Herpetology Species Quiz

Species quiz 1

Ambystoma opacum - Marbled salamander

Habitat: woodlands, uplands, and bottomlands; vernal pools & small streams

Diet: various small creatures

Distinguishing features: males—> black w/ light blue dorsal blotches; females—> black w/ light grey dorsal blotches

“Amby” = blunt; “stoma” = mouth; “opacum” = shaded

Plethodon websteri - Webster’s salamander

Habitat: wooded hillsides, streamside woods

Diet: various small invertebrates

Distinguishing features: grey or dark body; red to yellow dorsocaudal stripe; light belly with mottling

“Pletho” = full of; “odon” = teeth; “websteri” = from T. Preston Webster

Lithobates catesbeianus - American bullfrog

Habitat: any body of water or wetlands

Diet: various invertebrates

Distinguishing features: large size, light underside with dark markings, dorsolateral fold (goes around tympanic membrane)

“Litho” = stone; “bates” = one who walks

Lithobates clamitans - Bronze/green frog

Habitat: semi-aquatic, various water bodies

Diet: various invertebrates

Distinguishing features: mid-sized frog, coloration varies brown to green w/ some mottling, dorsolateral fold goes down back, “banjo-like” call

“clamitans = loud calling

Chelydra serpentina - common snapping turtle

Habitat: any freshwater body

Diet: fish, invertebrates, frogs, other reptiles

Distinguishing features: small head, long claws, flat scute ridges, long tail & neck, reduced plastron

Macrochelys temminckii - Alligator snapping turtle

Habitat: flowering water bodies, sand bottom creeks, oxbow lakes

Diet: fish and other invertebrates

Distinguishing features: 3 ridges down carapace back, extra row of marginal scutes

Anolis carolinensis - green anole

Habitat: forest and forest edges, savannas, rural and urban environments

Diet: various invertebrates

Distinguishing features: males have pink dewlap; females have white, spiraled dorsal stripe

Aspidoscelis sexlineatus - Six-lined racerunner

Habitat: sandy woodlands, grasslands and savannas

Diet: various invertebrates & vertebrates

Distinguishing features: 6-7 light stripes with dark and unpatterned scales separating them; older individuals can have greenish stripes; juveniles can have blueish tails

Coluber constrictor - Black racer

Habitat: fairly general, most areas —> forest edges, old fields, wetland edges, moderately disturbed areas including agricultural and semi-urban

Diet: broad diet can vary w/ age —> insects, lizards, snakes, birds, rodents, amphibians

Distinguishing features: 90-150 cm (total length), darkly colored, light-colored ventrally, adults have white underneath chin, young snakes can have various patterns

Agkistrodon contortrix - Eastern copperhead

Habitat: wooded hills, bottomlands, rural areas

Diet: small mammals, frogs, emerging cicadas

Distinguishing features: tan, orange color; “hershey’s kiss” brown bands; thin, dark line behind eye

“Agkistr” = fishhook; contortrix = contortionist