Loxocemus bicolor is a new species and family for me, although the family, Loxocemidae, is monotypic. It’s a beautiful snake that reflects a rainbow of colors in the sunlight. Additionally, it’s large, strong, and semi-fosorial.
Tag Archives: Animals
Neotropical rattlesnake
After capturing this rattlesnake, Boa fed it a mouse, which it recently released as a brown, moist mush that appears to have permanently stained the bucket it was in with a horrible stench. The snake is a juvenile, and didn’t even have any rattle segments. It is the only one we’ve seen so far.
Long-tailed snake
I’m not certain about the common name in that (1) my source (the Internet) isn’t really reliable and (2) there was nothing long about this snake. (Don’t look into ‘2’ too much)
Another bite
Lesson learned: Coniophanes piceivittis has a painful bite due to rear fangs.
Yes… the photos are piss-poor, but I didn’t exactly have time to adjust the shutter speed.
Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
Two dung beetles rolled their ball of delicious fecal matter into between the buttresses of a tree. One appeared to begin searching for a hole that had been made previously, while the other waited.
I learned a little about depth of field with my camera today… so maybe next time, both dung beetles will be in focus.
Invading army ants
At the Catalina sector wetland, a group from Clemson and I discovered a stream of army ants (Eciton burchellii; I think) that had fanned out into a raiding swarm at one end. There were hundreds of hidden cockroaches, crickets, hemipterans and other insects fleeing the area that was being scavenged by the ants. A few insects appeared not to be bothered by the biting, stinging formacids, and soon became prey. We watched the wasp pictured here go from freely sitting on a leaf to being completely dismantled with little or no reaction by the wasp. The other picture is one of the soldier ants that was provoked by myself and others. At first I laughed at her futile attempt to protect her sisters, until I realized that she was merely distracting me with a pose while several others climbed up my camera strap…
Just a juvenile
This is a monsterous juvenile bug. It’s about the size of a half dollar, or large 20 colone coin if you’re a Tico.
A spying cupreus and a machete
This Norops kind of reminds me of that raptor on Jurassic Park that hid in the bushes while the other raptor attacked the guy with the gun. It’s hiding on Mimosa, which is a very spinny sensitive plant that tends to grow around the fringes of the wetlands. This particular individual of Mimosa is currently decomposing while my hand heals.
Turtles rock
I caught this turtle eating.
Slightly smaller than an adult T. rex
This is one of the crocodiles in the wetland at the Catalina Sector of the park. It swam within 10 m of me to investigate the spashing noises I was making while pulling water hyacinth from the water, and it was kind of terrifying. It was the first time I saw this crocodile, I was alone, it approach me and it’s big. I haven’t seen it out of the water yet, but I’d conservatively estimate its length around 3 m, if not 13 m. 