House of Herps

Author Archive

Andrea Jaszlics has put together a fun and exciting “Back to School” edition of House of Herps! Andrea’s clever presentation of this month’s amphibian and reptile blog posts is a fun read in its own right. The featured authors are sure to please with their “class” offerings – so be sure to visit Worm Salad for course descriptions and directions to each classroom!

Herp Humor (free of charge)

Reverse Constellation in Honor of HoH #8 Contributors

Welcome to House of Herps #8, July, 2010!

Our host for this edition had a last minute change to her schedule, so the challenge of presenting this month’s contributions in a new and interesting manner has come my way.  Having very recently spent a week playing with my 9yr-old niece (who visits every summer), my thoughts gradually turned to our visit to the planetarium.

During the planetarium show, I was reminded of how many constellations have been named for animals, and herps – real and imagined – are well represented among them. To wit:

• Chamaeleon, The Chameleon
• Cetus, The Sea Monster
• Draco, The Dragon
• Hydra, The Water Serpent
• Hydrus, The Water Snake
• Lacerta, The Lizard
• Ophiucus, The Serpent Holder
• Serpens, The Serpent

The Dragon stuck in my mind, as I considered how many constellations must have taken a great deal of imagination to be envisioned in the first place. So many of them, when only viewing the connect-the-dots version in the nighttime sky, only really come to life when their full-fleshed images are overlaid. This is the best part of the show at the planetarium, as evidenced by the hushed whispers after each overlaid drawing made sense out of the simulated starry sky.

It didn’t take me long to envision a reverse constellation, viewed from the heavens rather than the Earth, where each “star” represents a herpetological experience from each of our contributors.

And thus, Nogard, the reverse herpetological constellation was born.

Each of our 7 contributors is a star in this far-out edition of House of Herps. I hope you’ll enjoy the show!

* * *

1.  Elizabeth of Yips and Howls was enjoying the cuteness of birds and their young, when she looked up to see a robust Bull Snake wrapped around a tree limb. Join Elizabeth as she relates her initial reaction to the snake and the ecological realities that she soon realized.

2. Ted MacRae of Beetles in the Bush has taken to catching venomous snakes with his bug net. You think I’m kidding? I know you’ll enjoy reading about Ted’s successful tiger beetle field trip, that also “netted” him a young Timber rattler.

3. Bernard of Philly Herping spends a day in the Delaware River, where he swims with the dolphins turtles. Lots of turtles, and a variety of species. If this isn’t enticing enough, add in the fact that Bernard has a new, underwater camera and uses the word, “oodles,” in a sentence!

4. Joan of Anybody Seen My Focus? had the great good fortune to encounter a confused Southern Leopard Frog, who, instead of hopping away from her, hopped right toward her, landing at her feet. The super-cool thing about the frog is that it still had quite a long tail, evidence of its transformation from a tadpole.

5. Amber of Birder’s Lounge (that’s me) encountered a Rough Green Snake, up close and personal, in her own backyard.

6. Joy of The Little House in the Not-So-Big Woods writes about a Green Anole who changes color as she snaps a Million pictures.

7. As a birder living in Panama, Jan Axel (Jan Axel’s Blog) enjoys watching the abundant avian species – but not to the exclusion of all others. On a recent birding trip, Jan and his wife encountered many fantastic and colorful herps. You’ll want to see his collection of photos, including the brilliantly colored Poison Dart Frog!

* * *

The next edition of House of Herps will be hosted by Andrea Jaszlics of  Worm Salad, in August 2010. Please send your submissions for HoH #9 to:

submissions [at] houseofherps [dot] com

by August 15th.

Credits:

Dragon illustration from The Dragon Archives.

Earth image from Google Earth

Hi there everyone,

Our scheduled Host, Arati, had to cancel her hosting gig this month, so we have a slot available for anyone who would like to host House of Herps #8. Submissions are due by July 15th, and we would like to have the carnival up on or before July 18th.

Anyone interesssssssted?

submissions [at] houseofherps [dot] com

hosting [at] houseofherps [dot] com

Bernard “Billy” Brown is our host for the May edition of House of Herps. Billy firmly believes that May is the best month for herping and he may be right. He’s got an exciting lineup of posts featuring lizards, frogs, snakes, turtles and more. Slither, hop, or swim on over to Philly Herping to enjoy this month’s enthusiastic presentation!

Hello there herp-fans!

As Spring starts to bear promises of summer, most of us have encountered our first herps of 2010. This is a great time to share your  herping adventures, and the next House of Herps blog carnival is almost here. HoH#6 will be hosted by Bernard “Billy” Brown at Philly Herping. Submissions are due by midnight tonight, but something tells me that a late submission would be able to slither into the carnival which goes up around the 18th.

I would also like to draw your attention to the new Contributors page here at the home site, where I have listed and linked to every blog that has participated in HoH so far, indicated the host blog with an “H,” and linked to the HoH Carnival post itself.

Finally, I thought it might be fun to challenge our bloggers to help us get to enough submissions for every spot on this frog. Or at least most of them…

Please send your submissions to:

• billysbrown[at]gmail[dot]com  OR
• submissions@houseofherps.com

Thanks!

Quick update

We now have a host for HoH#5 – TGIQ of Fall to Climb has swooped in to save the day! TGIQ is also hosting AIF on the 18th, so we’ll give her an extra day or two to post HoH. I have no doubt that TGIQ is up to the task, and I can vouch for how supremely generous it is to host two carnivals simultaneously. And TGIQ is doing this on purpose! (my recent double-hosting gig was an accident…and I had help).

You can now send your submissions to:

• TGIQ at hotmail dot com
• submissions [at] houseofherps [dot] com

Please send your submissions by April 15…after you file your tax return, of course!

If you would like to host an edition of HoH, just let us know!

• hosting [at] houseofherps [dot] com

Spring is heating up and so are those cold-blooded friends of ours! Our hosting schedule is wide open through the best part of herp “season” (for most in North America). If the herps can venture out this month – so can you!

If you would like to host HoH in April or any other month, please let us know by sending us an email at hosting [at] houseofherps [dot] com.

Send your submissions to submissions [at] houseofherps [dot] com.

Thanks!

You have probably already heard about the upcoming series on the Discovery Channel: LIFE. They will air an episode devoted to Reptiles and Amphibians on Sunday, March 21, 2010!!

The homepage for the series features…a reptile! (a lizard, I believe) I’m so excited to have such a fantastic and visually stunning focus on wildlife and conservation, that I wanted to share the trailer. Mmmm, gimme popcorn!

In case you haven’t heard, we have a host for House of Herps #4. We also have another weekend before submissions are due, so if Spring has bee slow to arrive to your town, you may be in luck. I’ll be out this weekend, looking around those sunny spots that might offer a tempting perch for our cold-blooded friends.

John, from Kind of Curious has volunteered to host HoH#4, so be sure to send your submissions to John: KindOfCurious2000 [AT] gmail [DOT] com, or to submissions [AT] houseofherps [DOT] com.

Submissions are due by March 15! Have a great weekend!

It is my great honor to introduce the third edition of House of Herps, the blog carnival dedicated to amphibians and reptiles.  This is an exciting time for herpetology, as scientists wrangle over how best to categorize this fascinating group of animals. According to The Center for North American Herpetology (CNAH),

The discovery that birds (Class Aves) are the closest modern relative to the crocodilians, or the sister clade to crocodilians and turtles, renders the Class Reptilia as an unnatural grouping.¹

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) refers to herps in the traditional groupings of Amphibians and Reptiles. The IUCN offers their taxonomic standards and sourcing as follows:²

Reptiles

Turtles and tortoises generally follow Iverson (1992) (see http://emys.geo.orst.edu/); crocodilians follow King and Burke (1989) (see http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herpetology/turtcroclist/); and tuatara systematics are after Daugherty et al. (1990). Names in common use, including those used by Specialist Groups or in national sources, have been employed for other groups of reptiles. Increasing use is being made of the TIGR Reptile Database compiled by Peter Uetz and made available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.reptile-database.org/.

Amphibians

Nomenclature generally follows Frost (1985) as updated by Duellman (1993). The Amphibian Species of the World Database is now available on the World Wide Web and is updated regularly, so this has become the source for any recent changes: http://research.amnh.org/cgi-bin/herpetology/amphibia. Another important web site for documentation on amphibian species, especially those in decline is the Amphibia Web Database. The Fact Sheets for all amphibian species on the Red List include deep links to the relevant species pages on both the sites described above.

However we describe this diverse group of creatures, one thing is sure: there can be no more eloquent a spokesman for amphibians and reptiles,  than our own Jason Hogle. Those of you who have followed other blog carnivals, have no doubt become familiar with Jason’s name and singular style. Fans of his blog dine regularly on the feast of words that is xenogere.com. Please join me at xenogere.com for House of Herps #3, to relish Jason’s presentation of the best herp-blogging on the internet.

Call for Hosts!

The winter months (in North America) are challenging months for herpetophiles, but Spring is on the way. The next edition of HoH, #4, will be published mid-March – and we need a host! As the weather warms, I anticipate an influx of bloggers wanting to take their turn at the wheel, so don’t wait!  Please contact us at [hosting@houseofherps.com], or use the contact form on our Contact page if you would like to host an upcoming edition.