Category Archives: Insect

Animal, Arizona, Insect, Lizard, Reptile, Spider

Phoenix Reptile Show Repticon 2015

2015/03/07 JDM

I went out to the Phoenix Repticon reptile show down at the Arizona Fair Grounds this weekend. The show was much smaller than I thought it would be, not nearly as large as the Tucson Reptile Show or the ARBA reptile breeders shows that they used to have 15-20 years ago here in Phoenix. I took two of my daughters to the show this time.

The show had plenty of Ball Pythons, Leopard Geckoes, and other common pet reptiles. I enjoyed viewing the Arizona Herpetological Associations (AHA) display of native Arizona reptiles. In particular, I enjoyed seeing these two speckled rattlesnakes from a few popular Arizona locales.

There was a table with some interesting insect art. I didn’t catch the name of the place, but they were selling insects that were encased in some sort of crystal clear resin of some sort. I would really like to have some of these on display in a future nature room when I get too old to travel into the field and I want to share some of my love for natures creations with others.

And here are a few photos of some of the reptiles that I saw at the show. I only took two photos of these interesting geckoes. I am not up on my old world geckos so I don’t know what they are exactly.

Animal, Arizona, Habitat, Insect, Reptile, Snake, State

Central Arizona February 2015 Hike, Patch Nosed Snake

2015/02/21 JDM

I went on a short 3 mile hike with my daughter and neice today. The weather is very nice this time of year, in mid February. Temperatures were in the low 80’s today. At this time of year reptiles are once again active on the warm days like today. We hiked up the trail and found this beautiful patch nosed snake on the side of the trail, the front half of its body was hidden under a rock, but the rest of it was right out in the open and easy to see, and to grab.

At the top of this particular mountain there are some areas with some small caves and I noticed this odd shaped thing protruding from one of the small holes in the side of the rocks. At first, I thought it was some sort of mushroom. I thought that maybe there was a small amount of seepage and that it was causing this large fungus to grow in the rock. When we got closer, though, I discovered that it was really a wild bee hive. I believe that bees in the area have all been africanized. I swell up when I get stung by bees, so I try to stay clear of them as much as possible. Here is a quick video of the bee hive: