A few photos from the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia)

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moloch
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A few photos from the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia)

Post by moloch »

I've just returned from a two-night trip to Kosciuszko National Park. I visited the area to try and find a few of the alpine reptiles and butterflies that I had not yet seen. Most of my time was spent in the Charlotte Pass area along the summit walk to Mt. Kosciuszko. The weather was mostly sunny and warm with highs in the upper teens/low 20s.


Mt. Kosciuszko: I did not take the time to climb it but spent several hours along the summit walk. I was fortunate to have excellent weather on both days of my visit. Mt. Kosciuszko is Austalia's highest mountain at 2280m elevation ... really just a hill by world standards!
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Habitat near Charlotte Pass:
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Snow Gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora): These were the most beautiful at dusk. The low sun angles really seemed to accentuate the colours of the bark.
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... Many Snow Gums had bulbous trunks like this:
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Gang Gang Cockatoo. I saw a few including a small group that was feeding on the roadside one morning.
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Southern Grass Skink (Pseudemoia entrecasteauxii)?: Not certain but I think that the following are this species.
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... transparent eyelid:
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Pseudemoia sp.: I saw several of these tiny skinks at dusk in a boggy area. They always reacted to the pre-flash. Any ideas as to the species?
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Guthega Skink (Liopholis guthega): These were fairly common in the Charlotte Pass area.
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... juveniles
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Water Skink (Eulamprus tympanum): These were fairly common in rocky areas near water. Most were dark and almost appeared black in the morning.
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... some had a greenish tint to their scales:
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... Water Skink habitat:
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Highland Copperhead (Austrelaps ramsayi): This species was common the area and I encountered four. The first one below expressed its displeasure when it saw me in the grass in front of it.
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... I had a close encounter with this copperhead. I was concentrating on the approach to a Heteronympha butterfly and suddenly realized that I was standing right next to this snake. It had flattened its neck but otherwise remained motionless. The snake was fortunately well behaved.
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White-lipped Snake (Drysdalia coronoides): I saw this small snake as it crossed the summit walk one morning.
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A few plants were flowering. Composites were attractive to the Xenica butterflies.
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Orange Alpine Xenica (Oreixenica correae): This and the following were species that I really hoped to see. They are only active from mid-summer to early autumn in the high country of the Snowies.
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... habitat of Orange Alpine Xenica:
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Spotted Alpine Xenica (Oreixenica orichora): I think that the following are all Spotted Alpine Xencia. These and Orange Alpine Xenica are quite similar in pattern. I found these mostly above treeline in alpine areas with flowering composites.
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... habitat of Spotted Alpine Xenica:
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Bright-eyed Bob (Heteronympha cordace): This was a tiny species of Heteronympha and not much bigger than the Xenicas. I only saw a few, mostly near Guthega. They had a habit of folding their wings and dropping into clumps of grass where they were hard to photograph.
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Australian Painted Lady (Vanessa kershawi)
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Alpine Sedge-Skipper (Oreisplanus munionga): These were attractively marked skippers. I found several in a wet area on the outskirts of Guthega.
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... sedge-skipper habitat:
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Photos of various insects.
1,2: Mountain Katydids were numerous, especially at dusk. Females (as pictured) are flightless and display these warning colours when disturbed. Males were winged and I saw many in the evening as they flew across the road.
3: A huge coccinellid.
4: These blue-green coloured grasshoppers were common in Epacris shrubs.
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VanAR
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Re: A few photos from the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia)

Post by VanAR »

Cool post, David. Kosciuszko is an underappreciated spot for herping. I think all of your Pseudemoia are entrecasteauxii, except maybe#3, #4 and the last one. Those, pagenstecheri, and cryodroma can be really hard to tell apart in some places. I did a collecting trip for entrecasteauxii for my research last year across Victoria and it was a nightmare how many times the color patterns change relative to one another- we had to resort to genotyping to positively identify some individuals. However, at Kosciuszko to my knowledge, there are no cryodroma. P. entrecasteauxii there can usually be differentiated from P. pagenstecheri by the following features: entres have at most a single dorsal stripe down the vertebrae, while pags usually have multiple dorsolinear stripes. The stripes on the flanks are also different: entres typically have wider stripes with dirty or jagged edges, or the stripes are poorly-defined or nonexistent. If stripes are present, they disappear or are very poorly defined on the tail. Pag flank stripes are usually narrow, sharply defined, continue well down the tail, and may set off a broad black/dark stripe down the flank. Of your photos, #4 is the toughest- it has no dorsal stripes, and no stripes on the tail, which are reminiscent of entres, but the flank stripes are narrow and sharp, like a pag. These species do also hybridize, so it could be a mutt.

Van
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walk-about
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Re: A few photos from the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia)

Post by walk-about »

David - Excellent post no doubt. Those Snow Gum trees look ancient. They are so narlded and beautiful. Always love the insect pics you post. Awesome!

Rock ON!

Dave
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Roki
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Re: A few photos from the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia)

Post by Roki »

Cool post. Maybe the first one I have seen of that area. Nice copperhead shots!
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klawnskale
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Re: A few photos from the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia)

Post by klawnskale »

Love the photo of the Gang-Gang Cockatoo. A rarely scene species in aviculture. They are a more primitive species of their other cockatoo cousins. One of the few parrot species aside from perhaps the Kea that consumes animal matter. They will feed on small lizards during breeding season so the female and her brood have an extra protein resource.
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moloch
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Re: A few photos from the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia)

Post by moloch »

Thanks very much, Van, for all the interesting info. Pseudemoia is certainly a difficult genus. Your study in Victoria must have been lots of fun if not a little frustrating. I herp very little in Victoria so am still missing several Pseudemoia including P. spenceri that ranges up to the Blue Mountains. I get up into that area once or twice each year so obviously have not yet worked out the habitat where it lives.


Thanks, Dave. I've added a few more Snow Gum shots below. They are unusual gums and I was surprised at how colourful they can be.


Thanks, Roki.


klawnskale, I did not know that Gang Gangs can be predaceous. They are one of my favourites of the cockatoos and I see them around my home on the coast in the winter. They sometimes come into the suburbs and feed on berries. Usually, though, I just see them cracking gum nuts high up in Eucalyptus trees. Their call is really distinctive and described as a "rusty hinge" ... unlike all the other cockatoos that I've heard.


Here are a few more shots of this lovely area:


Here is another habitat shot from the alpine country:
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Guthega Skink:
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Southern Water Skink, juvenile:
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Snow Gums
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Silver Xenica (Oreixenica lathoniella) -- this is another of the mountain Xenica butterflies. I photographed this one a couple of years ago at lower elevations near Threadbo. I think that these are the most colourful of the Xenica. I missed Small Alpine Xenica ((Oreixenica latialis) on this visit. According to the range maps, it should be the alpine habitat.
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Shouldered Brown (Heteronympha penelope): These butterflies were common at lower elevations.
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Chameleon Grasshopper (Kosciuscola tristis) ... identified on another forum
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I don't know the species but these plants were flowering in a few places along the summit walk.
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Regards,
David
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VanAR
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Re: A few photos from the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia)

Post by VanAR »

Thanks very much, Van, for all the interesting info. Pseudemoia is certainly a difficult genus. Your study in Victoria must have been lots of fun if not a little frustrating. I herp very little in Victoria so am still missing several Pseudemoia including P. spenceri that ranges up to the Blue Mountains. I get up into that area once or twice each year so obviously have not yet worked out the habitat where it lives.
We see spenceri in the same general habitat as other Pseudemoia in the Blue Mountains, but they are very different in their behavior. While entres and pags are typically in grass tussocks, leaf litter, or on sticks/logs/rocks, spenceri are always on tree trunks, and can be several meters off the ground. In a lot of ways, they resemble large Cryptoblepharus. Of the Pseudemoia, they are by far the most consistent in color pattern and behavior across their entire range.
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Ribbit
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Re: A few photos from the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia)

Post by Ribbit »

Wow, what a beautiful spot, with beautiful photos to show for it! Lots of nice skinks -- no surprise there. Is the elevation too high for agamids? I love the Mountain Katydids! Are the warning colors supported by toxin or other actual danger to predators?

John
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Kent VanSooy
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Re: A few photos from the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia)

Post by Kent VanSooy »

Fantastic David, I really appreciate the wide view on the area's natural history. Thanks!
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moloch
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Re: A few photos from the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia)

Post by moloch »

Thanks very much, guys.

Van, I want to head to Kanangra Boyd at the end of the month to look for Small Alpine Xenica. I will have to try for Pseudemoia spenceri again since I think that they are known from that area. Thanks for all the info.


John, the Mountain Katydids do carry a toxin. Here is a good site about them. It also shows the winged males:

http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane ... atydid.htm

I did not see any dragons at all. I think that the alpine areas might be too high and too cold for them in the winter.



Thanks, Kent.


Regards,
David
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