These herps are from a field trip from about a month ago--our second time to Francis Marion Forest. My good friend Patrice & I were rummaging through the forest floor looking for some snakes when Patrice found this beauty. Patrice, whom is quite scared of animals (especially slimy ones), screamed and picked up a salamander. She was so excited & just picked him right up... I was very proud! It turned out to be a Ambystoma opacum, the marbled salamander. He was absolutely gorgeous. Ambystomads have eyelids & costals but lack nasolabial grooves, which are present in Plethodontids. This is the first clue to us of where he belonged...then we looked at the markings on his back which were light crossbars across a dark black colouration. Sometimes these crossbands can be incomplete, but this guys were very apparent. They have a plain black belly and are very smooth. Costals are visible and they have chunky bodies with a really cute chunky face and big eyes. I'd say this is the cutest herp we found this year! While we were busy examining the opacum, one of our other peers (I believe our TA Tyler) caught a skink! Skinks are very fast, so that was great that he caught one. It was a common ground skink, Scincella lateralis. He was a very small squamate, ranging from 3-5.5 in. It had a dark dorsolateral stripe & a very smooth shiny body. There were no light markings on this guy and he looked chocolate in colour. The neat thing about lateralis is that it has a "window" in its lower eyelid allowing it to see even when its lids are closed. This skink is very fast and nimble, moving like a snake laterally on the forest floor. It was so elfin but so cute and fascinating to watch move. Overall, a very successful herp hunt!!!
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