Riding the roads across the middle of Taiwan has given me a great opportunity to see a wide variety of the local wildlife. I pass plenty of birds, toads, lizards, giant snails, the occasional monkey, but no animal as common as the various species of flat snakes one sees nearly everywhere. Fascinating in their variety, I’ve thrown myself into a bit of herpetological research, and I’d love to share a larger project I’m working on…. The Field Guide to the Flat Snakes of Central Taiwan.
I’m pretty proud of my work and I’ve learned a great deal about the various species, their names, how to identify and what not. So forgive me if I skip common names in favor of the formal taxonomic names. Speaking of which, I was astonished to learn that in some cases binomial nomenclature for genus species names also includes punctuation marks… who knew?
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This is a fine example of an Ocrapae Carmium!
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| A particularly lovely specimen of a Whydai Lieheeria? |
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| A juvenile male Nota Baskingspot. He'll flatten out nicely when he gets a bit older. |
