Some NQ Herps

[Serpentes]

Poor quality pics taken from video, but thought someone might find them interesting.

All these critters were found between Townsville and Cairns. Saw plenty more but wasn't too busy with the camera sorry. Couple more scrubbies, many brown tree snakes, couple of slatey-greys, snall-eyed snakes, red-bellies, keelbacks, coastal carpet, Boyds forest dragon, spotted tree monitor and a whole big list of skinks.

Lampropholis mirabilis


Diporiphora australis


Carlia schmeltzi


L. mirabilis


Demansia psammophis

 

[Serpentes]

Lacie


Frilly (gravid, good to see)


Carlia rubrigularis


Saproscincus tetradactyla

 

[Serpentes]

Morelia amethystina


Boiga irregularis




Oxyuranus scutellatus, murdered


Two M.s. cheynii/mcdowelli intergrades from the same little section of road, just to show the variation in one place.

 

[ryanharvey1993]

nice lot of pictures, do you have any shots of pygopods and other monitor pictures?

 

[Serpentes]

Cheers, no, I'm certainly no photographer. I just happened to have a video camera in the car with me so took some shots for fun.

 

[James..94]

Great photos Serpentes

 

[Acrochordus]

Great variety of herps you captured there.
Thanks Tim.

 

[cairnscarpets]

are you keeping the carpet pythons, as it is daylight and very rare to see a carpet python out and about in the day this time of year let alone 2, so im assuming this photo was taken after you have captured them off the road at night and taken them home?

 

[whcasual79]

quality

 

[pythons73]

Those 2 Carpets look very interesting,you say McDowelli x Cheynei is that because of the colours-patterns...I would like to no why you say this,why are they not just a Mc dowelli or Cheynei..Great pictures how small-big was the Scrub .....MARK

 

[kupper]

Guys actually have a look at the carpets patterns and colouring definatley a muddled carpet, the first one has a very interesting pattern serpentes

 

[pythons73]

Guys actually have a look at the carpets patterns and colouring definatley a muddled carpet, the first one has a very interesting pattern serpentes

So would you say they are a cross with Cheynei...They are 2 very interesting speciemens,i would like peoples thought regarding this...Anyone from those areas up North QLD seen these sorts of carpets,if so whats your opionion on them..Cheers..MARK

 

[kupper]

i would say but i was there to see where exactly they where found RE territory cross overs ect but serpentes is usually on the money and could comment more about this

the second carpet the lighter of the two looks very much mcdowelli but when you look at the patternign done its sides compared to the more jungle looking carpet you will notice some distinct similarities which would lead to the comments of intergrade

 

[Serpentes]

are you keeping the carpet pythons, as it is daylight and very rare to see a carpet python out and about in the day this time of year let alone 2, so im assuming this photo was taken after you have captured them off the road at night and taken them home?

These two were found on the road at night near the field station where I was working. I don't think I would have gotten them home to southern NSW in one night They were held on scientific permit before photography and release the following night. If I was the type to keep wild caught herps I'd have an unmanagable, immense collection by now- something I rather leave at work

For those pondering the subspecies type for these snakes, I posted the pic to show a couple of things:

1. The Morelia classification of Wells and Wellington (1984) is a load of rubbish for the most part. Sadly it is all we have to go on for now. If you read the paper, you'll see that there are TWO FULL SPECIES OF JUNGLE CARPETS attempted to be established by the authors. Luckily they failed, or we'd all be calling black and golds and black and whites different species! The current Morelia spilotes group represents species complex and doesn't obey our nomenclature system but we still try and force it.
2. Carpet pythons intergrade inconsistently all along the subspecies boundaries. The areas of intergrade between so-called subspecies is sometimes small, sometimes large.
3. In one locality there can be found animals corresponding to the subspecies description given for M.s.cheynii, M.s macdowelli and intergrades.

 

[eipper]

your psammophis is torquata

 

[Serpentes]

Not sure, Mr. Eipper, but I'll take your word for it. If it is torquata, it's the faintest marked one I've seen yet. I've seen both species in the area, maybe they're interbreeding

 

[gecko-mad]

awesome

 

[krusty]

cool pics,love the scrubby,i am yet to find one(alive that is) on my herp trips up to FNQLD.
o well maybe on my next trip.......i hope anyway.

 

[ReptilianGuy]

nice pics, but would be like saying the lil girl i found last week was an intergrade cos of it's higher than normal yellow colouration patterning and the location it was found.... you would find intergrades but coastals can have the same looking patterning as you go further north...

 

[Serpentes]

It is "along subspecies boundaries" where the intergrades lie (boundaries as suggested by Wells and Wellington). You find a lot of colour variation in subspecies type within their core range, but if you are within the overlap of two subspecies there is a chance of an intergrade or just a variation in colour pattern. Looks like a typical coastal phase carpet in your pic Reptileguy.