Asian skunk cabbage on the left brook bank, American skunk cabbage on the right. Asian must have been planted in the natural habitat, persisting for many years, but not much expanding.
I think it's an albino Toad of some kind
not sure whether to call it albino or leucistic, but certainly unusual
From local ecotype NJ Pine barrens seeds. Thrown down here as an experiment - near their host plant. Took about 5 or 6 years to come up, apparently!
At least 3 heard calling and only this single individual was seen.
Don't mind the background...
A Lentil Sea Spider crawling on the submerged rocks along the side of the channel leading into Potter Pond. My young cousin first spotted it and then she kept an eye on it while I ran back to grab my camera, never seen one before.
Titirangi, Auckland.
Zigzag Track, in Atkinson Park.
Found wild
found By Greyson Walker
Photo By Beren Erkan
Observation by Sam Blue and Tyler DeVos on 13 May 2023. Details in DeVos and Bluestein (2024): https://journals.ku.edu/reptilesandamphibians/article/download/21165/20348
SB00154
Was in my bathroom. Thought it was a typical Lesser Antillean but patterns on back match Montserrat
About 25 plants seen; with William R. Linke & Leslie J. Mehrhoff
A wild Variegated specimen
I found her just after she finished molting.
Lifer!
Seen in the marina swimming close to water surface. Maybe 10cm in length. 8 small spines before the elongated dorsal fin.
lifer! continuing rarity
Tropical fish, probably came north with the current and sargassum.
known population
Released here?
Lifer! These guys are NOT fun to photograph. Can’t even begin to describe the musk either!
found on Spiraea alba. prothorax with dense appressed golden setae throughout, with erect setae on disk; elytral apices acuminate
A couple of Monk Parakeets in Warwick, RI. I saw three, then a kestrel (I think) flew by and they all scattered along with a couple others that must have been hiding in the nest. There have been feral populations of these parakeets in RI since at least the seventies.
Erythristic lifer!!
nice adult copperhead flipped under logs. He was very chill and didn’t strike once
Both subsp. americanus (native to North America) and subsp. australis (introduced to North America) are found at this site, sometimes growing intermixed. In the photos the former is indicated with an “N” and the latter with an “I”. On the date I visited this site, 16 September 2019, these are the differences I observed with living stems between the two subspecies:
•Relative stem height: subsp. americanus usually shorter, subsp. australis usually taller.
•Relative stem spacing: subsp. americanus usually more dispersed, subsp. australis usually denser (rarely solitary).
•Stem breaking: subsp. americanus fibrous and hard to break off, subsp. australis often breaks off easily.
•Stem color (lower/older internodes): subsp. americanus red and often shiny, subsp. australis yellow-green and not shiny.
•Stem texture (lower/older internodes): subsp. americanus smooth, subsp. australis minutely ridged.
•Stem & leaf sheath dots: subsp. americanus often present, subsp. australis absent.
•Leaf condition: subsp. americanus has lots of senescence, subsp. australis generally are healthy.
•Margins of upper leaves near panicle: subsp. americanus finely serrated, subsp. australis coarsely serrated.
•Sterile stems more abundant than fertile: subsp. americanus yes, subsp. australis no.
•Panicle branches for panicles of similar length: subsp. americanus fewer, subsp. australis more.
•Panicle branch spacing: subsp. americanus farther, subsp. australis closer.
•Flowering status: subsp. americanus finished flowering, subsp. australis flowering.
There probably are other characteristics I overlooked that distinguish these two subspecies from each other. Perhaps these characteristics listed above hold up at other sites in North America. I don’t use leaf color to tell them apart because although some clones of subsp. australis are strongly blue-green, some clones of that subspecies are more green or yellow-green. See this observation for an illustration: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/30610594
Observation of P. australis subsp. americanus from this location: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32878566
Observation of P. australis subsp. australis from this location: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32888630
found walking on trunk of Fagus grandifolia. Lifer!
Found on Point Arguello, a bit over 2 inches in total length
Found in a neighbors sunroom. Safely removed and they were chill about it, in fact they handled him and were open minded enough to let me release him under their sunroom :)
I’m a little late to hogtober but glad to have found my lifer eastern hognose! Been searching all week! This guy was dramatic even for a hognose. thanks to @thrashedout for tips!
LJV 5689
Here's a challenging one for you. The suggestions on this one are hilarious. Crappy pictures asides, Laurie Vitt dug this animal out of a log..or maybe it was under a log. What's the correct term for this look? Amelanistic?
Pinelands Nursery saltwater beds!
6-7 Eastern garters seen in close proximity to one another
Mesophootic kelps in the Galapagos
Found in shallows with withered/missing caudal fin.
Aggregation of roughly six individuals, apparently of both sexes, in a mowed meadow.
Lifer and first herp of Dubai!
Northern Dusky. Found dead in a rocky stream, Area around the stream was mossy. Northwestern RI
At first, I thought it was a tiny crab wearing a backpack, but then I remembered that crabs don't carry their homes on their backs... and they're definitely not found in the forest!
I believe this to be a Dusky. Belly was a white/cream color. Found in a rocky stream, Area around the stream was mossy. Snow on the ground. Water was ice cold. Northwestern RI
Just amazing! Parasitizing Ten-lined June beetle (Polyphylla decemlineata) on an open slope of sand. Insitu, already exposed when found
Male Northern Cardinal is feeding cowbird that was raised as its own due to cowbird brood parasite
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3472&context=graduate_theses
Found in a salad box in a supermarket. Coming from France.
sampled
A Say's Black-fingered Mud Crab from Potter Pond.
Captive culture. Host: Porcellio hoffmannseggii
Great find by botanist and rare plant magnet @mcharpentier of this rare violet. This is a county record. A "stemless blue" violet with a long spur, glabrous petals, pubescent upper leaf surface.
I was not super confident with this identification. Let me know your thoughts plz
Out of the hundreds of these I've seen, this was the reddest individual I've ever seen.
Desmodium sessilifolium (sessile-leaved tick-trefoil), Grills Preserve, Bowling Ln, Westerly, RI. State Threatened. I think this is the only extant EO in New England.
Schizocarps with 1-3 semicircular segments; long narrow leaflets with very short petioles; leaves rough, firm, conspicuously reticulate-veined).
Geranium bicknellii (northern crane's-bill), Catamint Sods, Diamond Hill Management Area, Cumberland, RI. State Endangered. Population is growing, but endangered by bicycles. This is the only extant EO in the state.
Plants annual, upright, about 1 ft tall, growing in thin soil over flat granite ledge; flowers small, less than 1/2" across; flowers on pedicels about 1" long.