Joseph C. Mitchell

Female Reproductive Cycle and Life History Attributes in a Virginia Population of Stinkpot Turtles, Sternotherus odoratus

The female reproductive cycle and life history attributes of a central Virginia population of Sternotherus odoratus were studied over a two-year period. Ovarian cycles were phenologically similar between years. Ovarian mass and follicle size are maximal in spring, decrease through the egg-laying period (mid-April-midJuly) and reach minimal mass and size in Aug. Vitellogenesis is underway in Aug. and most is completed by winter brumation. Females matured at four years of age and at carapace lengths of 66-77 mm. Clutch size averaged 3.2 eggs and did not differ significantly between years. Several females each year produced multiple clutches and, although second clutches tended to be smaller than first clutches, they were not significantly different from each other. Clutch size is significantly related to female carapace length and age. A multiple regression model explained only 64% of the variation in clutch size using the variables carapace length, egg length, egg width, egg mass, month and year. This result and the lower within-female clutch variance compared to within-population variance supports Gibbons (1982) conclusion that environmental factors affect clutch size more than genetic or age-specific components. Egg mass and egg width were significantly correlated with carapace length. Within-female egg width is less variable than egg length. Comparison of the ovarian cycle with that of a syntopic population of Chrysemys picta studied concurrently reveals concordance in most aspects. Differences occur in length of the quiescent period, egg-laying season and patterns of follicle growth. Average adjusted clutch size for S. odoratus is significantly higher than that for C. picta. A relationship between minimum egg size and length of overwintering time is suggested.

Reproductive Cycle and Embryonic Development of Nerodia taxispilota (Serpentes: Colubridae) at the Northeastern Edge of its Range

The seasonal reproductive cycle of Nerodia taxispilota in southeastern Virginia resembles that of other temperate zone colubrids. Testes are small during AprilJune, largest in Aug. and then decrease in size during Sept.-Nov. Spermatozoa produced in late summer are stored in the vas deferens through winter and used the following spring. The female cycle is annual. Vitellogenesis occurs during April-early June, ovulation in late June and parturition early to mid-Sept. Fecundity increases with increasing female body size. Mean total clutch size is 33.9 and mean clutch size of full-term embryos is 28.0. Sequential stages of embryonic development are described. Males average significantly smaller than females. Percentage of tail breaks are about equal in both sexes, but adults have higher proportions of tail breakage than juveniles. Sex ratios do not differ significantly from 1:1; however, males predominate in autumn.

Geographic variation of Elaphe guttata (Reptilia : Serpentes) in the Atlantic Coastal Plain

Variation in 11 characters of Elaphe guttata is analyzed in 264 specimens (149 males, 116 females) from 18 localities along the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Six characters exhibit clinal variation: ventrals, subcaudals, body blotches, tail length/total length ratios, amount of ventral pigment and amount of blotch border pigment. Meristic and morphometric dines generally run from low counts in the north to high counts in the south. Pigmentation decreases clinally from southern Florida through the lower Keys. Discordant variation is present in the remaining five characters. The results support a recent inclusion of E. g. rosacea in the synonymy of E. g. guttata.

Copeia 1913, Number 1: Origin and Authors

C OMMUNICATION among colleagues in the early 20 century was largely limited to letters exchanged via the U.S. Postal Service and publications in the few journals available at the time. Herpetologists and ichthyologists in that era had few outlets available for disseminating their natural history observations. The American Naturalist (est. 1866) was one of the few exceptions. Museum publications (e.g., Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, est. 1881; Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, est. 1841; Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, est. 1878) focused on taxonomic papers. Ornithologists at the close of the 19 century already had three journals in which to publish (The Auk, 1884; Wilson Bulletin, 1889; Condor, 1899) but none of the other vertebrate groups had journals dedicated to their discipline (Journal of Mammalogy would not start until 1919). Public interest in fishes, amphibians, and reptiles was growing due to popular books by, for example, Mary Dickerson, Raymond Ditmars, and David Starr Jordan. Thus, there became an obvious need for a journal available to people interested in these vertebrates that was inexpensive and had a relatively fast turnaround. In response, John T. Nichols, an ichthyologist at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), initiated Copeia a century ago for colleagues in herpetology and ichthyology, in memory of Edward Drinker Cope, who contributed prolifically to both disciplines. Starting a journal requires the editor and founder to obtain enough articles to fill a modest first issue and confidence that others would follow. Close colleagues and coworkers are usually the first to be asked, so Nichols recruited his long-time friend, ichthyologist Henry W. Fowler, and two of the staff at the AMNH to contribute something pertinent. A total of five authors, including Nichols, wrote short articles for the four-page inaugural issue of Copeia. We provide herein brief biographies of those founding authors. Henry Weed Fowler (1878–1965, Fig. 1) contributed two of the five articles that made up the first issue, published on 27 December 1913. Fittingly, one was on reptiles (‘‘An

The History of Copeia: Metamorphosis and the Academic Coup

S CIENTIFIC journals undergo various changes over time. Style, format, and size change, and editors come and go, sometimes with intrigue. Copeia is no exception. What is perhaps most interesting is the dramatic metamorphosis in the journal’s appearance in 1929 and what it took to make it happen. The first series (spanning 17 years) of this journal consisted of 173 consecutively numbered issues published from 1913 through 1930. John Treadwell Nichols created the journal at his own expense and was its first editor (1913–1923) and designer (Mitchell and Smith, 2013). Emmett Reid Dunn (Fig. 1) was the second editor from 1924 to 1929. He made several design and editorial changes to the remainder of the first series. The most significant change was made in 1930 with input and pressure from other members of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) that resulted in the journal format the society has followed essentially for over 80 years. Here we review some of the details and statistics in the first individually numbered series of Copeia, expand the chronology of ASIH provided by Berra (1984), and explore the background leading to the change in the journal’s format and transfer of editorship from Northampton, Massachusetts to Ann Arbor, Michigan.

ERNEST ANTHONY LINER

ERNEST A. (ERNIE) LINER is one of those rare individuals who has made important contributions to herpetology while holding down a job in the ‘‘real’’ world. He is in good company with the likes of the late Lawrence M. Klauber and Sherman A. Minton, Jr. whose careers were in other fields. Klauber was an executive for California Edison, and Minton was a physician. It has been ‘‘a labor of love,’’ Ernie said. Despite a full-time job as a pharmaceutical sales representative in Louisiana with E. R. Squibb and Sons for 32.5 years, he contributed over 125 publications on reptiles and amphibians in the Southeast, Texas, and northeastern Mexico, held numerous positions in the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) and the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR), has had several species of animals named after him, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Colorado in 1998. Ernie has been a constant supporter of the professional societies. But despite his many contributions and talents, he will be most remembered for his interest and ability in cooking, especially his 382-page book, Culinary Herpetology, published in 2005, and his service to others. Like many field herpetologists, Ernie’s love of herps began early and with the help of local naturalists. His father, Remie Antoine Liner (1904–1929), was an electrician but was electrocuted in a salt mine at age 25 when Ernie (b. 11 February 1925) was nearly four. His mother (Leonise Marguerite Arceneaux, 1905–1939) remarried several years later and made ends meet as a seamstress. His aunts, Ms. Hester Griffin and Ms. Thelma Arceneaux, took him in after his mother passed away. On a Cub Scout outing at age eight, Ernie caught a young copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), somehow stuffed it in a quart milk bottle, and used a potato for a cork. The scout leader was furious and turned it loose. He was, however, allowed to keep other snakes in the local paper company’s office since he could not keep them at home. The company’s owner, John Gordon, supported the boy’s interest in snakes and later gave him a paper delivery job that he kept through part of high school. The town’s Clerk of Court, Randolph Bazet, the town’s naturalist, encouraged his efforts to learn about the field of herpetology. Ernie’s life changed forever within days of graduation in 1943. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps 13 days later and fought in World War II. After boot camp in San Diego, he was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California (Fig. 1). This area is a great place for rattlesnakes, one of which was found by his unit in the field. Unanswered questions prompted him to contact the American Museum of Natural History. Chuck Bogert answered his letter, and there began a life-long friendship and association with him and the museum. While in southern California on a weekend liberty, Ernie met Cy Perkins, curator of reptiles at the San Diego Zoo. Perkins gave him a number of Klauber’s papers, an event that sparked his life-long passion for herpetological bibliography. Ernie was trained as an explosives expert for combat on the front line. He was the leader of a demolition squad and experienced combat on Roi-Namur in the Marshall Island group, on Saipan and Tinian in the Mariana Islands, and on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands. The latter is

Variation in the Male Reproductive Cycle in a Population of Stinkpot Turtles, Sternotherus odoratus, from Virginia

Annual variation in the testicular cycle of a population of stinkpot turtles, Sternotherus odoratus, from Virginia was found to occur in late stages of spermatogenesis but not in initiation of the cellular cycle or in the testis weight cycle. Seasonal variation in testis weight was generally concordant with variation in the spermatogenic cycle and followed the typical postnuptial pattern in which testicular growth and recrudescence begins in late spring, followed by peak weights and spermiogenesis in August, and regression in fall and winter. Minimum testis weights and onset of spermatogenesis were in May. The variables seminiferous tubule diameter, carapace length, and month accounted for 89.3% of the variation in testis weight; year accounted for 0.1%. Males in this population matured at the end of their second year at a minimum carapace length of 51 mm. Geographic variation in timing of spermatogenic events is discussed with reference to populations in Alabama and Michigan. Water temperature is the probable cue for initiation of spermatogenesis in stinkpots, and the variation in occurrence of later stages may be due to individual movement in the water column. Comparisons are made with the testicular cycle of a syntopic population of painted turtles, Chrysemys picta, studied concurrently.

Herndon Glenn Dowling, Jr

L IKE many herpetologists, Herndon Glenn Dowling, Jr., was inspired early in life by snakes. He was born on 2 April 1921 in Cullman, Alabama, the oldest of three children of Herndon and Ada Camp Dowling. His father was the superintendent of public schools in Tuscaloosa. His mother was a home economics major at Montevallo College, Montevallo, Alabama, and later worked in rural areas of the state for the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind. Herndon’s siblings were Barbara Dowling Sweat, who became a teacher for the deaf in Talladega, and Edward Dowling, the youngest, who became an electrical engineer. Herndon grew up in Tuscaloosa and attended public schools, graduating in 1938. He remembers that he had excellent teachers in biology, chemistry, and English. Herndon married Margaret Purcell in 1943, a year after college when he became a commissioned officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. She completed her B.S. degree in zoology at the University of Florida when Herndon finished his M.S. degree there. She assisted in field trips, collecting, and writing. They had four children, two girls, both of whom have undergraduate degrees and two boys who do not. Erin works in Boston in advertising and promotion at Harvard book stores, Claudia Dowling is a retired senior writer for Life magazine and has been to Mount Everest and the Amazon. Christopher is a carpenter making movie sets in New Mexico and Arizona. Benjamin came the nearest to being a naturalist but his music won out. He is a pianist and supports himself in that profession. Herndon and Margaret were divorced in 1962. Herndon married Madlyn O’Neill, a secretary editor with the New York Times, in 1968. She died in 2000. In 2001, he married Janann Jenner, who writes biology textbooks. They live in a mountain home near Rendalia, Alabama. Herndon learned how to read at four years of age and by ten he was reading Tarzan books. His interest in natural history was encouraged by his parents, although they knew little about it. Early on, he caught bees, bessbugs (Passalus cornutus), and other animals under logs, learning on his own how to recognize adults and larvae. He caught tadpoles in a ditch on his way home from school, and the local boys taught him how to catch crayfish by knocking over their mud chimneys, then poking them with sticks until they emerged. Herndon and five friends fished, camped, and enjoyed nature from their junior high school years through college. They were influenced by two of the staff at the Alabama State Museum (now the Alabama Museum of Natural History) in Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Septimus St. Celia Smith, a dragonfly specialist who taught the boys to shoot them down with a slingshot, and Robert S. Hodges, a parasitologist. Saturday field trips during 1938–1940 extended Herndon’s love of natural history. Just after their senior year in high school, the boys discovered several fossil bones in a chalk deposit in a gully where they played. They succeeded in unearthing a complete skeleton of a mosasaur. Someone at the Alabama

Snakes of The Southeast

SNAKES OF THE SOUTHEAST. Whit Gibbons and Michael Dorcas. 2005. University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia. ISBN 0-8203-2652-6. 253 p.

Field Guide to Reptiles and the Law

22.50 (softcover).—Snakes—the very word brings mental images and feelings to nearly everyone. Some people automatically feel fear, some see vivid pictures based on a personal experience, and some have such extreme phobias that even mention of the word invokes anxiety attacks. Increasingly, however, more and more people see snakes in a favorable light and find them attractive and interesting. Whatever one’s attitude towards snakes, most persons, except those with true phobias, will flock to them in zoos and when one is found or killed outdoors. The reptile house in zoos is usually the most visited facility, and those who have taught in any capacity about snakes will admit that they engender the most fascination and attention of all animals. This book takes advantage of that fascination to provide information about snakes to the public in the Southeast. The southeastern region of the United States supports the highest diversity of snakes in any region north of Mexico; only the desert southwest has a comparable number. I once heard a U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran say that he has been all around the world but has never seen snakes as often as he does in the Southeast. Snakes are often visible elements of the region’s biodiversity, and they affect southerners’ lives in many ways. They represent part of the identity of being a southerner, and indeed snakes and snake stories form an important part of the lore and history of the Southeast. Both authors are highly qualified researchers with years of experience with snakes. They are also dedicated educators devoted to teaching about the natural history and conservation of these fascinating creatures. Whit Gibbons is well known for his popular writings on natural history and his spirited public lectures on snakes. Mike Dorcas runs a widely-acclaimed program for undergraduates in North Carolina that engages the public at all levels. Thus, the contents of this book reflect their understanding of the kinds of information most useful to the general reader. The first 26 pages address a variety of general topics about snakes. These include general biology, snake diversity, food and feeding, predators, defense, reproduction, locomotion, activity, and thermal biology. All of these sections are profusely illustrated with color photographs of adults, juveniles, and phenotypic variants. Indeed, all of the pages in this book, except glossary, further reading, acknowledgments, and credits, contain several color images. Most of the color photographs of snakes are on natural or appropriate background but several have been cropped so that only the snake is illustrated on the white paper. This artistic approach creates diversity in image presentation and helps some readers focus solely on the snake and its characteristics. The illustrations of the 53 species covered in this book adequately cover a wide range of morphological variations and adaptations. The species accounts follow a section on how to identify snakes that focuses on key traits, color and pattern, venomous versus nonvenomous, and size and a section on how to understand the organization of each account. The accounts themselves are organized into five sections on small terrestrial snakes, mid-sized terrestrial snakes, large terrestrial snakes, watersnakes, and venomous snakes. The last section is preceded by information on the biology of venomous snakes, snakebite, and treatment. A section on introduced snakes has short accounts on the Brahminy Blind Snake, Burmese Python, and Brown Tree Snake. An important final chapter, from the public’s perspective, is on people and snakes. It includes sections on what a herpetologist is, why and how to study snakes, backyard snakes, snakes as pets, snake conservation, and attitudes about snakes. Each account provides common and scientific name and sections on description, what the babies look like, distribution and habitat, behavior and activity, reproduction, predators and defense, and conservation. A few accounts include a scientific nomenclature paragraph. A color shaded range map and a box on how to identify the species using scales, anal plate, body shape, body pattern and color, distinctive characters, and size are included. The writing is directed to the general public and lacks jargon. The information presented in each account is up to date and accurate. Multiple color photographs of each species make this book attractive to professionals and nonprofessionals alike. Some of the similar species are grouped into single accounts: both species of earth, pine, ribbon, and worm snakes, and two species of black-headed snakes. Gibbons and Dorcas are conservative with scientific names, choosing to use well-established