Scorpion trip - Mount Remarkable, Flinders Ranges, SA.

[snake_freak]

Some pics from our scorpioning/mid-winter herping trip to the Flinders ranges last week.

A few pics of the landscape

First night at camp:

L to R - Jen (the scorpion chick), Sarah (undergrad. volunteer from Adelaide Uni), Me and Greg (Jens and my supervisor at Flinders Uni).

Some first-night finds:

Second (?) instar Urodacus elongatus

Heteronotia Binoei

Female Urodacus elongatus

BIG centipedes were pretty common

Me with a large female Urodacus elongatus

Underwoodisaurus milii

Some pics whilst out helping with field work:

Some of the convoy - The tracks through the ranges were hectic and definitely only accessible by 4WD.

Loads of 'roos around.

Patch of Green-hooded orchids (Pterostylis sp. ???)

Pterostylis Orchid

Emu

Aprasia pseudopulchella

Ctenotus sp.

Me showing Greg's son a skink

Rosella

Kaushik with a Delma molleri

Female Urodacus elongatus

Male Urodacus elongatus

Male Urodacus elongatus

Heternotia binoei

Hiking down into the gorge to do some transects (which were ever so kindly located on steep cliffs in dense prickly acacia scrub - Ouch!). L to R - Sarah, Kaushik and Graham (parks volunteer).

Nice moss rocks

Fern surrounded by moss on a cliff.

I just liked the way this dead tree looked.

A couple of Tawny Dragons (Ctenophorus decresii)

Ctenotus sp.

Cercophonius sp. possibley kershawi ??? Pschotic little scorpions that aren't afraid to have a go.

Habitat were the above animals were found.

Sunset

Urodacus elongatus under UV

Not sure poss. Streambank Froglet (Crinia riparia)?

Prime Urodacus elongatus habitat

Heternotia binoei

Not sure about this one.

 

[moloch05]

Great report! Thanks for including all the habitat shots along with the animals. I can't get over all the reptiles that you found at this time of the year. Were they active or under cover?

The last pic looks like one of the Gehyra sp. I don't know which ones are found in the Flinders but G. variegata seems to be about everywhere, just like Heteronotia binoei. Your Bynoes certainly look different to those that I have seen.

What sort of study are you doing on the scorpions?

Regards,
David

 

[levis04]

nice pics guys great work!

 

[FAY]

Great pics, thanks for sharing.
Why was the Rosella on the ground?

 

[ad]

Thanks for the tour, very interesting.
Great pics allround,
Cheers
Adam.

 

[snake_freak]

Jen is doing the study on the ecology of the flinders ranges scorps. I was just tagging along to look for herps.

My research is looking at the effects of dorsal colour on heat flux in Morelia spilota, Tiliqua scincoides and a number of Elapid species (A. antarcticus, P. nuchalis, O. microlepidotus & N. scutatus. The affects of body size and body posture on thermal biology will also be investigated. Where possible, I am trying to include albino and melanistic morphs in order to explore the extreme ends of dorsal reflectance (colour) in a given species.

My study aims to investigate the hypotheses that:
·Colour morph affects the heating and cooling rates of M. spilota, T. scincoides and a number of Australian elapid snakes.
·Seasonal colour variation affects the heating and cooling rates of Australian elapid snakes.
·Body size and body posture affect the heating and cooling rates between the various colour morphs.

All the herps were found whilst flipping rocks for the scorpions.

Thanks for the species id on the Gehyra

The rosella was feeding on some seeds on the weedy looking little plants.

 

[Tim.Arm]

Awsome shoot's.

 

[cracksinthepitch]

Great photos, i too love shots of dead trees in mountains as they are vantage points for Raptors surveying their territory. A Black Shouldered Kite sure would love a couple of those Skinks and geckos

 

[moloch05]

I just had a look through "A Complete Guide to Reptiles of Australia" and I think that the large skink was probably an Eastern Striped Skink (Ctenotus robustus).

Regards,
David

 

[hornet]

Great shots, the elongatus are a quite attractive, looks like they are darker with more orange/red than the forum i keep. Also the pterostylis look like Linguella, recently separated from Pterostylis, looks like L. nana or a species in the nana complex

 

[Mark Newton]

I recognise all those interesting animals....oh, and Greg too...LOL.
Hope the ecology work goes well....will be interesting to see what is found.

 

[Tim.Arm]

Awsome shoot's mate love the Underwoodisaurus milii.

 

[Aussietoby]

Did you stay at the Melrose caravan park?
i go there once every year, its an awesome place. Oh yeah, nice finds and you have got yourself some great photos.

 

[FNQ_Snake]

Great pics mate. They are awesome. Looks like you had a great trip.

 

[hornet]

also those tawny dragons are very nice, love the earthy red color, quite different to my little guys

 

[jaih]

Great pics, thanks for sharing.

 

[Sdaji]

Brilliant pictures Looks like you had a great field trip Thanks for sharing

 

[jaclyndaniel]

Looks like a lot of fun.
What time of the year did you do this?
What area were you in?

 

[Dannyboi]

Looks like fun. I was planning on doing something like that for my RP next year.

 

[Sigourd]

I have seen the poster for the reults of this up in the Flinders Bio building. This would have been an awesome trip.