pics from the Goldfields area, WA (1)

[moloch05]

In February, 2007, a friend and I visited the Goldfields area of Western Australia. In this post, I will include photos of animals that we encountered in the Wiluna/Leonora/Laverton area. The habitat here looked great and it seemed to hold lots of potential for snakes. In the end, we saw few but I think that a trip earlier in the season would have been productive.

Here are a few shots of the habitat. The spinifex here looked healthier and less disturbed than in most sites that I have visited.

Saltpans were frequent. I explored a couple of these with hopes of photographing Claypan Dragons (Ctenophorus salinarum). I saw a few south of Leonora but they were always too wary and quickly vanished from view. Ctenotus skinks were common on the saltpans.

... other habitats in this region:

Geckos were common on the road at night. The most frequent species was this, the Fat-tailed Gecko (Diplodactylus conspicillatus). Most of these had this pattern and colour:

... one, however, was much more nicely coloured:

We only found two of the aptly named Beautiful Geckos (Diplodactylus pulcher). Their patterns were so different that it is hard to believe that they are the same species. The saddled form below looks much like photos of D. galeatus that I have seen from central Australia.

Gehyra variegata

The race of Central Military Dragons (Ctenophorus isolepis) from the Leonora area were beautifully marked. Here is a male:

... and a female:

While searching for Claypan Dragons, I observed an amazing encounter between two Ctenotus skinks. These are confusing species to me so I am not certain about the identity but believe them to be C. leonhardii. I was surprised when the skink below did not disappear from view like Ctenotus usually do when disturbed. This one stayed in the open then raced back to a shrub at my feet and attacked another Ctenotus that I had not seen. The two tumbled out of sight but continued to thrash about so I waited for a few minutes. I was most surprised when one emerged with the body of the other held in its mouth.

Monitors were common in this area. This Yellow-spotted Monitor (Varanus panoptes) stood up to have a look at us when we stopped the car for a photo.

... it crouched when I stepped out of the car.

... finally, it began to stomp away and look most annoyed with me.

We were surprised to only find a single snake on the road at night in this part of the Goldfields. Rosen's Snake (Suta fasciata)

One of the strangest sights was this enormus Phasmatid.

Regards,
David

 

[hazzard]

As usual top quality Dave, I love phasmids, that one is huge! I particularly enjoyed that panoptes shot. It looks huge a stunning monitor!

Cheers

 

[ad]

Great work Moloch, thanks for sharing the pics.
Cheers
Adam

 

[hornet]

wow, you must have had a great time. As for that phasmid, just stunning, my mate doing alot of work with with their taxonomy so i'll send him those pics and see if he knows what it is.

 

[jordo]

Good work!
You were very lucky to witness the Ctenotus battle, it's a shame the subordinate of the two was kild though.

 

[moloch05]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

hornet,
I would like to hear more about these phasmids.


Here are a few more pics. This was the most colourful Western Hooded Scaly-foot (Pygopus nigriceps) that I have ever encountered.

... I think that this is a Desert Tree Frog (Litoria rubella). It was found near a dry streambed near Laverton.

... another phasmid shot:

 

[hornet]

those pygopus are amazing, i'll let you know when i hear anything on the phasmid

 

[hornet]

Genus is probably Acrophyla and its proably a new species

 

[moloch05]

Thanks, hornet. Why does your friend think that it might be a new species? Are they not known from that area -- or poorly known?

I found it along on the road between Leonora and Laverton. Much of the habitat there looked really good -- big clumps of spinifex on red sand.


Regards,
David

 

[Bugsy]

woah, nice pix moloch...luv the gex.

 

[ryanharvey1993]

wow brilliant shots once again david, that galeatus *spelling* is a stunner. you always find so many species

 

[Riley]

awesome pics! love the military dragons and yellow sp monitor

 

[Sdaji]

Brilliant pictures, thanks

The Acrophylla (yes, that's what it is ) is closely allied to A. titan. Unless it's a cryptic species, yours will be the same as the one found in southern NT. When I first saw one from there (NT), I was quite astounded as it was phenotypically so similar to the ones you find in rainforests, but this thing was out in the arid zone. When I saw the eggs I realised that it was a cryptic species (I can't now recall what it was). I remember the wings also had reduced range of movement compared to the tropical species. They're very cool!

You certainly have a lot of wonderful field adventures, David! Well done for organising your life such that it's possible for you to manage so much of it!

 

[moloch05]

Thanks, everyone, for the feedback.

Sdaji,
Sounds like you know the phasmids! Did you study these or is it simply a hobby? I am curious as to what you mean by "Unless it's a cryptic species"? Is this a group that is more difficult to see than most?

Regards,
David

 

[Sdaji]

I've studied phasmids as a hobby mainly, although I did a bit of work with them in the lab a couple of years ago - that was with Sipyloidea, an unrelated group which was of interest to us because of their genetics and the fact that they have similar climatic requirements to the geckoes and grasshoppers we were interested in. I know a little and I certainly admire them a lot, but I'm far from an expert.

Sorry, I should have realised that when talking about phasmids it would be ambiguous to use a biological term such as 'cryptic species'!

Of course, most, perhaps all phasmids are cryptic in that they are brilliant at camouflage. Very thoughtless of me! In biological jargon, 'cryptic species' are species which are identical to each other as far as their physical appearance goes, but genetically are different. In insects cryptic species are very common, in the animals we're most familiar with (reptiles, birds, mammals, etc), cryptic species are quite rare. In this sense, 'cryptic' refers to the cryptic nature of the fact that they are not the same species.

 

[moloch05]

Thanks for the explanation, Sdaji. I knew of cryptic lifestyles but not of the term as it relates to genetically different animals that look the same.

Regards,
David