# A visit from Moloch



## gus11 (Nov 26, 2009)

This past few days Moloch was able to drop in and we had some planned adventures to find some of the more hard to see geckoes of North Queensland. as well as anything else we could find. 
It couldnt have started any better than a trip up to find Phyllurus gulbaru.
any find them we did, we found 10 individuals in total, some gravid. 





we also managed some other herps, saproscincus basiliskus, eulamprus brachyosoma




small eyed snakes




pink tongue skinks one of which was unbanded




and litoria xanthomera, which you may notice something strange about.



.
From here it was a move south to the mackay region where 4 endemic leaf tails are known to occur. P. nepthys, P. ossa, P. isis and P. championae.
we looked for 3 of these and came across 2 P. nepthys and P. ossa.
P. ossa was a new one for me and was harder to find than the other species. we only managed to find 3 individuals




during the night we also spotted odeura monolis




and eulamprus amplus




and this funky beetle, longhorn boorer, a ceranbycid




on the way home we managed this interesting pink tongue skink, anyone notice why it is interesting???




from here it was off to find a rare frog and look for other endemic skinks, the skinks evaded us but we were able to find the eungella day frog...taudactylus eungellensis i think its called




not all skinks evaded us and carlia rhomboidalis were common








other interesting things seen were this golden orb spider eating a cicada




and a grey goshawk that managed to grab a bird, sorry bout the quality




from here it was our first unsucessful night only finding a gehyra and no leaf tails. but our next morning found plenty more skinks many carlia rhomboidalis and even more egernia freri




and what may be eulamprus martini




in the surrounding caves we found what i think to be a eastern free tailed bat, though i'm waiting for an actual id from the bat lab at uni.




during the walk we noticed the hundreds of red tailed black cockatoos that were being harassed by a grey goshawk 



.
tonight were off to look for P. amnicola will undoubtedly find other things such as lampropholis mirabilis and hopefully more.
Moloch may provide a post on his trip, but thats up to him, and if he does it will be something everyone should look foward to.
Gus


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## Rocket (Nov 26, 2009)

Love the geckos..

The pink-tongue has a blue-tongue indicating that it is a young animal?


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## ravan (Nov 26, 2009)

love the froggie!


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## Walker (Nov 26, 2009)

Very good!!!


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## moosenoose (Nov 26, 2009)

Love the piccies! Good stuff!


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## PimmsPythons (Nov 26, 2009)

nice, we have also found an adult Pink tongue with a blue tongue in Gladstone. a rare find but they do pop up.
cheers
simon


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## redbellybite (Nov 26, 2009)

Great pics and some interesting finds ...


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## Nicole74 (Nov 26, 2009)

Great pictures.. thanks for sharing


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## reptilerob (Nov 27, 2009)

Stunning photos, you guys were very successful. Well done.


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## James..94 (Nov 27, 2009)

Great photo's


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## Snake Catcher Victoria (Nov 27, 2009)

Cool pics , , 
Love the weird looking L. xanthomera, and the unbanded pinktongue.
The spider eating the cicada would have been very cool to watch to.
Looking forward to David and his camera coming to visit the Mornington Peninsula..
Soon I hope.
Cheers


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## krusty (Nov 27, 2009)

some very very nice photos.i like the frogs eyes.


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## jessieJEALOUSY (Nov 27, 2009)

love that frogs eyes.
and the patterning on the second pink tongue, is that the normal banding? i really like it.


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## gus11 (Nov 30, 2009)

on our way back from mackay we swung out to the drier areas near charters towers, by this time i was extremely tired so im sure i missed things but moloch was still awake and observant.
he managed to see box pattern geckoes




strophurus williamsi




a bandy bandy




and a carpet python.




the next day we rested before our hike up mt elliot.
we were somewhat limited in daylight hours so didnt get to much time to photograph skinks and dragons on the way up but we managed to at least see
copper tails




carlia pectoralis




diprophora australis








as well as fire tails which we didnt manage photos of.
once up the mountain we were able to find our target species
phyllurus amnicola




unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worst and i wasnt able to see cophixulus mcdonaldii which i would really have liked to, at least i heard them this time though. with the long and dangerous walk back down the mountain we were quick to leave before the rain got to heavy.


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## froggyboy86 (Nov 30, 2009)

Great photos, is the walk to the summit of Mt Elliot difficult? I'd like to photograph C. mcdonaldi one day when I head up there again.


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## gus11 (Nov 30, 2009)

depends on how fit you are, its a 16-17km walk to the falls return. thats without climbing the falls it or getting to where the frogs occur. so it is a big mission that requires planning.


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## smacdonald (Nov 30, 2009)

Hi Gus,

I'm very jealous of all your leaf tail finds!

I'm pretty sure your bat is a _Taphozous_ of some sort. If you were near the coast, it's probably the coastal one. If you were away from the coast, it's probably the non-coastal one (from memory these are the only two that are likely to be seen around Mackay).


Stewart


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## gus11 (Dec 1, 2009)

my thoughts were coastal free tailed bat, though eastern free tailed bats occur in the same area and look the sameish, i've sent it to the bat lab for ID.


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## Jimbobulan (Dec 1, 2009)

That frog is amazing! The geckos are awesome i want them all! lol. Does anyone know why a pink tounge would have a blue one? Thats really weird right?


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## PimmsPythons (Dec 1, 2009)

Jimbobulan said:


> That frog is amazing! The geckos are awesome i want them all! lol. Does anyone know why a pink tounge would have a blue one? Thats really weird right?



most are born with a blue tongue and it turns pink as they mature.a small percentage stay blue.


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