I love your praying mantis pod photo. I had to prune a few trees that had them and I put a few in a jar. I set them on my desk and 2 months later, I had HUNDREDS (photo was taken early…a lot more came after the pic).
It was really fun. I released them all.
thinks its its momma. 
I wonder what it thinks when it meets a blue faced European green lizard. I’ve read they were introduced into Kansas.
I know about the italian wall lizard which loves it here
Have never seen this lizard you mentioned @Tana. Maybe someone else has seen them. They apparently live in Shawnee county.
@randyks @39thparallel @olpea @TurkeyCreekTrees
Have you ever seen this lizard?
This guy was next to our garden site.
I’ve only been annoyed by the Italian lizard, hundreds of them over the past 30 years. A total pest.
Including me, I always think of copperheads!
No, we do see a number of other salamanders or maybe they are skinks? They all tend to be darker colors and I dont recall seeing a green one. My interest was peaked so I looked up the native amphibians of KS. We see a lot of 5 lined skinks.
He’s a very nice looking chap!!
@Tana @Olpea @39thparallel @randyks @TurkeyCreekTrees i found out why we have never seen the blue faced European green lizard. They are doing fine but in a very small area. Thanks for letting us know Tana!
BIB_8417.pdf (1.5 MB)
The map is bilineata, the blue faced one is viridis - an Eastern species. Several sources say that it’s been introduced to Topeka as well, but when one looks, all info is on bilineata. So maybe it is some echo-chamber effect.
That source you link says this:
Distinguishing between Lacerta bilineata and Lacerta viridis in their contact zone may turn out to be impossible (see discussion at Lacerta bilineata).
The profile for bilineata says that maybe they really are the same species, it may have been “premature” to separate them. The Wikipedia article for viridis says this:
There is an ongoing discussion as to whether Lacerta viridis and Lacerta bilineata are separate species. Genetic data weakly supports their separation into two species but more investigation needs to be done.
The source cited by that is this IUCN profile, which says:
We follow the recent tendency to treat Lacerta viridis and L. bilineata as separate species, but this is only weakly supported by genetic data (Amann et al., 1997; Mayer and Beyerlein, 2002; Arnold et al 2007). The currently accepted taxonomy of the viridis-bilineata complex requires further research (Crochet and Dubois, 2004).
So in the end, maybe they really are just two subspecies of the same species, but only time (and further genetic research) will tell.
Yes. Let’s not forget, that the classification is a human construct for our own purposes. And all the sub-species of L.v. and b. are suspiciously spread around different regions with minute overlaps.
I see skinks, or what I call skinks. But I’m not sure if I’ve seen the wall lizard. It sounds like perhaps it hasn’t made it to KC?
One of our amphibian tennants. In Slovak we call it the brown jumper which is something a kindergartener would come up with, while the English and Latin names are having a stupidity contest. (common frog and temporary frog respectively). I am very happy about both these and toads in our food forest, especially since we don’t have a pond nor a stream nearby. These seem to be particularly fond of my hugel beds which I water by sticking the hose into the branch layer for a few minutes.
called brown wood frog here. i used to catch them in the woods behind my parents’ house.
I don’t know why but “temporary frog” is the funniest thing I’ve heard all day
