Comments on: A Mystery Image and a Green Lizard

By: Steve Goodheart

Steve Goodheart — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:49:01 +0000

Hooded Patohui? What a great name, and “pitoooohuuy” indeed! I’ve never heard of a bird with poisonous feathers — sounds like an extreme science candidate for sure!

It’s interesting how the many of the poisonous animals get that way by eating insects — the poison arrow frog gets its deadly poison from eating ants, and does something nasty with their formic acid. Now, I hear about this bird eating a beetle to make a poison. Neat.

I saw an interesting science special where crows would go on a kind of ant that sprayed formic acid when agitated or attacked….they let the ants get all over them, briefly, and got the acid on them, and then combed it through their feathers as a kind of insecticide — apparently, works great for the crows. Pretty darn smart.

In a related behavior, some types of gibbons do something similar with a giant millipede that exudes a nasty, poisonous substance when irritated….the gibbons rub the exuding millipedes all over their bodies to kill and repel pests. They don’t kill the millipedes, just made them exude by biting them lightly.

By: MadDog

MadDog — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:17:38 +0000

I imagine that its bright green colour is an advertisement for the bile inside, which I agree would probably not taste very nice. The ‘billboard’ approach to announcing bad taste works well for a local bird called the Hooded Pitohui which is bright orange and black and contains a neurotoxin. I’ve heard that just touching it can make your hands go numb. It gets it from a toxic beetle that it eats. I lilke the name – PIIITOOOHUUUYY! That’s what you say if you tasted one.

By: Steve Goodheart

Steve Goodheart — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:51:06 +0000

Bile? You’re kidding me? And 5,000 times the human fatal level? Whoa! Amazing. According to Shakespearean time beliefs, that much bile would mean one ornery lizard! I bet it makes him really foul tasting to predators too…..though he doesn’t have the typical “dont’ eat me or mess with me” colors that some insects have, like hornets and nasty-tasting monarch butterflies…

Thanks to you, and your friend for the fascinating info. That’s one “extreme” lizard!

By: MadDog

MadDog — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:38:20 +0000

According to a herpetologist friend of mine, Dr. Robert Sprackland, this lizard has something like 5,000 times the human fatal level of bile in its blood. That’s why it’s green. Yoweee! That must sting.

By: A Little Nature Walk in My Garden | Madang - Ples Bilong Mi

A Little Nature Walk in My Garden | Madang - Ples Bilong Mi — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:00:20 +0000

[...] the same bush in which I found a beautiful green lizard the other day, I spotted this tiny bug hiding under a leaf. The sun was shining through the leaf [...]

By: Steve Goodheart

Steve Goodheart — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:39:31 +0000

Cool, it was a skink, as I suspected! They are so distinctive with their head shape and bodies. Kudos and thanks to Dr. Sprackland for identifying…..a “surprising” lizard, for sure.

But now, I wondering, is the blood *really* green? I know that copper-based blood, like horseshoe crabs, can be blue….wondering (out loud) what element would make a creature’s blood green?

If you could fill a book with hibiscus, maybe you could make a book of local hibiscus (as if you needed more work to do!) Don’t know if there’s be a market for it, though I bet it would sell off the racks at a major airport in New Guinea as tourists enter and leave the country. I bet a book of your underwater photos would also sell like hotcakes. People love books like that to take home as keepsakes from their visit. Yep, Steve, cheerleading again!

You have so many fabulous photos, I’d constantly be tempted to make an iPhoto book from the “best of”…one of the cool things about iPhoto is the “built-in” make-a-book feature.

Thanks for three other links…loved the “Turner” shot…and the tree bark/lichen images are really nice….I love “abstracts’ like that….and look forward to seeing what evolves with you as they come to light in your work.

By: MadDog

MadDog — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:09:44 +0000

Man I could fill a book with hibiscus shots. We have about a million colours here. I have at least ten different ones in my yard. The ant was a bonus. I didn’t even notice it until I was processing the image.

I had a look at the abstract shots that you emailed to me. Got me inspired. I’m gonna do some more of that. http://www.messersmith.name/wordpress/2009/01/04/strolling-through-my-garden/, http://www.messersmith.name/wordpress/2008/03/22/in-my-garden-5-orange-coconut-trees/

Read the Lizard post again. A Facebook friend sent me the identification.

As for the sunrise, I’ll just call you weird. Maybe a Turner: http://www.messersmith.name/wordpress/2009/03/27/astounding-port-moresby-sky/

By: Steve Goodheart

Steve Goodheart — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:21:52 +0000

Call me weird, but I really like “Alien Sunrise.” It’s surreal but beautiful in a wonderful way, reminds me of a painter whose name escapes me right now.

I am such a sucker for lizards. What a green beauty! His shape and head look very skink-like to me, but I’m not aware of skinks (in the US, anyway) that are arboreal. Having tried 5 times to get that shot of my Western Fence Lizard, I can appreciate what it probably took to get his little one. He’s gracing my desktop today!

Also like your “abstract” shots. A dear friend of mine who has passed was a terrific photographer, and almost specialized in close-ups of everyday objects as abstract art. What you did reminded me of is work, especially the first shot.

Finally, my wife loves hibiscus, and for me, the naturalist, the little ant is the perfect finishing touch. Great post, MadDog!