RCReptiles.com

[uncle_flo]

Yesterday evenin' as Uncle Flo' rolled into the driveway in his '88 Buick Lesabre after a long day of appointments, he was alarmed to find his missus in the back yard all the way out by the creek. This was a highly unusual place for Aunt Flo' to be, so Uncle Flo' headed down to investigate, snaggin' his fine trousers on thorns as he waded through the underbrush. When he reached her he saw she had a small net in her hand and a Rubbermaid container with littles holes in it by her side.

"What's that for?" he asked.

"Supper," said she and left it at that, so your uncle suffered the pain of arthritic knees to kneel down and take a look inside the container. What he saw was a tiny frog about 3/4" long, an Acris crepitans crepitans, or eastern cricket frog.* It would maybe amount to a single bite at best, definitely not a whole mouthful, let alone supper. His stomach growled.

"Woman, you know that ain't gonna fill me up," he growled.

"What're you worried about?" she snapped. "You're fat enough as it is, old man, you've got reserves. You'll survive, and count yourself lucky if I cook it and don't make you eat it raw!"

In the end the Flo's both had chicken, 'cause Uncle Flo' refused to give Auntie her Skoal back until she relented. She'll get her revenge, don't you doubt it for a moment, but your ol' uncle won this round and spared the frog's life. Later that night they went out together with a flashlight and Uncle caught a second frog and a salamander. For your benefit he went ahead and snapped some pics of the two frogs they caught, but the little salamander is hidin' in the tank so there's no pics of it.

Here's the cricket frog:


And here's what we think is a Rana clamitans melanota, or northern green frog:


Uncle Flo' won't be keepin' these critters. He and the missus are usin' them as part of teachin' a homeschool group of 30 youngsters about herpin' tomorrow, then he's releasin' them where they were found. Virginia law allows for the collection of up to five wild specimens each of any non-threatened or endangered native species, and they may be lawfully released back into the wild within five days of capture.

Y'all take care.

* Uncle Flo' would like to thank Nick Myers for identification of the eastern cricket frog. Flo' used his Peterson's A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, which is pretty much the book you wanna have when you're in the field, but it's somewhat limited due to size constraints in how many pictures of each species it can contain. The Virginia Herp Society's web site, with multiple pics of specimens found in Virginia, is much more helpful from the comfort of home, as Nick kindly demonstrated.



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[NickMyers03]

haha dont thank me it was all you brother!

looks like you where out having fun when i was sitting on my couch being lazy