Michael Glass wrote:... searching and photographing butterflies and herpetofauna is not mutually exclusive,
but, a perfect combination regarding the time of the day and the conditions.
Well, that's how Mladen found this nocturnal beastie... They were checking the moth traps ("pyramids"),
by night, of course, looking for some other nocturnal bugs
en passant... Then they heard a recognizable
hissing in the dark... No gloves, no hook - they were after bugs, after all! - so, run to the car, run back,
it's still hissing, it's a huge one, but has in the meantime retreated into a thick (and thorny!)
rosebush.
So Mladen had no other choice but to spill some of his own blood and get it. And thanks to that we now
have the biggest (reliably measured!)
ammodytes in Croatia (at least), and a nocturnal one at that - in
April, in continental climate! I don't know the exact temperature (yet), Mladen only said that it was a
"not-so-warm" night... As the photo clearly shows, they were certainly not in short sleeves...
Some other fieldherpers use
orchids (instead of butterflies & c.) for the same purpose - to do
somethingwhen there are no herps to be found around... To the best of my knowledge, so far orchids have never
produced an effect like this one... But never say never, wait and see... hope...