Readers’ wildlife photos

August 19, 2015 • 7:15 am

Thanks to the kindness of readers, I’ve received about four more batches, but do keep sending your GOOD photos when you have time. Today’s abbreviated version includes two photographs from Jacques Hausser, with the submission called “Watering can squatters”

Podarcis muralis, the common wall lizard (Bresse, Eastern France): a secure observation post:

Podarcis

Hyla meridionalis, the Mediterranean tree frog (Haute Provence, France), well hidden in the spout.

Hyla

And reader John McDonald sent a set of four diverse photos:

Earlier this summer, I flew out to Portland, Oregon and rode my bicycle home to Baltimore, a distance of 3900 miles in 7 weeks. I’ve done bike trips of a week or two before, but never anything this long. I only had a little point-and-shoot camera, so my pictures of birds and mammals aren’t that great. Here are some critters that I could approach close enough for a good picture.
Two dung beetles (species unknown) rolling a ball of cattle dung on the Buffalo-Sussex Cutoff Road in eastern Wyoming. A male and female cooperate to make a ball of dung, roll it to a suitable location, and then bury it after the female has laid eggs in it. Fortunately for the beetles, this beautifully desolate road only had one car every half hour or so, giving them plenty of time to roll their dung balls across the road.
1_dung_beetles
A hognose snake (either western hognose snake, Heterodon nasicus, or eastern hognose snake, Heterodon platirhinos), on the 16F to 97 Road in north-central Nebraska. On this trip, I saw a depressing number of birds and turtles squished on the back roads of America, but surprisingly few snakes, alive or dead.
2_hognose_snake
Two beetles (I think they’re Chrysochus auratus, the dogbane leaf beetle) mating at Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky.
3_dogbane_beetles

A luna moth (Actius luna) in the woods near West Virginia route 45:

4_luna_moth

16 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

  1. Well done on the bike trip. You were pushing (at average about 80 miles per day)! Did you have full bags?

    I prefer more like 40-50 miles per day; but then I suppose the plains were places where you just wanted to ride all day.

    Good job going W-E! Tail winds are good!

    2. I travel pretty light, with about 25 pounds of camping gear and clothes, plus only food for a day or two. A lot of touring bicyclists carry 50 to 70 pounds of stuff. It’s a tradeoff; they have a little more enjoyable camping experience, while I have an easier time going up hills.

      1. Cheers, yes, that’s very light.

        I was more in the 70-lbs crowd (I loved my 28-34 gear ratio on long climbs). But we (two of us) were entirely independent except for periodic additions of water, food, and fuel for the Whisperlite MF stove. At a temp. range of freezing to way-too-hot. And I was hauling two cameras, 5 or 6 lenses, as many as 80 rolls of film at a time, tripod, etc. So, yeah, we were going heavy.

        I used to be able to go 3-4 days in the mountains (climbing or skiing) at that 25-lb limit; but comfort is not a word one would associate with such a trip! 🙂

    2. Very nice photo of one too. It looks as though it is contemplating doing a cobra imitation.

  4. Really cool. I have never seen dung beetles rolling their ball. Many species do not do that, and I suppose that is the case for the ones I have around here.
    I am curious about the flies that are riding with them, and I wonder if they have plans on laying eggs on the ball.
    Your dogbane leaf beetles demonstrate quite nicely that a little point ‘n shoot camera can do a great job at close-up photography. Well done.

    1. Thanks for the compliment; it’s easier to take pictures of living insects when they’re preoccupied.

    2. Mark: Good call on the flies riding on the beetle on the right– they appear to be Sphaeroceridae, probably the genus Norrbomia, which are phoretic [free-riders] on Canthon and related dung beetles. The flies are attracted to the beetles even before the latter are at the dung hill, They [theflies] lay eggs on the dung and their larvae compete with the beetle larvae [so kleptoparasites].

  5. The common dung-roling scarabs in North America belong to the genus Canthon — roughly 25 species north of Mexico.. They are commonest across the central plains and southern US. They don’t quite make it into the maritime Northwest where I live, but Canthon simplex is pretty commonin eastern Oregon and Washington.

    The genus name is an ancient Greek word for dung-roller [applied to scarab beetles that are not particularly closely related to the American ones]. The word Canthon was used by Aristophanes in his play “Peace” to refer to a gigantic dung beetle that a character intended to use to fly to heaven — another precursor to the story of Mohammed and Barak.

    1. Thanks for the genus of the dung beetles. I’ve done a lot of bike riding in cattle country, and I’d never seen them before. But on this unpaved road in Wyoming, there were stretches where a little ball of dung was moving across the road every 10 feet or so.

  6. Nice photos. I like that lizard peeking out!

    How big are those dung beetles? I lived in eastern WY for 9 years and never saw a single one. I think I can see your reflection on the thorax of the right leaf beetle. Beautiful insects!

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