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Alright, this is the really good stuff I saw here in Louisiana. This state, with its warm, humid climate, has completely different animals than what I'm used to in California, so I made sure I took plenty of pictures. It's a shame most of the people living here harbor a hate of their local wildlife... Just about everyone here will kill any snakes, lizards, or large insects they see, even if they are outside and not in anyone's way. I've been graciously informed here that "the only good snake is a dead snake" about twenty times, and people look at me like I'm crazy when I say that I'm going out to catch bugs and reptiles. Le sigh...

Anyway, here are the photos I took of the animals (and other nature) I saw in Cajun Country.

These first photos are Green Anoles. I've read that at one point in history they were endangered, but around here they are seemingly more numerous than the insects they eat. Kids around here like to catch them and let them bite their earlobes so they can wear "lizard earrings". It works pretty well, actually, because once you let them bite onto something, they'll hold on to it for a good 5-10 minutes.






Here are some interesting mushrooms I came across. Any amateur mycologists on here?



This is just some kind of hornets' nest I found.


And this is a close-up of another kind of wasp, one that builds big nests out of mud.


Here are some shots of the local scenery... When there is no maintained lawn under the trees it is usually more of like a marshy prairie/open forest. Most of the trees have large amounts of Spanish Moss and ferns/vines growing on the branches. Dense forests look like the stereotypical jungles you see in books/movies.




This is some huge tropical mosquito I caught that almost bit my leg. With the proboscis, this thing was about an inch in length.


Some sort of strange orb-weaver.


This is a humorous John James Audubon print of a Common Raccoon made in the 1800s.


And another similar print of the Carolina Parakeet, which was the United States' only native parrot species, not including the Thick-Billed Parrot (which makes occasional visits here from northern Mexico). Carolina Parakeets were once abundant throughout the southeastern US, but were shot as crop pests and trapped as pets to such an extent that they became extinct by the early 20th century.


Sort of nature-related: Fried alligator. It tastes just like fried chicken but is a bit chewier.


Mediterranean House Geckos have become very common here within the past decade. They can be seen all over the sides of buildings at night, and are surprisingly easy to catch.


This is some big fuzzy caterpillar I found in a field (about 4-5cm in length).


Here is a brown caterpillar of a similar size eating some spinach-like plant.


When I saw this insect in the field, I thought it was some kind of firefly. Later inspection of the photograph revealed it to be a moth (note the antennae and long mouthparts).


Here is the only decent butterfly photo I was able to shoot, which, coincidentally, is some sort of skipper (I've found they are harder to shoot than most other butterflies).


These next few photos are of a funny-looking cricket I found. The body was about 2cm long, but with the giant legs the insect had a total length of nearly three inches.




This is a toad I found outside my motel room tonight.


And, saving the best for last, here is the one and only snake I was able to find on the trip (due to my lack of transportation, I wasn't able to do any proper herping). It was a young adult Speckled Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula holbrooki), a spectacular-looking kind of kingsnake. I found it sitting on a weed-covered piece of cement right on the Bayou Teche, and nearly dropped the camera into the nasty water trying to catch it. The snake didn't bite, but it made sure to get as much poop on my hands as possible. This was the highlight of my trip.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Some very interesting nature studies there.

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What does your shirt say? I recognize the lettering from star trek...

It says "A MOST TRIUMPHANT HOODIE", in reference to the classic film Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Here are a few more images...

A giant grasshopper climbing on a window (I don't know how, the glass was pretty clean).


And some more Green Anoles trying to camouflage themselves (the second one fails at life).

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

"The snake didn't bite, but it made sure to get as much poop on my hands as possible. This was the highlight of my trip."

That somehow came out way too amusing!

Great pics, I had no clue the states had a native parrot!

^_^

Nice. Man, no wonder you're in Davis.

Those are photos fantastic! I used to love taking shots of animals I could find.

that looks like an interesting part of the world to live in.

you went all the way there and found something i nearly bought last week?
im suprised the king musked you instead of eating you, too.
What else lives in that state reptile wise?

Interesting pics Natalie! That first pic of a Green Anole reminded me a Komodo Dragon.

Those wasps that build their nests out of mud......we have them here & call them mud daubbers. Of course, their favorite place to build nests seems to be under the edge of the roof outside. Therefore they frequently get into the house also.

Beautiful trees!

I think we have those funny looking crickets here too. (Oklahoma)

Leave it to you to find a snake to catch! Very pretty! Your trip wouldn't have been complete without that!

The "giant grasshoppers" look like katydids to me...

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Your first caterpillar is almost certainly an Arctiid Moth larva of some kind. I just checked, and it appears that Arctia caja, the Garden Tiger Moth from the UK and Europe, is also found in North America, and its larva looks almost EXACTLY like the hairy one in your pic. here is a picture of one from the UK]http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=2069[/link], and [link=here is the adult moth.

Your second larva looks as if it could be a Noctuid of some sort, but since there are 25,000 Noctuid species worldwide, and the Americas plays host to something like 10,000 of them, I think you'll have a hard job identifying that unless you can take a specimen and watch what moth it metamorphoses into as an adult (and even then you might need a genital dissection for a definitive identification to species level!).

Your Skipper butterfly could be one of dozens of species. Again, this is a group with a LARGE number of American species, and to make matters worse, many of the North American species are similarly brown in appearance to the one you photographed, which means even identifying it to Genus level is going to be a severe pain even for a professional in the field working from just a photograph. However, I can rule out one group of Skippers that it does NOT belong to, and that is the primitive Megathymus species, because they are a LOT bigger than that one (they are North America's largest Skippers). Mind you, something tells me that you might hit pay dirt with the Genus Oarisma, which consists of three USA/Canadian species to my knowledge and possibly more: the three of interest being Oarisma edwardsii, Oarisma garita and the wonderfully named Oarisma powesheik.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks for the comments. I was surprised my camera was actually able to take some halfway-decent photos there (it's a Fujufilm FinePix A210 I got like over four years ago).

Mez: Here is a complete list of LA herps. The only ones I saw were Green Anoles, House Geckos, a few kinds of turtles, alligators, the kingsnake, Green Treefrogs, and that toad I found (a short list compared to the actual number of species there).

Most kingsnakes aren't e to biting much as long as you don't act like a predator around them (flinching, sudden movements, etc). People who are afraid of getting bitten by them and show it invariably end up getting tagged a lot more, because the person's tense, erratic behavior will further frighten the snake. Also, wearing long sleeves helps (and keeps the mozzies off).

Thanks for the insect identifications too... I haven't had a chance to do some serious sleuthing on BugGuide yet because my computer keeps overheating and shutting down (also hindering my attempts at posting earlier replies). The grasshoppers/crickets could very well be katydids, though they look a lot different than the ones around here (I realize the weird one with the long legs is still a nymph, though).

Right now I'm going to try and look up those wasps that were on their nest and see if I can narrow it down to even a specific genus. The skipper I knew right away was going to be impossible to identify... Thousands of species and most of them are close to indistinguishable in the field (all small and brown).

I also have a 1000-page field guide to North American mushrooms to look up those weird-looking ones I found, so maybe I'll have more success with that. I think the authors of the book must have been under the influence of some kind of Psilocybe while writing the book, because some of the descriptions in it are pretty crazy... One type of mushroom is described as tasting like "wet mouse fur".

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.