China post #42, Hainan Island

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Kevin Messenger
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China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Kevin Messenger »

A link to the previous post, #41: http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... =2&t=13267

18 June 2012
Iwo and I grabbed a taxi around 6am to take to the airport.

Hainan is very hot and humid and in many ways reminds me of Florida. There is usually a rain storm once per day (though not island-wide), and then the sun comes out again – resulting in very humid conditions. The north side of the island is considered sub-tropic (coldest temps of the year are around 11 degrees C for about a week) whereas the south side of the island is considered tropical. The north and south are divided by a mountain range where hopefully a lot of my work will take place. Another interesting factoid about Hainan: it is the only place in China that doesn’t require a visa! So long as you plan to visit for 2 weeks or less, anything greater than 2 weeks requires a visa. We were warned that leeches can be pretty insane on Hainan. And of course I was assuming mosquitoes would be pretty bad as well.

When we arrived at Hainan Normal University we met up with Dr. Liang. First he took us out to lunch:
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We also took this time to meet the other herpetologist at the university, Dr. Wang Jichao. Dr. Shi Haitou was my official host, but he was recently promoted within the university and is now extremely busy. So since Dr. Wang (from my university: AAMU) knew Dr. Liang very well, Dr. Liang told my Dr. Wang he would host me in Dr. Shi’s place. But we felt I should also make contact with the other herpetologist at the university, Dr. Wang Jichao. Dr. Shi and Dr. Wang wrote the book, The reptiles and amphibians of Hainan Island.

Afterward our meals, he set us up in an extremely nice hotel next to the university:

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The room was 500 Yuan per night (600 Yuan = $100 USD), and he set us up in two rooms for some reason (we could have easily shared – they are quite large). So Dr. Liang was forking over 1,000 yuan per day. He was a very nice host! He was not obligated to cover any of Iwo’s expenses, that is what his REU grant was for, but Dr. Liang covered all of our food and lodging while we were in Hainan. The rooms in this hotel came with a computer, foot and leg massager, 2 huge beds, great A/C – everything except a fridge. In the states a room like this would definitely be around $100/night at least.
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A view of Haikou from the window:
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We planned a rough agenda of my time on the island. The university is associated with 3 research sites on the island. Two of them are nature reserves, and the third is university property. We agreed that I could spend 1 week at each site, collect as much as I can, come back for a day, then move on to the next site. This would allow me to re-visit two of the sites, maybe all three, if need be. This would obviously depend on the number of specimens I had collected of course.

19 June 2012
We were originally supposed to head out today, but there was a typhoon, so we got delayed by a day. I spent the day buying gear and cages for any Rhabdophis specimens we might find.



20 June 2012
Site 1 was a nature reserve on the north east side of the island called TongGuLing (N19.678662 E111.015223). They told me that this nature reserve had never been surveyed before and so they would like me to collect any and all species I find.

Dr. Liang called his driver to pick us up. The drive is about 1.5 to 2 hours from Haikou. Once we neared the reserve, as we were driving through the local town, the students in the car told me that this is where we would be staying. But for the time being, we would continue to drive to the reserve so we could see where we’d be doing our work. Unlike every case in Shennongjia, Iwo and I would be doing this solo, no Chinese assistants.

The reserve is quite small and at the far end you can barely see the ocean (a little bay in the distance). We drove up to the field station, which looked very similar to the ones in Shennongjia. No one was there (2 months later I found out that this station is now deserted and not used very often). One the drive out, we saw tons of Mabuya multifasciata skinks:
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When we got back to the town they started looking for hotels for us to stay at. We stopped at 3 hotels, all were full. Apparently there was a film being shot in the area and the director and his crew had taken up a lot of the hotels (problem #1). I proposed we stay at the field station (not knowing it was deserted, no power, no water, etc). They said we’d have to buy some sheets for the beds (as we would be occupying some new beds I guess?). About that time the driver came back and said that he found a hotel that had room. It charged 50 Yuan per night. The a/c did not work, it just blew out hot air. We ate lunch, then the student asked me to write down what I think my daily schedule would be and he would have a car come to pick me up and take me to the reserve. I anticipated a late breakfast (because I figured we’d be out late each night). So I suggested a 9:30am breakfast, then at 10am we could get a car to the reserve. We’d not eat lunch, and come back to town at 6pm for dinner, then after dinner, we’d walk to the reserve to do a night hike. I knew a car wouldn’t be willing to deliver us at night, or pick us up. But this was fine, as I wanted to mostly just walk to look for DORs or whatever else.
I told the student that for this first day we didn’t need a car, we’d walk to the reserve, see how long it takes us, and then decide from there.

So around 5:15pm we left the hotel.

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It took us 45 mins to walk the main highway (2.5 miles/ 4 km), before taking a left down an awesome little road with several houses on it:
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(this road reminded me a lot of the road in Danshui from last year)

It was another 45 mins (1.93 miles/ 3.1 km) to the entrance of the reserve. Once we entered the reserve, it was another 30 mins (1 mile/ 1.6 km) to the field station. So it took us roughly 2 hrs (5.5 miles/ 8.7 km) to reach the field station, then of course the same walk back, so 17.4 km (10.8 miles) per visit. We would be making two trips per day, once during the day, another at night, so a total of 34.8 km (21.6 miles) per day.

Some of the scenery on the walk to the reserve:
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Once we reached the dirt road, we were greeted by a flock of freaky goats:
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Sunset was around 7:30pm, so the walk back was full of various frog calls and plenty of frogs on the road as well, but no snakes.

Polypedates megacephalum
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Rana [Hylarana] guentheri
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The subspecies of painted frog endemic to the island, Kaloula pulchra hainana
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As we neared the main highway, we found a freshly hit Pareas margaritophorus:
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(a DOR from last year)

It was quite a hike (11 miles/ 17.4 km) – and we would be doing it twice a day for a week. It reminded me VERY much of my time spent in DanShui last year:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9544&p=116111#p116111
both in temperatures, and the long hikes, which were primarily road bound. Temps were around 85 degrees F and humidity was around 93%. When we got back to our room, I was reminded of the heat. We opened the window but it didn’t do much good. Thankfully there were no mosquitoes to be had. We basically just laid in our beds and sweated ourselves to sleep. Tomorrow we were going to buy a fan….

21 June 2012
The next day the student that dropped us off called and asked again about the car. Running by the cars schedule wasn’t a good idea I thought. I think we could get more done if we just maintained our own schedule and went when it was good, and stayed back when it was bad (rain, heat of the day, etc). So we canceled the car. After breakfast we headed out, nothing but tons of Mabuya multifasciata skinks.

As we neared the reserve, a cyclist asked if we were going to TongGuLing – we said we were. He said it was closed because the military was doing an exercise there (problem #2). Yesterday we were told we shouldn’t climb the mountain (or take pictures of it) because of a military base on the top. We hiked to the entrance before turning back. No new DORs. We traveled down some side roads to explore more territory. In the afternoon it rained for a good hour and a half. I was excited about what the night would hold.

After dinner we went out – frogs were all over. I heard a really interesting sounding frog that I wanted to see who was making the call:


We walked over to a concrete culvert (exactly like the ones in Danshui that had the Xenochrophis) – Iwo saw a snake swimming in the culvert. I mentioned it was probably a Xenochrophis, but could have been something else. The culvert was covered in Polypedates megacephalum treefrogs, Microhyla ornata frogs, and a new frog I haven’t seen before:

Chirixalus doriae
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We waited for the snake to surface. It was trapped in there, we just had to wait. The frog making the calls was Kaloula pulchra hainana. Inside the culvert was also a Bufo melanostictus:
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The snake finally surfaced and Iwo snagged it. It was an Enhydris plumbea. We bagged it and continued our walk to the reserve. There we found two more Enhydris plumbea, both crossing the sand road, next to puddles in the road, created by the rain.

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(these guys are incredibly feisty and are actually able to get airborne in their exaggerated striking)



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I also spotted a sub-adult Trimeresurus albolabris in ambush position (for frogs) very close to the ground.

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The white-lipped vipers on Hainan have red eyes, where as the white-lipped vipers I saw on Hong Kong last year had yellow eyes. Not sure if anything interesting going on there or not…. [technically there is not. The complex is quite… complicated, but apparently the only true diagnostic feature between the two Trimeresurus species is whether or not one of the nasal scales is truly separated, or is fused. For a long time I thought yellow eyes = albolabris and red eyes = [stejnegeri[/i], but that is wrong, either species can have either color]. There was another fresh DOR Pareas on the way out, as well as a DOR Xenochrophis piscator. And a few more frogs:
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22 June 2012
We walked to the reserve to photograph some of the snakes. Nothing new on the road, just lizards galore. The majority of the day was overcast and rainy. I was excited for what the evening would hold. At dinner, as we were eating a young guy came up to me and started saying a bunch of stuff (in Chinese), I picked up on some keys words, “Liang Wei” and “Haikou.” To clarify, I asked him (in Chinese), “are we going to Haikou tonight??” “Yes.” “Oh, ok….. what time?” “8pm.” So… this really changed some plans around. I guess we are not going out tonight, that’s an extreme shame (problem #3). Oh well, that is how things go in China – you can never plan on anything and you got to be flexible. Oh the ride back to Haikou, the students that picked us up used their phones to translate what was going on. They said that the reserve was closed because the military was conducting exercises out there. They were also kicked out of the reserve and had to return to Haikou, so it wasn’t just us.

When we arrived back in Haikou another professor greeted me and told me that Dr. Liang was out in the field and would be back in two days.

Not sure what the next step will be. I am hoping we will go to DiaoLuoShan next, which is supposed to have both of my target species (Rhabdophis subminiatus and R. adleri) – between the two, adleri (the endemic) is supposed to be much more common. So we will see….

23 June 2012
Haikou. We wasted away in our hotel room for a good 5 days (problem #4). Dr. Liang said we would leave for DiaoLuoShan on the 27th. I had also been in contact with an Australian herper, Peri, who had been working for Dr. Liang in Guangdong Province on some bird stuff. She had a few extra days and came down to Hainan Island, hoping to meet up with Iwo and I to find some snakes. We planned to rendezvous on the 27th at DiaoLuoShan.

27 June 2012
Headed down to the lobby to meet up with Dr. Liang. He told me that there was a huge rain storm at DiaoLuoShan and that currently all of the rooms at the hotel up there were being taken up by the government (problem #5). The government will head out in two days. Originally, I was supposed to meet up with an Australian herper, Peri Bolton, who was at Sanya. She was going to meet up with us at DiaoLuoShan, but now Dr. Liang said we would go to LiMuShan instead for a couple of days. He said due to the rain they closed the road going into DiaoLuoShan. He found all of this out while we were in the lobby. He said normally we’d just wait for another two days, but since he had already called his driver, he was sending us to LiMuShan instead. I obviously didn’t have time to send Peri an email explaining the situation. I asked Dr. Liang to make sure Peri knew we wouldn’t be meeting up with her (he ended up not doing this by the way).

We loaded up the car. Another student was coming with us, and staying with us this time; Li Min, he is a MS student of Dr. Wang’s (the other herpetology professor at Hainan Normal University). Li Min is studying the vocalizations of turtles.

LiMuShan was pretty nice (N19.173635 E109.733185). It was around 650m in elevation and was much cooler (temperature) than TongGuLing, and the humidity was noticeably far less extreme. The drive up was pretty harrowing. The road was definitely meant for a 4wd vehicle (we were in a 2wd van).

The town of LiMuShan was very small. The majority of the town was still under construction:

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There were no hotels in town, nor any restaurants. Dr. Liang had set up our lunches and dinners with a local person he knew.

Here was where we ate lunch:
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Generally speaking, I prefer the meals served in small towns, but there is a limit. The food served at this place was not really the best (most of the time). One meal the cook did pull off really well was the AWESOME pineapple and pork dish:
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At least there was a market store that had access to cold beer and cold soda.

The field station was also still under construction, but some of the lodging was already done. The quarters were the nicest quarters I’ve ever seen, ever, way better than anything in Shennongjia. Each building was in a log cabin style construction and had two rooms per building. Each room had two beds, a nice desk, large bathroom (with western style toilet). The only thing it lacked was a/c – which wasn’t a terribly big deal due to the elevation, and internet.

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One of the incredible aspects of the place, the first night hike we went out – I walked out my front door and walked up to a mud puddle in front of the porch, which was full of Fejervarya limnocharis (rice paddy frogs) and there was a juvenile Sinonatrix percarinata! We weren’t even finished getting ready for the walk and we already got the first snake of the night.

The first night, we found around 10 species of frogs (about 25% of the frogs of Hainan), a DOR Trimeresurus albolabris, and a freshly hit, still thrashing Oligodon formosanus (Taiwan kukri snake).

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These guys have a pretty interesting call, it’s kind of like whimpering:
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(the primary call in this link – other calls include Philautus ocellatus (the rock like clicking calls) and Polypedates megacephalum (the Predator-like calls))

Here is the habitat:
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After walking the road, I wanted to do a bit of stream walking. Hainan is supposed to have two species of endemic torrent frogs, the threatened Amolops torrentis, and the endangered Amolops hainanensis. We hit the stream and immediately started finding some Amolops:

Amolops hainanensis:
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Amolops torrentis:
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Habitat during the daytime:
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Microhyla heymonsi
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28 June 2012
Today was a great day. I wanted to walk down the road in the other direction to see what other sort of habitat I had to work with. We came up on a small gravel road to the left, I followed that. It lead to a large stream.

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The road continued on the other side, but you couldn’t get there without getting wet (we’d continue on the road and cross the stream later that night) – for the time being I was just interested in looking around the shore real quick then getting back to the paved road and seeing what else was further down the road. As I walked down the shore, I spotted the first snake, from a distance somehow – it too had yet to realize it was being watched. It was a gorgeous Mock Viper (Psammodynastes pulverulentus).

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in situ

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I had never seen one with the white lip before

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The species is very photogenic, so I apologize for so many shots

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She was incredibly tame for a mock viper. She never once tried to bite, which for anyone that has handled these guys before, you know they like to bite. We bagged her and continued back on the paved road.

Not much else happened for the majority of the mid-day. There was an awesome “leaf” butterfly:
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As we walked into town for dinner, we had some more time to kill, so I suggested we walk down a different road on the south side of town – we walked up the road a bit, didn’t see anything, turned around, walked a bit back down the trail and then I saw some movement on the shoulder of the trail and spotted the back half of another Mock viper. I jumped on him, turned on the GPS and started averaging points in order to get the most accurate coord, while it was doing that I just kind of haphazardly moseyed around the area of capture, and there was another Mock viper! Three mock vipers in one day, not too bad.

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So as I mentioned before, the species normally likes to bite. The species is also rear-fanged. Every now and then they will gape, and when they do you usually see small sheaths in the front, as if the species is front fanged. It’s really unsettling. Here’s a shot of the front sheaths and the rear fangs:
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The two that were found together were both males. Not sure if they were in combat or what, seems kind of late for the mating season, but I don’t really know how those seasons work on a tropical island.

After dinner we went back to our rooms, got our gear for the night. As we left the property there was a large Oligodon formosanus sticking out of some tin by the office.
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I wanted to check the stream where the mock viper was earlier and walk the road beyond it. We got down there, Li Min and Iwo stayed mostly on the bank/ shore while I got in the middle of the stream (about knee deep) and started walking downstream. I got pretty far down where I found a gravid female Sinonatrix percarinata sleeping on some bamboo over hanging the stream.

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Got back to the shore where an Amphiesma boulengeri turned up!

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The rest of the road and future stream crossings yielded nothing.

When we got back to the paved road, I wanted to walk back into town to get a coke. As we passed the field station where we were staying a truck passed us head on – there go the chances of any AORs (Alive On Road) I thought to myself. We continued on, my only hopes now were that enough time would have passed further down the road that there may be some AORs closer to town. Then the same truck apparently decided to turn around and pass us again, heading back into town. “well crap” I thought, now the odds were definitely against us…. I should preface this next part – as we were driving into LiMuShan, Iwo was looking at the Reptiles and Amphibians of Hainan book (it’s in Chinese, but has some pics at the end) – he was looking at the picture of Oligodon cinereus (Golden kukri), which in the book isn’t really “golden” but instead just red. He brought up this concern and showed me the pic, so that image was kind of fresh in my mind. So back to the story, the truck passed us and my hopes of an AOR were even lower now.

About 1 or 2 minutes after the truck passed, I was shocked to see a snake coming on to the shoulder of the road. “Snake!” I was ecstatic that there was actually a live snake, and especially so soon after the truck passed. As we got closer I saw that it was reddish in color. “Oh, maybe one of those red phase Golden kukri snakes?” I was thinking. I was excited as this would have been a lifer species for me. When I finally got close enough for my head lamp to actually illuminate the snake fully I was completely blown away, it was a GORGEOUS Chinese coral snake (Sinomicrurus kelloggii)!

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Last year in Hong Kong I had found another species of Chinese coral, Sinomicrurus macclellandi, but kelloggii is a much larger species. That find really made the day. Overall it was a great day, 3 mock vipers, 1 Sinonatrix, 1 Amphiesma, and a Chinese coral!

29 June 2012
Some more habitat around the reserve:

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(Sinonatrix in the water)

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(Sinonatrix in the water)

Went up to the mtn stream at night, found the cool looking treefrog

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Rana spinulosa
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Philautus ocellatus
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Kurixalus bisacculus
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30 June 2012
The next couple of days did not yield much. The field station was exceptionally dry. While at a lunch or dinner I asked about rain, they said it had been over 10 days since they had rain. I was eager to get to DiaoLuoShan as this is supposedly the best place to find adleri.

A few last herps:
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Li Min said it depended on his professor, Dr. Wang Jichao as to when we would leave LiMuShan and head to DiaoLuoShan. He wanted us to stay at LiMuShan for a few more days (LiMuShan had also not been surveyed before), but the reserve boss said that some new people were showing up and they needed the space, so basically we had to leave – this worked for me, so we left LiMuShan. The drive from LiMuShan to DiaoLuoShan took 7 hours…. (even though the distance between the two spots is only 32 miles – lots of mtn roads…).

Next post, DiaLuoShan: http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... =2&t=13563
TimCO
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by TimCO »

Kevin,
I've been enjoying the heck out these posts. The herps, landscapes, people, and the food. All part of the exotic herping experience. Thanks.
gabrielgartner
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by gabrielgartner »

Kevin,

Great Shots! I am going to SE Asia in Dec/Jan (not the best time) and reviewing your posts keeps me excited!

Just a quick question...what kind of lighting/flash system are you using on your night shots. Are you using a 60mm macro lens?

Thanks,
Gabriel.
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Kevin Messenger
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Kevin Messenger »

Gabriel,
95% of my shots are with the built in flash on my camera. And 95% of my herp shots are shot with my 50mm macro lens. Very rarely I will use my big flash as a slave flash and shoot off camera. Only on special occasions.

I wish I had the 60mm. I've had this 50mm since 1997. It was one of my first lenses, bought it back when I was shooting film.
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kyle loucks
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by kyle loucks »

Thanks for the posts Kevin. Immaculate photography as usual. Do you ever get to Gansu province?
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Fieldnotes
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Fieldnotes »

You seem like the person to be ask…
Just today, a person from Berkeley informed me that this skink is not Mabuya multifasciata, but Eutrophis multifasciata. I see you have yours listed as Mabuya… I’m confused… any help… What-in-the-world is it?
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Location: Naga (Bicol Region, Camarines Sur, Philippines)
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Kevin Messenger
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Kevin Messenger »

Kyle, I've never been to Gansu. Why do you ask, is there a species up there that interests you??



In 2002 it was Mabuya

In 2003, it was changed to Eutropis

In 2008, it was changed back to Mabuya

In 2011, it was changed again, back to Eutropis

Ah taxonomy, you gotta love it (sarcasm). I am all for scientific names, but it is pretty sad when the sci name changes as much as the common name.....

It seems like the flip flopping has stopped and the name has settled on Eutropis - so that is the genus I would go for (and will be changing in my lists - though I might go with the bracket technique: Mabuya [Eutropis] multifasciata) - I think that causes less confusion. Shows connections.
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justinm
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by justinm »

Beautiful location, and the snakes were stunners! This is a favorite of the new series.
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kyle loucks
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by kyle loucks »

Kevin Messenger wrote:Kyle, I've never been to Gansu. Why do you ask, is there a species up there that interests you??

Just curious, I was there in March of 2004 and was curious what could be found there.
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Kevin Messenger
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Kevin Messenger »

A rough estimate would be (note, names could be outdated):

Salamanders:
Batrachuperus tibetanus
Andrias davidianus
Tylototriton wenxianensis


Anurans:
Megophrys wushanensis
Oreolalax popei
Scutiger boulengeri
Bufo gargarizans
Bufo minshanicus
Bufo raddei
Amolops chunganensis
Amolops mantzorum
Rana boulengeri
Rana chensinensis
Rana kukunoris
Rana [Fejervarya] limnocharis
Rana [Odorrana] margaratae
Rana nigromaculata
Rana omeimontis
Rana pleskei
Rana [Paa] quadranus
Rana [Odorrana] schmackeri
Polypedates megacephalum


Turtles:
Chinemys reevesii
Pelodiscus sinensis


Lizards:
Alsophylax pipiens
Cyrtodactylus elongatus
Gekko japonicus
Gekko swinhonis
Teratoscincus przewalskii
Teratoscincus roborowskii
Teratoscincus scincus
Japalura flaviceps
Japalura splendida
Laudakia stoliczkana
Phrynocephalus frontalis
Phrynocephalus przewalskii
Phrynocephalus versicolor
Phrynocephalus vlangalii
Eremias argus
Eremias multicocellata
Eremias przewalskii
Eremias velox
Eremias vermiculata
Takydromus septentrionalis
Eumeces capito
Scincella przewalskii
Scincella tsinlingensis
Sphenomorphus indicus


Snakes:
Eryx miliarius
Eryx tataricus
Achalinus spinalis
Coluber spinalis
Cyclophiops major
Dinodon rufozonatum
Elaphe anomala
Elaphe carinata
Elaphe dione
Elaphe mandarinus
Elaphe porphyracea
Elaphe taeniura
Lycodon fasciatus
Lycodon ruhstrati
Oligodon multizonatus
Pareas boulengeri
Plagiopholis styani
Psammophis lineolatus
Pseudoxendon macrops
Sibynophis chinensis
Zaocys dhumnades
Amphiesma craspedogaster
Rhabdophis nuchalis
Rhabdophis tigrinus
Sinonatrix percarinata
Sinomicrurus macclellandi
Azemiops feae
Gloydius brevicaudus
Gloydius intermedius
Gloydius strauchi
Ovophis monticola
Protobothrops jerdonii
Protobothrops mucrosquamata
Trimeresurus stejnegeri



Hope that helps a bit
SnakeDude
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by SnakeDude »

Kevin-
Awesome post! I also love all of the others you have put on here, they have inspired me to herp all of Asia :thumb:

sweet shots too

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Fieldnotes
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Fieldnotes »

Kevin Messenger wrote:I am all for scientific names, but it is pretty sad when the sci name changes as much as the common name.
Agreed.


Thanks, I guess I'll be keeping it as Eutrophis, for now.
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withalligators
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by withalligators »

you know, i generally dislike cussing in these public forums.

but f@#$in' A man.

need a field tech?
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Nice. Veeeery nice. As to P. pulverulentus, it's quite a vexing animal indeed:

The dentures of this species are unusual, because it has grooved rear fangs and front fangs with shallow grooves. This is the only snake known to have fangs in both positions on the maxillary. Harry Greene suggested the front fangs are used to snare hard-scaled, slippery skinks (a group of lizards with a bony plate under each very smooth scale). When Kate Jackson and Thomas Fritts looked at the fangs, however, they found grooves in the front fangs. These grooves were not the deep folds with rounded edges that run the length of the fang as in some rear fanged species. These teeth contained multiple shallow grooves that could allow liquids from the mouth to enter a wound, increase the ability of the fang to penetrate the prey, or facilitate pulling the teeth out of the prey.
(John C. Murphy, Secrets of the Snake Charmer , 2010)
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Mike Pingleton
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Mike Pingleton »

Sinomicrurus - damn. Amolops hainanensis is pretty incredible too.

What are your thoughts (or anyone's thoughts) on the function of the pseudo-fang sheaths on Psammodynastes? Fascinating.

-Mike
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Elapids in the making?
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Kevin Messenger
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Kevin Messenger »

or maybe something else in the making, duel barrel venom glands? front and rear fanged? at least for a couple hundred thousand years before the rear fangs devolve and it is just front fanged from there on

Mike - LOTS more, LOTS of cooler things yet to come. Each day I produce more images than I can keep up with, so with each passing day I get further and further behind.... hopefully I can get on these again soon. Less than a week I fly out to Thailand, and then the pics are just gonna start POURING in
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Kevin Messenger
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Kevin Messenger »

withalligators wrote:
need a field tech?
I need volunteer field techs....
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moloch
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by moloch »

As always, a superb post with so many photos. Looks like a fabulous place. Loved the coral ... what a beauty. I also enjoyed the shots of the Leaf Butterfly. Aren't they superb mimics? Those in Malaysia just disappear when they land on the forest floor.


Regards,
David
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MaartenSFS
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by MaartenSFS »

I had seen most of your Hainan shots, except for the landscapes. Looks a bit more wide open, but similar, save for the coconut palms. Would have loved to have been there, despite you not finding "much". The spider pictured here is in the genus Nephila. ;)
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

MaartenSFS wrote:The spider pictured here is in the genus Nephila. ;)
Nephila maculata, I think
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MaartenSFS
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by MaartenSFS »

There's not much worse than ducking around some undergrowth and getting a face full of Nephila! I knew someone that almost jumped off of a cliff to avoid one! :P
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by MaartenSFS »

I have seen at least these species in China (one of which I suspect is the Hainan specimen):
Nephila antipodiana
Nephila clavata
Nephila laurinae
Nephila pilipes
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

MaartenSFS wrote:There's not much worse than ducking around some undergrowth and getting a face full of Nephila! I knew someone that almost jumped off of a cliff to avoid one! :P
Now that's silly. Sure, it's somewhat irritating to have a spider almost twice the size of a cocktail weenie scamper around your face, but hey, they don't bite! But what I really don't like about them are their humongous and insanely sticky webs. Once you catch one of those with your mug, there's no relief until you're in reach of hot water and a wire brush. Indeed, there's a Nephila species in PNG with webs so tough the locals use them for fishing....
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MaartenSFS
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by MaartenSFS »

Agreed.. I no longer corespond with said individual.. :x
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Kevin Messenger
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by Kevin Messenger »

Seriously they don't bite? You hear stories every now and then about bigass spiders that certainly could if they wanted to - is this one of them, or are you guys just trying to get a future laugh?

Maarten, even though you can now see the Flickr images, guessing the youtube videos still aren't working right?
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MaartenSFS
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Re: China post #42, Hainan Island

Post by MaartenSFS »

Well, he meant that they are not inclined to bite and that the effects would be minimal, if any. They just get REALLY big. Huntsmen, though scary, are harmless as well. Now the Haplopelma are supposed to have more dangerous venom.

When I said that I could see flickr images, I meant last night! Now I can't see them anymore!!! :shock:
And yes, Youtube hasn't worked for me since my VPN stopped functioning about five months ago. :(
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