Field guide to NY herps: Part III

Today, I made my way through the lizard and snake section of Gibbs et al.'s new guide to New York herps. The detailed natural history information continued to impress. There are lots of interesting nuggets, even for those who think they know something about New York herps (i.e., me). I had long been under the mistaken impression, for example, that introduced Italian wall lizards were surviving the winter in human habitations, but I learned on page 216 about Burke et al.'s finding that the species actually survives under soil in the frost-free zone. Gibbs et al. also offer a warning about the future spread of this species. This and other example highlight the book's overall attention to the past and future conservation status of New York herps. The author's detailed remarks about the decline of short-headed gartersnakes was also enlightening.

As much as I hate to keep harping on the same deficiencies, the book's suggested methods for species identification and maps remain somewhat problematic. Readers unfamiliar with the jargon of reptile scalation, for example, will be frustrated by the absence of a figure illustrating key traits: the book's advice on distinguishing coal from five-lined skinks refers to the presence of a single postmental scale in coal skinks without providing an indication of what a postmental scale is. In other cases, the photos fail to illustrate interesting traits like the colorful ventral markings of fence lizards. Regarding the maps, a lack of detail continued to bother me. The account of the ring-necked snake, for example, mentions that they are "rare or absent from the extreme north along the southern Lake Ontario floodplain" and refers the reader to Map 7.7., but this figure simply indicates the presence of the species across the entire state.

Although I'm through the species accounts, the fourth and final part of my review will cover the remaining sections on "Threats", "Legal Protections", and "Conservation", as well as offering a final summary.