Reptilefest '12!

Whew! Lots of neat things at Reptilefest this year! In particular, people were focusing on species of reptiles that could easily be caught in one's backyard. There were so many Illinois herps this year! Unfortunately, there were far fewer Burmese pythons and retics; the Lacey Act must have scared some people.

So, without further ado...PICS!

The snake-necked turtle that inspired yesterday's entry! I may have selected the wrong kind. There are some snake-necked turtles native to Argentina, too. Seeing as Australia has strict wildlife laws, this was probably the non-Australian type. Can any turtle freaks help me out here?

Here's a snapping turtle, just to make you pay attention. 

I wanna say this is an alligator, but the angle makes it a little hard to tell. Yes, we had gators and crocs, here.

 

And now for snake pics! These are black-headed pythons. Neat-looking, aren't they? 

Cottonmouth, one of the few venomous snakes found in the U.S. Easily the prettiest. *Gets mobbed by rattlesnake and coral snake fans.*

One of exactly three Burms I saw at Reptilefest this year. This one's a granite. It was so cute to see its owner petting it like a dog or cat (or cow). There was also someone with a shirt saying "savetheburms.org." I may have to check that out...

Although there were plenty of ball pythons around this year, this girl, who was named Persephone, was the only outstanding one. She's a bumblebee (spider x pastel) with a really photogenic personality. Beautiful snake!

Didn't see many Burms this year (and NO anacondas) but you know what I saw a lot more of? Carpet pythons and rosies! I'll be GIDDY if rosies catch on; Eclair, I love you. That doesn't mean you have to be my only rosy.

Bunch of average-looking rosies...but rosies!

 

Cleaner "normal" plus a cute albino.

 

House snake. Pretty sure it's albino. :) Good snakes for people who aren't into mega-killer-pythons...but so are rosies! 

Several normal JCP's and a jaguar morph carpet python.

Okay, last two, then I need to sleep:

Someone brought a siren. I'm starting to love them! :D

That's a cicada - the framer didn't know what species, though. Apparently Thailand has a lot of very interesting cicadas, for whatever reason. Just another reason to save pennies. 

"They Actually Eat That:" Cicadas.

Yes, we know this post is way out of time. Cicadas are summer animals. They're the bugs that make summer noisy as all get-out. Maybe writing about them will make Chicago seems warmer (...but we've had worse). This is one of the years of the 13-year cicada, which means we best be armed with a million delicious recipes in which to cook them.



For those of you in areas that lack periodical cicadas (Magicicada), picture this: One summer, you see a large, red-eyed bug resembling a large fly or a particularly airworthy cricket. And then another. And another. And another. They land on you like something out of a horror flick. When periodical cicadas come out, they come out all at once, scaring housewives worse than the infamous mouse.

This mass emergence is one of the most welcome sights in the natural world. Cicadas are towards the bottom of the food web. They live to court, mate, and die soon after. Birds and other animals have learned that this bloom means food - lots of food- and can be seen sniping cicadas like crazy. We are newcomers to the smorgasbord.

Just like every other non-poisonous insect out there, humans have founda million ways to eat cicadas. This includes frying them, sautee-ing them, and dipping them in chocolate. Some bold people in California even put them in ice cream because it was not illegal yet. (Keyword: Yet. As per this article, "it's not really regulated.") Cicadas can be used as a high-protein additive in pretty much anything. Even chocolate chip cookies are fair game.

Eating these guys is anything but new. Everybody, everywhere, ever has eaten cicadas. They are considered a delicacy in East Asia. Artistotle, AKA one of the smartest guys in recorded history, advocated eating cicadas. The problem is that America is paranoid about eating bugs. After hearing the sheer amount of noise they make, believe us: it will be very hard to resist the urge to eat them as a form of culinary revenge. 

Creature Feature: Higurashi.

Summer feels like it's already over. I have to pick up schoolbooks tomorrow (JAPANESE RELIGION!), people are talking about 'nice' days, and there are dead cicadas everywhere. When the cicadas are gone, summer really is over.

But did you know that there are many different types of cicadas? Not every cicada is periodical, for example,meaning that some species come out every summer. The males chirp their little hearts out, mate, and then die. Talk about a life well-lived.

Cicadas, noisy as they are, have gained cultural attention. Japan, a country way into bug-catching since its early days, has several words for several different cicadas. (No foolin' - they have crazy specific animal vocabulary that I will not get into here.) The most popular in fiction is a type of cicada called a higurashi.



The higurashi (or Tanna japonensis) is a type of cicada native to Japan and China. It is most common in southern Hokkaido, but can be found all over Japan. This particular type of cicada mates in late summer - early fall. It sounds like this:



If you have watched too much enough anime, you should know that sound. The cry of a higurashi sounds particularly sad to Japanese people, which explains its use as a sound effect in many series. The most well-known of these is, of course, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni - "When the Higurashi Cry."(The word 'higurashi' can also apparently mean 'day to day life,' making the homophone in that series especially chilling.)



Well, at least the cicadas had fun.