TIMOR-LESTE REPTILE & AMPHIBIAN SURVEY
BACK TO THE BISHOP

When I left the Bishop Museum there had been several specimens I had been unable to examine because they could not be located. Having completed the IUCN workshop I was due to depart in the morning for Hilo to catch a flight back to Honolulu where I would have several hours available to go back to the Bishop. When I called the museum I discovered Pu and Molly had managed to locate at least one of the specimens I wanted to examine and photograph, but some of the others were proving elusive.

Driving back across the lava towards Hili	Hilo airport

I caught my flight from Hilo and was fortunate enough to be able to check my bag all the way to Singapore. That done when I arrived in Honolulu I caught a cab to the Bishop. I had almost five hours to kill and would rather spend the time looking at specimens than sitting in the airport. I photographed and examined the Small-eyed snake (Micropechis ikaheka) Pu had found, and then she gave me access to a series of alcohol and snake filled plastic drums. In there amongst the keelbacks, ground snakes and treesnakes I found four Common forest snakes (Toxicocalamus cf. loriae), three more Small-eyed snakes, two New Guinea brownsnakes (Pseudonaja textilis), and a Papuan blacksnake (Pseudechis papuanus). I had to work quickly with so many newly uncovered specimens to photograph throughly (dorsal and ventral body, four angles of head and any other salient features such as tail tips or hemipenes).

Common forest snake, Toxicocalamus cf. loriae	Small-eyed snake, Micropechis ikaheka
New Guinea brownsnake, Pseudonaja textilis	Papuan blacksnake, Pseudechis papuanus

I was done by 17:00 and Pu and Clyde kindly dropped me off at Honolulu International to catch my ANA flight to Tokyo Haneda and then Singapore.

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