepis)
Here she is again, puffed up a little:
Pseustes can give a good bite (that’s my finger):
Slender Coral Snake (Micrurus filiformis)
Aquatic Coral Snake (Micrurus surinamensis surinamensis):
These surinamensis hang out in shallow creeks and eat fish.
Subadult Bothrops atrox:
Here’s a Fer de Lance that crawled through our camp one evening:
The beautiful Liana Snake (Siphlophus cervinus):
Amazon Scarlet Snake (Pseudoboa coronata). Doug found this snake descending a tree during one of our night hikes:
On our last night in the forest this snake was spotted up in the canopy:
One of our guides shinnied up the tree and brought it down (glad it wasn’t me, I’m built for comfort, not arboreal acrobatics). It was a Big-headed Snail Eater (Dipsas indica indica), trying its best to look like a nasty little viper:
Also seen was this Blunt-headed Tree Snake (Imantodes cenchoa). One of my favorite serpents from my time in Peru. We saw a half-dozen or more of these, and most were high in the canopy, so I was happy to photograph this one down low and in situ:
Here is an opaque specimen up in the trees:
Here are three more snakes from our last night in the forest:
Black-headed Calico Snake (Oxyrhopus melanogenys melanogenys)
Yellow-headed Calico Snake (Oxyrhopus formosus)
Amazon Egg-eating Snake (Drepanoides anomalus)
There were so many stunning creatures and so many highlights on this expedition, but what could top this? The loro machaca, AKA the Western Striped Forest Pit Viper AKA Bothriopsis bilineata smaragdina:
Winding it down now. A trip to the zoo in Iquitos on our last day gave me the chance to see one of the really awesome lizards on this planet - Dracaena guianensis, the Caiman Lizard:
What a beast!
For a couple bucks I was also able to photograph a Eunectes murinus:
We looked for a Bushmaster during our stay, without success. However, on our last day we did have the opportunity to photograph a wild-caught Lachesis muta muta:
Getting to this Bushmaster was an adventure in itself and deserves its own book chapter.
That’s it – not everything, but enough, I hope. My total for 14 days on the ground was 106 species and subspecies of herps. I can’t say enough about MT Amazon Expeditions. Everyone on the staff made it possible for me and the other participants to spend as much time as we wanted herping or taking pictures – incredible bang for my buck. It was a truly amazing experience and i have to go back!
-Mike
Here's a question for you guys. 
Thanks for all three posts, they really were fun to read. Might have inspired a trip out that way in the future. 
This is the last installment of Hot Stove Herping this year. 
