Herpetology B/C

[Almandine]

Most of the time yeah.

Does anyone have a solid strategy to tell the difference between rat snakes and water snakes?

[FeminaCaliginis]

Does anyone have a good way to ID between spring salamanders, red salamanders and mud salamanders?

Anyone?

Coastal ridges perhaps?

Idk about red and mud salamanders, but spring salamanders have that very distinctive line tracing from their eye to the tip of the snout. You'll be able to see this line on most photos of them, and it is VERY distinctive once you learn to look for it, just like how dusky salamanders have that line going from their eye back towards the tip of their jaw.
tl;dr look for the lines going from the eye!

[kylg]

aren't costal ridges sketchy? Every source has a different number and you have no way of actually knowing which source is right. ie one source says 12-13 and another says 10-12

[Froggie]

I found that this:

Idk about red and mud salamanders, but spring salamanders have that very distinctive line tracing from their eye to the tip of the snout. You'll be able to see this line on most photos of them, and it is VERY distinctive once you learn to look for it, just like how dusky salamanders have that line going from their eye back towards the tip of their jaw.
tl;dr look for the lines going from the eye!

is a good way.
Thanks!
You might not be able to see the ridges, so this would probably be a better way.

[ScottMaurer19]

What about 4-toed salamanders? In most pictures they are fairly easy to identify but the key ID features (that I know of) are not apparent

[FeminaCaliginis]

What about 4-toed salamanders? In most pictures they are fairly easy to identify but the key ID features (that I know of) are not apparent

I find them pretty easy to ID just by the structure of their face, since they always look like someone took an axe and cut off the front of their snouts. If you can see the feet, be sure to look for their squared toes.

[Kyanite]

What about 4-toed salamanders? In most pictures they are fairly easy to identify but the key ID features (that I know of) are not apparent

They do have 4 toes, I use this to separate it from similar looking specimens and then a combination of the other characteristics.

[ScottMaurer19]

What about 4-toed salamanders? In most pictures they are fairly easy to identify but the key ID features (that I know of) are not apparent

They do have 4 toes, I use this to separate it from similar looking specimens and then a combination of the other characteristics.

I'm mostly talking about the pictures where the tail (constricted base which can be hard to see anyways) and the toes are not visible.

[matematika]

This question may already have been asked before, but I would like a re-clarification. For a genus, how much do we need to know of the species? Just the genus in GENERAL, or the species having a few highlighted points? Even if the list doesn't specify a species, should we still study it?

[ScottMaurer19]

This question may already have been asked before, but I would like a re-clarification. For a genus, how much do we need to know of the species? Just the genus in GENERAL, or the species having a few highlighted points? Even if the list doesn't specify a species, should we still study it?

See the FAQ on this. In theory we should not be being asked species specific info but I'm guessing we still will be asked about certain species within a genus if they are prominent or *special* in some way