# Random Pics from the past few months herping (Pic Heavy)



## Ishah (Dec 26, 2008)

Hey Guys (and girls),

Here's a couple pics of a few things I've found over the past few months herping...

Enjoy...











A Lacey (I assume) that was in our carpark... I'd say it was roughly a sub adult...






















A BEAUTIFUL massive carpet (8ft+ roughly) that we almost hit down our road on our way home from work... As you can see in some of the pics, he has a damaged/blind eye. When I got out to see if he was ok, I walked up on this side of him and thought he was dead and the ants had eaten out his eye... So you can imagine the shock I got when I nudged him with my hook and he moved! LOL! I was so stoked to have seen this guy esp. at such a large size considering his impairment, even though that isn't their main sense they rely on...I'm really glad to see that they are growing old and surviving well even with impairments etc... After a few pics, we moved him off the road and into the safety of the bush 














And this lil guy was the culprit for decimating my mice colony a few months ago... Probably the offspring of the big guy above...Either way, both STUNNING animals...

There's still more pics to come, I just want to post this before my internet stuffs up and I lose it all AGAIN... (I did make this thread up a couple days ago, but lost it due to that reason and I had heaps more pics and spent hours on it lol needless to say I was extremely peeved off about it... I've finally calmed down enough now to have another go at it lol)


----------



## Omgitschris (Dec 26, 2008)

sweet photos, that big carpet looks awsome, sad about his eye though, but its good to see that he is still going good without it.


----------



## Ishah (Dec 26, 2008)

Here's some for the invert experts... feel free to ID them for me (hint hint Hornet lol).





































And some froggies for the frog fans...


----------



## gozz (Dec 26, 2008)

Awsome pics lacies rule


----------



## disasterpiece7.0 (Dec 26, 2008)

Great pics. Those two carpets are beauties, as is the lacy.


----------



## Ishah (Dec 26, 2008)

Some geckos...


















This was the gecko that made me fall in love with them! Absolutely LOVED this little thickie! (P.S. If anyone has ones that look identical to this shoot me a PM :lol:...but seriously! lol)


















Some eastern stone geckos...






A Bynoe's... first one I've actually got to photograph...






A Golden-tailed...Bloody hard to photograph too I must say!










Haha little boxy in stalk prey/bolt position hehehe






Little fatty mid-stride










And the best for last! Little asper mid push-up lol... I would love to get some identical to this in the future! I did take a video of this little fella doing push-ups and licking his eye, but am yet to figure out how... will see what I can do...


----------



## moloch05 (Dec 26, 2008)

Great shots. Thanks for posting, Ishah. That first Carpet Python was amazing ... so big.

Regards,
David


----------



## Ishah (Dec 26, 2008)

And finally a couple more snakies...






A BTS...






And a Dwyer's snake... There were a few more, but can't be stuffed posting them right now lol... too much sifting etc lol.


----------



## Ishah (Dec 26, 2008)

Thanks guys! I wasn't even on a planned herping trip when I stumbled across that big carpet... or the lacey... lol... 

One of the many perks of living on a big property  There are mass amounts of herps that frequent our house and stop in for a cuppa lol...Our whole property is riddled with them!


----------



## BenReyn (Dec 26, 2008)

Ohh, they are fantastic shots!
I think we all wish where they were in such abundance liek that
Well done!


----------



## Wild~Touch (Dec 26, 2008)

Nice pics thanks for sharing


----------



## Ishah (Dec 26, 2008)

Here's the video of push-ups and eye-licking... hopefully it works... It's the first time I've tried to put a video on here... Enjoy


----------



## ryanharvey1993 (Dec 26, 2008)

nice shots ishah, you been herping out near the brigalow belt? that asper video is sweet, they are so cute.


----------



## Ishah (Dec 26, 2008)

Yeh, I dunno, been here, there and everywhere lol. So probably did a bit near there...couldn't quite be sure tho


----------



## natrix (Dec 26, 2008)

Great pics ! 
thanks for bothering to post 'em.


----------



## dickyknee (Dec 27, 2008)

Nice pics mate , that milii look's kinda like mine ....


----------



## ryanharvey1993 (Dec 27, 2008)

more elapid pics? :lol:


----------



## gonff (Dec 27, 2008)

awsome pics!!!


----------



## Ishah (Dec 29, 2008)

Thanks

I know Brett, so you better let me know when yours have babies!



ryanharvey1993 said:


> more elapid pics? :lol:


 

Nope, not yet, but I caught another BTS in my mice cage the other nite...GRRR... Will upload and post some of it later... I think its probably only a yearling, although I couldnt be sure coz I've never kept one before...Either way, it left with a full belly...:evil: And will probably be back for more, as I released it only like 10-20metres away...

There's also a strange gtf living on my laptop atm...probably not even a gtf but some other form of tree frog... Feel free to ID it when I upload some pics of it... (Be warned they will be dodgey as theres bad lighting etc...)


----------



## Ishah (Dec 29, 2008)

Here's a couple pics of my midnight camper (turned up around midnight to camp out on my laptop, and hasn't left yet...














And here is some of the little BTS that attempted to desicrate (sp?) my mice colony the other night... He got atleast one adult mouse from what I noticed of the remaining mice... And maybe a couple fuzzies... another mouse bailed into the rats cage and got killed by them when I opened it up...


















This last one is blurry, but I kinda like it...(It was a bit hard trying to photograph by myself...everyone else was petrified of it and yelling at me, because of the presence of venom lol even though it is only mildly venomous...would of been easier if another herper was there...Or atleast another calm person lol)






Hopefully I wont be seeing this lil guy near my mice again... Cheers


----------



## wizz (Dec 31, 2008)

love the Asper..........


----------



## cracksinthepitch (Dec 31, 2008)

The spider looks to be a wolf spider , the markings are very unusual compared to my local species but there are 9 genera and over 130 species which make up the Lycosa genus.,
Great shot of it well done


----------



## froggyboy86 (Dec 31, 2008)

Weird place for a frog to camp out. I think it must like the Lilo & Stitch sticker  It looks like Dainty Green Tree Frog (Litoria gracilenta). 

Aaron


----------



## Ishah (Dec 31, 2008)

Cheers Wizz, he was definately a stunner! And thanks Cracksinthepitch, I tried IDing it briefly before through this random site and gave up lol... 

Thanks Aaron, I knew he was some sort of tree frog, and definately not a GTF, but thats as far as my knowledge goes with him lol. I dont have much more experience with frogs than that as of yet... Haha yeh... he's still here 2 days later! He's still alive, and has shifted spots on my laptop... only cms at a time... away from the sticker lol... I spray him lightly a couple times a day so he doesnt dry out completely as my fan is on a lot...I was going to relocate him outside, but I kinda like him here keeping me company while I type, plus if he's anything like the GTF's in our house, he'd be territorial and be straight back here the next nite... So I'm not going to disturb him...I've only accidently bumped him a couple times coz I forgot he was there and didnt know he was still there, and he doesnt even bat an eyelid...just sits there in the same position and maybe re-shuffles a bit...

I also have 2 GTF's that live in my room, one in one corner in behind my snakes and lizards, and the other just outside my door... I thought it was one that moved really quickly, until I picked one up to wash all the fluff off it and bumped into the other lol.


----------



## hornet (Jan 5, 2009)

hey, sorry i didnt reply earlyer, havent been online in a while. The spider is a hunstman of some sort, i'm not great with them so cant get much more specific than that. The scorpion is a Lychas, probably papuanus which is the most common species in the area. No idea on the millipede either, been trying to get them id'd myself for a while.


----------



## Ishah (Jan 8, 2009)

Thanks Hornet.

The Dainty Tree Frog is still living on my laptop a week or two later! Which has really shocked me...

This is this mornings find... He was wanting a shower with mum lol. Poor thing was riddled with skin worms tho... After a few pics, we relocated him outside. He wasnt aggressive at all...Seemed pretty timid, and flinched everytime the flash went off.























P.S. Excuse the mess lol. In the middle of reno's...which is taking FOREVER! :lol:


----------



## Ishah (Jan 21, 2009)

Ok, so a 5m relocation of that mouse stealing BTS obviously wasn't far enough away... As I was replying to a thread, mum yells out to tell me there was a snake in my mouse cage...AGAIN... Goes to get it and its the same damn BTS as the other week! So I have now relocated it to our old delapidated caravan down the bottom of our driveway roughly 50-75m away which is absolutely riddled with mice and located right next to a rodent infested old shed... HOPEFULLY he will be happier down there... The caravan has many points of entry/escape with holes through the roof and walls and windows with no glass left in them, so he isn't trapped and free to come or go as he pleases...

We'll see in a week or two if he prefers it down there I would say... I didn't take any pics, as I didn't want to lose what I was going to say in a post LOL! Plus, he had already graced me with photos the first time...and didnt want to keep him any longer than needed... I hope he likes it down there enough to stay there and stop making terrifying visits to my poor mice...lol Or maybe he will make a visit to our horrid neighbours and scare the crap out of them! :lol: I should really think about fixing that little gap in the lid of my mice cage....then the problem will be solved once and for all hehehehe


----------



## thals (Jan 21, 2009)

aww i love gts's 8) Great pics Ish, really enjoyed havin a looksy, thanks for sharing!

thals


----------



## Ishah (Jan 21, 2009)

Thanks pythonrockchick1, I love them too! They are definately on the wishlist! Once I get a place of my own and stuff I will eventually get some for sure! Although not looking forward to their messy passings and the cleaning of the enclosures lol... They are still a definate favourite of mine... Love the blue that comes out in them when they puff up...its like a rainbow! LOL!


----------



## megrim (Jan 21, 2009)

fantastic photos! Those boigas are beautiful looking animals.


----------



## LauraM (Jan 21, 2009)

Wow all your pictures are stunning and that video is so sweet


----------



## Ishah (Jan 22, 2009)

Cheers megrim, they may be beautiful looking animals, but they are an artist at getting into tricky places and also great at finding their way back to those places...much to my dismay...lol. They also have really bad smelling pee (compared to pythons) that they love to flick everywhere!

Thanks Laura_M, It usually takes 30-50+ (or however many the animal will let you take before bolting and pulling a Houdini on you) photos to get those few cracker photos... It all depends on how still the animal stays for you and the lighting (I also have to fiddle with the flash settings each time as sometimes flash gives me better shots, and sometimes it over-exposes)...Those are the main factors that make or break a shot for me, and depending on the time of day, the camera settings i.e. at night, its usually on Programmed, or Manual with Macro on...but if I use either of those settings during the day, all the shots come up MAJORLY over-exposed, so I have to use the Auto setting with Macro on, which doesn't work at night...Go figure! To me they are both the same hehehe... And hence the reason I am far from a professional photographer! :lol:

Hehehe the vid took me 3 goes before I figured out that you can have the Macro setting on for videos too... I was really stoked that I caught it licking its eye on camera! Would have been cool if I got a still picture of it doing that! But knowing me, I would have taken the shot just as it put its tongue back in its mouth and by the time my camera stopped thinking it probably would have stopped licking its eye. Its a bit of a rough vid i.e. jerky movements etc, but I'm still happy with it.


----------



## Ishah (Mar 2, 2009)

Here's a few shots of the 3rd time I had to relocate the imposter BTS...Figuring 5m and 50m relocations didn't work, I relocated him 500-1000m away this time and havent seen him since...Thank God! As there werent many mice left, maybe 6 out of the original 15 or so that I had when it started happening....Anyways some shots, he looks either shameful, or he's pretending that he cant see me/trying to hide with the mentality of "If I can't see you, you cant see ME!" LOL! Enjoy











Either that, or he was just sleeping! Then when I woke him up, he was like "I'm outta here!....Now that the lid is open and I can actually FIT back out...See you next time children (nextime I will have YOU for dinner!)" LOL!






I swear its the same repeat offender BTS, but then again it could just be clutchmates etc, either way havent seen him since


----------



## ryanharvey1993 (Mar 2, 2009)

lol sounds annoying, wouldnt mind having one around though.


----------



## Ishah (Mar 2, 2009)

Oh it IS annoying! They arent the only thing that drop in for dinner with the mice either! Hatchy Coastals have also frequented them, although the last hatchie to do it ended up with bite marks everywhere and a shorter tail...which was sad, but yeh...We have many different snakes on our land, in the last month, I have seen GTS's, BTS's, Coastals, what I thought was a Keelback (It ran away before I could get a better, closer look at it) and there are also Tai's and all sorts here snake wise, havent even mentioned lizards lol


----------



## ryanharvey1993 (Mar 2, 2009)

ah sweet, you should post some pics of all the wild reptiles you have around, sounds like you have heaps. how many acres do you have? what type of habitats are on your land?


----------



## Southside Morelia (Mar 2, 2009)

Missed this thread great pics Ishah......keep em coming! 

Your heaps lucky having all these guys hanging around, even if they are a pain in the A....


----------



## Ishah (Mar 2, 2009)

We have 82 odd acres, hehehe according to one of my field guides, where I am, its CQC (Central Qld Coast), and according to the pics in another, describing types of habitat, I'd say, maybe Tropical woodland, dry sclerophyll forest, and maybe some vine thicket ??? I'm probably not the best person to ask when describing the kinds of habitat on our property lol sorry! Even though we learnt how to describe habitats in Ecology last year LOL! How ironic! I will have to go take some habitat shots one day LOL!

Most of the wild herps Ive seen around here (my house) are scattered throughout this thread, but there are still a lot more that I have seen here without camera in hand unfortunately, but the thought is there atleast lol! Wish I could have got some shots of the Keelback, it was very unusually coloured etc. The way dad was describing it, I thought it was just another BTS, so didnt bother getting the camera for it  This is only the common/frequently occuring stuff I see, the other (usually more exciting and interesting) stuff I either dont have my camera coz im not expecting to encounter them, or my camera has dead batteries!


----------



## Ishah (Mar 2, 2009)

Thanks Southside Morelia, it is a pain when they are desicrating my mice colony, but still so much more awesome to see all the different herps I live with and to see that they are thriving etc...Eventually I should get my butt into gear and go for a serious herp around my joint to see what else lurks beneath the shadows... Up until now, its just stuff that invade my house etc, just need someone to come for a serious herping with me to motivate me LOL! Not that I need the extra motivation to go herping, coz I LOVE it! I just feel safer etc and its more fun if I go with someone else, but hey! Im a girl, so Im allowed to feel that way :lol: Would most likely ***** myself if I came face to face with a Tai by myself!


----------



## Ishah (Mar 4, 2009)

Ryan, 

Here is a few quick shots from around mine, not the best, nor do they represent the different habitats around my property properly, they were just taken very quickly from the carpark and it shows roughly a 250degree radius/view (out of the 280-290 view that we actually have) of mine and the view we have etc etc, and its generally a chronological order of shots (if that makes sense). I didnt particularly feel like going for a trek all around mine trying to find the best shots to represent the best types of habitat as best I could etc, as it was getting late etc as you can see in the shots, but there are a variety of different niches and habitats around on our property I assure you! LOL! Anyways, here they are... (We can see most of the highway coming into town etc - around 5-10kms worth of the highway, which is a LOT considering most of everyone elses views, its fairly cool!)

(Btw, excuse the random Earthmoving gear and associated stuff, LOL! Its just what we do, and it kinda looks messy haha but where else can you store those kinda Machines, work vehicles, tools etc:lol






































Hmmm, mainly just shows where we cleared years ago, but yeh, you can see where the habitats would be, in all those foresty uncleared areas etc...I did try tho! :lol:


----------



## Ishah (Mar 4, 2009)

Oh and aside from that, there is a fair bit of tin and wood and stuff around from building random things and leftover stuff from jobs dad has done etc all good for herps to hide in and under and sunbake etc, not to mention we have a two abandoned caravans and sheds down the bottom and stuff LOL


----------



## Ishah (Mar 17, 2009)

Here is a couple of pics of a Lacie I stopped for in the middle of the driveway on my way to work! (I was running semi-late, but photographing a reptile is well-worth being that little bit later for  ) Theres always enough time to stop and take a few quick pics :lol:

Sorry its so far away, I was scared that if I had of moved closer, that would scare him and he'd run off before I could take even one! As it was, I just hung my camera out the window and took shots as I slowly creeped closer in the car LOL! I only got 4 shots in before he scurried away into the bush!

I liked the patterning on his tail the best.

Enjoy


----------



## sarah_m (Mar 19, 2009)

Aawww! So jealous. Can i come and live with you? please, please, PLEASE!!!!!
The only wildlife at my place are sparrows. I have seen 2 skinks and a frog in almost 4 years.
So sad!


----------



## Bax155 (Mar 20, 2009)

Great thread Ishah, love tha asper so cute!! It would be awesome to herp in ya own backyard!!


----------



## Ishah (May 4, 2009)

Here's the latest visitors I've had... Not that exciting, just some frogs...But different from the usual 5-10 GTF's that reside in just our bathroom alone... Feel free to I.D. them, frogs aren't my strong point and I don't have my uni books with me atm...













^ That was all the same, smaller one....They were both the same species though... I'm pretty sure, and both invaded the bathroom on the same night and at around the same time...This one was absolutely HYPER! It was like it was on speed! :shock: :lol:













^ This is the other bigger frog, it actually arrived first, and was a lot less active and hyper than the smaller one...

By the way the smaller one was bouncing all over the place, my uneducated guess is a type of rocket frog or something, but its been a while since I've had access to all my uni books, and my mind is pretty fuzzy!


----------



## Nephrurus (May 4, 2009)

L. nasuta.


----------



## Ishah (May 29, 2009)

*Today's Finds *

Cheers for that Neph 

Ok, so I was bored today as I've been off work for a while now, so I decided I'd go exploring for a little bit to see if I could find anything, as it was a nice day and hadn't been raining for a couple days... I found mostly bugs, a couple of frogs, and a fair few cane toads - which i didn't bother photographing. 

See if you can ID my frogs and bugs... The caterpillar is one I'm very interested in finding out, as I want to know what it's going to turn into, as its such a stand out from the usual. It's under surveillance until it does... It was found on the lemon tree and happily eats lemon tree leaves... If that helps... Does lots of leaf-ball poos too! :lol: Also, if you squeeze gently near its head, as I accidently found out, two hot pink things protrude from the slit in the middle above its eyes, and they look like snails eyes and retract in a similar fashion... This might be a key distinguishing factor? I didnt get pics of this, as I didnt want to molest and harrass it too much, and at the risk of squooshing its brains/head completely, I left it alone. 

I also came across another carpet tonight, at around 6.30-6.45pm, it was a beautiful coloured and patterned one, who my brother reckons/swears was 2.5m long...which makes me think that the one I found myself in the first page, was more like 3m or more... as this one was no where near as big as the first one... But then again, his perception could be skewed too :lol:

Anyways, enjoy, and feel free to ID any of them!

Firstly, the Caterpillar:












* Note the little slit above its eyes, this is where the hot pink snail eye things come out...:shock: In between its "horns" or spikes lol - whichever you want to call them 

Here's a couple of the spiney-backed spiders near our mandarine tree:












* The last one is a picture of the underneath side of them.

Here is a dead or empty exoskeleton (shed?) of a huntsman type spider, I thought it looked cool swinging in the breeze between the rocks off a bit of web...









Next is a variety of many different skinks... They are all most likely the same species, just there is like 4-5 individual skinks that I shot. My guess is _C. schmeltzi_... Although, I don't have much experience in IDing small skinks and I haven't had a proper look in my field guide yet. Feel free to correct me.

























Now to the frogs... 1st one was found in the doorsill thingy of one of our cars - which is renown for having all sorts of frogs seeking refuge in the doorsills... I've found different types of brown frogs and green tree frogs hiding when I open the door...Guessing this is some sort of Brown frog...:lol:













This one was found on the shipping container door, when I went to find some saddle cloths... My guess is a type of rocket frog? It and its friends were super fast when they hit the big puddles...









I will post the carpet up next in a post of its own, as there is already heaps of pics in this one... and I fear I may give my computer a headache and lose the whole lot and have to start again...:shock:


----------



## Ishah (May 29, 2009)

*Today's finds cont. (28.5.09)*

Here is the beautiful, magnificent healthy coastal carpet I found... It was a lot lighter and/or differently coloured to the ones we usually see here...More Caramelly?! And it was relatively calm when I went to move it off our driveway out of harm's way after I finished taking photo's, until it tried to climb up me and had a sniff of my leg instead, and smelt our dogs on my jeans, and decided it was dinner time :lol: (I can post a couple of pics of the puncture holes it left when I got back home if anyone is interested... It's probably started to bruise by now...) All in good fun though 














































This photo was taken shortly before my leg was almost dinner :lol: :





Cheers and Enjoy


----------



## Ishah (May 29, 2009)

OK, so the ID of the caterpillar has really been bugging the crap out of me (excuse the pun), so I've been googling and researching my little heart away. 

Firstly, I had an epiphany, that it was the same caterpillar as Caterpie out of pokemon LOL! As it has the same pink forked thingo's and basic colour scheme and non-hairyness... But stuffs me what the hell kind of caterpillar that is! (Yes I was a hardcore Pokemon fan when I was 8-14yrs old - knew all 150 original pokemon + 50% or more of the new lot - embarrassment lol) And Butterfree looks nothing like a Ulysses...  Go figure! Damn cartoons! :evil:

So I was still lost... But then I found a site and came to the conclusion that it must be a _*Papilio ulysses joesa*_ Caterpillar, and hence the North East QLD form/sub-species of a Ulysses butterfly, as it doesnt look exactly the same as the other caterpillar pictures, but is very similar and I've found nothing else even remotely close... But I've not seen or found any pictures of this *joesa* form/sub-species of caterpillar to compare it to... The site also said that when agitated or threatened they protrude the pink forked thing, and they also happily accept eating orange and lemon tree leaves... So this also backs up my assumption and leads me to believe this is what it is. The butterflies also feed on Lantana nectar and stuff, and there is heaps scattered around our property, and I have seen a few Ulysses butterflies around, funnily enough, feeding on the hybiscuses... Not abundant here, but I've seen a few on occasion.

If it does turn out to be a Ulysses Butterfly, I will be absolutely stoked! I will take zillions of pictures and then let it go reproduce, as they are a definate favourite of mine. If there are any bug nerds out there that can confirm this it would be great!

Cheers


----------



## herpkeeper (May 29, 2009)

well done Ishah, love the asper & the thick tail gecko


----------



## funcouple (May 29, 2009)

Well done awsome photos great photography. Nice to see reptiles in their own enviroment. Cant wait for the next lot you take Ishah.


----------



## eipper (May 29, 2009)

Your skink is Carlia pectoralis or vivax..need a better pic of the scales on the back.

Your first frog is litoria rubella and the second litoria inermis

Cheers,
Scott


----------



## Pike01 (May 29, 2009)

Ishah,the caterpillar could be an orchard butterfly,we use to get heaps on our citrus trees.


----------



## TedBundy (Aug 3, 2009)

wow amazing pictures ishah! nice job.


----------



## snocodile (Aug 3, 2009)

love the carpet


----------



## gecko-mad (Aug 13, 2009)

Amazing finds! awesome! wish i lived there!


----------



## ravan (Aug 13, 2009)

Ishah said:


> Here's some for the invert experts... feel free to ID them for me (hint hint Hornet lol).
> 
> 
> 
> ...



awww this guys so damn cute!
as well as the one on your laptop hehe


----------



## Kris (Aug 13, 2009)

Love the Chinese Safety Boots. No herper should leave home without 'em.


----------



## Pike01 (Aug 13, 2009)

How did the caterpillar turn out?


----------



## Poggle (Aug 14, 2009)

just want to say... FANTASTIC photography on your behalf...


----------



## phatt01 (Aug 15, 2009)

Absolutely brilliant Ishah, great photography. 
Where in CQ are you if you donet mind me asking, it looks like the country just nth of Mky.....


----------

