Our annual update to the BFS Reptile & Amphibians page has been completed. Many thanks to our BFS Web Intern Maya Nakamura for doing the update! The revisions this year were minimal.
Note: Additional corrections made 10 June 2009. Many thanks to Marion Preest for spotting the errors!
- All links have been checked and corrected if necessary.
- The taxonomy has not changed since last year since the Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico has not been updated since then, although several errors were corrected:
- The spelling of Phrynosoma blainvillii has been corrected.
- San Diego Mountain Kingsnake, Lampropeltis zonata pulchra, has been changed to Mountain Kingsnake, Lampropeltis zonata, since subspecies of Lampropeltis zonata are no longer recognized.
- Pacific Treefrog, Pseudacris regilla, has been changed to Baja California Treefrog, Pseudacris hypochondriaca. Pseudacris regilla has been split into three species, and the one in our area is Pseudacris hypochondriaca.
- The spelling of Monterey Ensatina, Ensatina eschscholtzii eschscholtzii, has been corrected.
- The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is now listing ‘Species of Concern’, and we’ve added that designation where applicable. Some of you may remember that there used to be a federal designation for ‘Species of Special Concern’, but that was done away with around 2001, reportedly because it was “too confusing”. But in the last year, FWS has started listing “Species of Concern”, and although this term does not confer any special regulatory status is does show that the FWS is concerned about a species.
If you spot any errors or have any comments or suggestions, please let me know! We also have lots of new herp photos — turtles, bullfrogs, mating alligator lizards, baby toads, etc., but they won’t be posted until we get the photo database sorted out. In the meantime, you enjoy these recent herp photos:
A newly metamorphosed Southern California Toad, Anaxyrus boreas halophilus. Photographed last month by Tad Beckman.
American Bullfrog, Lithobates catesbeianus, in pHake Lake. Photographed last month by Tad Beckman
Western Pond Turtle, Actinemys marmorata, photographed in April at pHake Lake
Gophersnake, Pituophis catenifer, in the ‘Neck’. Photographed in April by Allison Dubner, Pomona Biology ’09.