Another Peruvian Amazon series -- pt 4, Madre Selva Lizards

[moloch05]

Peruvian Amazon -- pt 4, Madre Selva Lizards

This post will cover the lizards that I photographed at Madre Selva while on a Margarita Tours reptile trip. Madre Selva was a productive site. Many of us would walk the trails in the morning and then again for several hours at night. Kids from a nearby village would usually arrive in the afternoon with plastic bags containing their finds.

I usually spent a couple of hours after lunch photographing the animals. It really was hard to juggle all of the activities. I was torn between wanting to be out in the forest as much as possible but also wanting to examine and photograph the animals that our group had captured.

Margarita Tours set up one of the buildings as a photo lab. It had several tables so people would bring in whatever sort of background they wanted and then take photos. It was funny at times since the animals not always cooperative. Often, someone would be scrambling across the floor to try recapture a wayward animal.

Bridled Forest Gecko (Gonatodes humeralis): We saw these occasionally in the forest during the day.

Black-striped Forest Lizard (Cercosaura occellata):

Black-bellied Forest Lizard (Aloploglossus atriventris)?:

Common Streamside Lizard (Neusticurus ecpleopus):

I did not find anoles to be particularly common. I am not certain if this was due to the conditions or perhaps my eyesight, but I saw many more individuals years ago in the lowland forest of La Selva, Costa Rica.

Banded Tree Anole (Anolis tranversalis): The group found these on a couple occasions at night at Madre Selva and also Allpahuayo Mishona near Iquitos. I love the blue eye.

Blue-lipped Forest Anole (Anolis bombiceps)?:

Slender Anole (Anolis fuscoauratus)?:

Brown Forest Dragon (Enyalioides microlepis): These remind me of Eastern Water Dragons here in Australia.

Olive Tree Runner (Plica umbra): Found asleep at night in a small shrub.

Collared Tree Runner (Plica plica): We sometimes found these on large trees with smooth bark during the day. Others were spotted quite low at night.

Amazon Whiptail (Ameiva ameiva): These were big, colourful teiids that we saw occasionally along the forest edge.

The next post will cover Madre Selva frogs and invertebrates.



Regards,
David

 

[dtulip10]

Dave i am truly jealous. love the tree runner.
cheers Dayle

 

[gecko-mad]

The amazon whiptail seems to have a surprisingly thin head.

 

[Sock Puppet]

Love the anoles. And that whiptail looks awesome.
Do you know what the whiptail eats? That large mouth suggests it could accommodate a large food item for its head size (whether it be meat in the form of small mammals or insects, or for berries, fruits etc)

 

[moloch05]

Thanks, guys.

gecko-mad and sock-puppet
Ameiva do have a narrow head but they are large lizards. They are members of the Teiid family that includes the Tegus. I will have a shot of a Tegu in my Santa Cruz post. These animals seem to be the ecological equivalents of monitors.

Ameivas will eat any smaller animal that they can overpower. They are common and some of the males were really beautiful with patches of turquoise and emerald green. I will have shots of other wild Ameivas in the Santa Cruz post.

Regards,
David

 

[moloch05]

I forgot to include images of three additional species. Here they are:

Common Forest Anole (Anolis trachyderma)?:

Common Monkey Lizard (Polychrus marmoratus):

Western Leaf Lizard (Stenocercus fimbriatus): A wonderfully cryptic lizard that blended so well with dry leaves.

Regards,
David

 

[froggyboy86]

Great photos David, its a dream of mine one day to trek through the Amazon. That Western Leaf Lizard is amazingly camoflaged.

 

[Sock Puppet]

Wow that Stenocercus is fantastic.

 

[moloch05]

Thanks, Aaron and Sock Puppet.

Here is some info about snail-eating snakes that was posted on another forum. The guy who posted this does so under the name "lateralis".

...usually involves specialized jaw structure/dentition for hooking and extracting said slugs/snails from their shells as I recall.

Here is a more eloquent description....
In most snakes, the upper jaw is connected to the lower jaw by a joint that acts as a pivot point, and, when eating, all toothed bones on one side of the mouth move forward as a unit. In the slug- and snail-eating snakes (the colubrid subfamilies Dipsadinae and Pareatinae), the connection between the upper jaw and the quadrate is lost, and there are four independent units rather than two. This jaw modification permits them to hold their food with three jaws while the fourth is advanced.

The teeth are also longer on one side too in some species if I remember correctly, it may be all, but I think it was just in a few. Also, if I recall correctly, it was not always on the same side, sort of like they were either right handed or left handed...

And here is a link to a photo of a Dipsas eating a snail. It was posted by "Jawn":
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj64/jawn1983/panama - april 09/other/dipsasinsitu.jpg


Regards,
David