🪷 longisquama 🦎

Gouache painting in lush dark green and blue featuring a cross-section of a pond at night. A green harlequin-patterned frog with a hint of tadpole tail climbs half out of the water into the cattails, looking at the stars. In the darkness lurks a taloned heron foot. The water is full of tadpoles, pond weed, insect larvae, and frog eggs. A single bright mayfly hangs on a cattail leaf above the frog's head. Text below reads JULIAN PLUM | Represented by Naomi Davis at BookEnds Literary, julianplum.com

Hello #kidlitartpostcard day! I'm Julian, a queer 🏳️‍⚧️ picture book illustrator working in gouache. I've climbed out of the final art mines to wave around a little flag that says "let me illustrate a book about frogs or bugs!"

🌌 julianplum.com
💌 hello@julianplum.com

#kidlitart #picturebooks #art 🐸 🌿

Dennis perches on a limb

Dennis just chillin' 🐸

Always repost brown anoles but especially if it's a Miami brown anole 🦎🦎🦎

An alligator laying in shallow water in the Everglades

Can I pet dat dawg? 🐊🌿
Stay tuned for lots of Florida birds 🪶

A fine black toad with bright white fingers, toes, and lips, and brown pustular blobs along its legs, resting on a dark green leaf.

A black and white toad on a green fern frond. The head and limbs are grey, and the body black.

A toad looking at the camera over a brown leaf, its black body splotched with yellow and white. It is very Halloween-core.

A black toad with huge yellow glands on its legs, head, arms, and parts of the back. Jack Skellington himself could hardly have painted a more Halloween-flavoured toad.

Today we described three new toad species that give birth to fully formed toadlets, from the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania! 🇹🇿🧪🐸

vertebrate-zoology.arphahub.com/article/1670...

How Frogs Leap Amazing Distances - Reptiles Magazine New studies reveal it is not just about muscular power that can propel frogs great distances.

How do out froggy friends leap so far? 🐸 it’s in their tendons rather than muscles!

reptilesmagazine.com/how-frogs-le...

A blue frog with dark blue (almost black) markings is sitting in some bright green moss. It is looking to the right of the picture.

🐸Blue poison dart frog (Dendrobates tinctorius "azureus").

Max size males ~4 cm (~1.6"), females ~4.5 cm (~1.8").

Females may physically fight over a calling male.

Found in southern Suriname and across the border with Brazil.

Not evaluated by the IUCN.

📷by William Warby on Pexels

Dead snake and dead newt. The snake has large leopard markings with black rim and black dot inside. There is black line on the side of the head. The newt has bright red-orange belly with brown markings.

I dislodged the thing that was stuck in the snake’s throat. It was a red-belly newt (Cynops pyrrhogaster) which is known to have tetrodotoxin. The snake probably succumbed to the toxin while trying to eat. Tokikubo, Komoro, Nagano #Herps #Snake #Newt
アカハライモリの毒にやられたようだ。長野県小諸市鴇久保 #爬虫類 #両生類

I had to rescue this little cutey🦎 as she was right where I was digging plants up.
It was so lucky I spotted her as newts play dead extremely convincingly.
She did eventually swim off but bluesky can’t cope with a video clip that long 🤣💦🦎💦 #WildlifeWednesday #newts #pond #wildlife

A photo of a baby tortoise, taken from above. A black shell with gold patrerning. A small white patch on the head which is eggshell.

#herps 🐢

Beautifully patterned pancake tortoise hatched overnight. Thats a bit of eggshell on its head, it’ll come off.

A large and a small turtle sunning themselves on a wooden stump rising out of the water. The larger turtle is balanced at the highest point with feet outstretched. The smaller turtle is on a branch on the left just out of the water.

Two turtles turtling on #Twosday.

A large Red-eared Slider is balance on top of a jagged weathered stump that is sticking out of the water. A much smaller Painted Turtle is wedged between two stump projections just below the big turtle.

Yesterday's sun brought out the turtles and these two won "Best Balancing Act." 🐢🌿

Large leafy-looking mantis in shades of black, tan and rust standing on 4 of its 6 legs surrounded by a border of brown leaves.

This drawing I just finished of a Dead Leaf mantis seems appropriate for today. 🪲

Green Sea Turtle underwater headed for the camera.

Here is a Galapagos Green Sea Turtle for #TurtleTuesday. Three years after our excursion I have finally downloaded videos from my GoPro. Better late than never? 🐢

A picture with a background of various colors of fall leaves by @xercessociety.bsky.social with the words: Leaves are not litter. They're food and shelter for butterflies, beetles, bees, moths, and more. Tell friends and neighbors to just #LeaveTheLeaves. xerces.org

From #herps to #insects, #birds, & #mammals, the leaf layer is more than just nature’s carpet - it’s a sanctuary, food source, & protective shield. These critically important pieces of microhabitat are entirely removed when we throw away our yard leaves. #LeaveTheLeaves

📸 @xercessociety.bsky.social

Two spiny lizards doing pushups and scooting around a downed tree trunk in the sun. The top left lizard is showing off their blue chin and belly.

Same two lizards chasing each other on same downed tree trunk. The slightly smaller one is being chased off.

#Twosday Western Fence Lizards having a territorial tussle last week.💚

#Reptiles #NaturePhotos #iNat 📷🦎

Reminder for grad students working on herps in the Southeast!

The Orianne Society’s Grant Program for Reptile and Amphibian Conservation in the Southeast is accepting applications until 5PM EST, 21 November 2025.

Scan QR code or click here for details: www.oriannesociety.org/science-init...

Gargoyle gecko in portable carrier watching Caribbean Detective stories and waiting for her habitat to be cleaned.

Miss Penny waiting patiently in her portable carrier, watching her favorite Caribbean Detective stories with her human grandma while she waits for her human to finish cleaning her habitat. #herps #lizardsofbluesky #reptiles #geckos

Tarantula/spider/pet people out there:

I'm considering using a plastic shoebox with airholes punched in the sides as a grow-out tank for my Lasiodora parahybana (Salmon Pink Birdeater) as it's a little bigger than palm-size. Is that a valid option or am I missing something bad about it. Thanks! 🕷️🐍

A lizard is sitting on the ground with its head raised among a few tiny plants. It is blue on the head, neck, front legs and front part of the body. The hind legs and the rear part of the body is greyish green. The first part of the tail is yellowish brown and the last part of the tail is blue. It has its head turned slightly and is looking to the left of the camera.

🦎Black-necked agama (Acanthocercus atricollis).

May be part of a species complex of closely related species difficult to tell apart.

Max. size ~38 cm (~15").

Found in in eastern, central and southern Africa.

Considered Least Concern by the IUCN.

📷Lisa Stockton on Unsplash

Side image of a lizard perched on a rock, facing left with grasslands and hills in the background. The lizard's body color varies from light brown to dark brown. The most striking feature are the scales on the body, limbs, and head, which are enlarged, curved, and end at the tip in a pointy spike.

Adding to my Middle Earth life list, the Giant Sungazer (Smaug giganteus), endemic to highland grasslands in South Africa. They live in self-dug burrows and eat invertebrates and small vertebrates. Low and slow birthrates leave them vulnerable. #herps #lizards #NaturePhotography 🌿

A young Komodo dragon perched up on a log and shot in profile looking to the left of frame

Happy Sunday
Komodo #dragon - Varanus komodoensis
(Shot at @cincinnatizoo.bsky.social 9-2-25) 🦎🐉 #photography #animal #herps #reptile #zoo #cincyzoopic

A 3-4 ft alligator's head in the water reflecting Fall colors on trees, surrounded by lotus leaves.

A 3-4 ft alligator's head in the water, surrounded by brown lotus seed pods.

Floating around in Fall colors.
American alligators, Southeast Texas, November 2025.

#Photography #Alligators #Gators #Herps #Reptiles #NaturePhotography #WildlifePhotography #TexasStateParks

Young male green anole, nose down on some sansevieria, he as a little piece of shed skin stuck to his nose.

🦎 Lizard of the Day has shed stuck to his nose!

A tortoise is walking in grass towards the camera. It is black with yellowish spots on the carapace and a yellow plastron. There are dark orange spots on the legs and lighter orange spots on the head.

🐢Red-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonarius).

Max carapace length over 50 cm (~19.7").

Omnivore, but eats mostly fruit, flowers and leaves.

Found on some Caribbean islands and from Panama to northern Argentina.

Not evaluated by the IUCN.

📷 by Bergheimatfilm on Pixabay

Sometimes you have to rip everything out and start from scratch. Way happier with the rebuild!

#herps #enclosurebuild #redo

A large green tree frog is sitting on a thick branch. The lower lip and the belly are white. The throat is light green. The toes and fingers are brownish in colour. The frog is looking at something to the right of the camera.

🐸White-lipped tree frog (Nyctimystes infrafrenatus).

Max. size 14 cm (5.5").

Largest tree frog species in the world.

Found in northern Queensland, Papua New Guinea and on surrounding islands.

Considered Least Concern by the IUCN.

📷by David Clode on Unsplash

Three quarter shot of a beige jewelry display with an ornate shiny black and silver dragon scale choker

Just uploaded this stunner to Varanid Paradise in my classic “Judas is My Priest” colorway. Check out this reptilian finery! 🦎💎 #bsnm #jewelry

www.varanidparadise.com/shop/p/qxnhz...

Best little brown anole resting in an oak sapling with her feet dangling down.

Possum bumbling through the grass.

Hurray!
I thought it had gotten too chilly for Oak Saplings Lizard, but I saw her tonight!
She wins Lizard of the Day! 🦎

I was also happy to see a possum bumbling through my yard!
I have been seeing raccoons & no possums, and I’d rather have possums!

It is not a choice, though. I have both.

Baby salamander black with huge yellow spots fusing together to form stripes. Walking on fallen dry oak leaves.

Baby salamander black with huge yellow spots fusing together to form stripes. Walking on fallen dry oak leaves.

Baby salamander black with huge yellow spots fusing together to form stripes. Walking on green moss.

🦎

Tiny little salamander, just about 6 cm long