Congratulations to Kevin Green and Sebastian Summo (pictured here) for taking home top prizes in their presentations at the ENMU Student Research and Creativity Conference. Kevin won 1st place among the Biology Undergraduate Posters with his poster titled, “Prevalence of two amphibian pathogens in non-native caecilians established in Miami, Florida,” and his work on this was funded through the NM AMP. Sebastian won 1st place among Biology/Chemistry Oral Presentations his talk titled, “Distribution, habitat use, and conservation ecology of the Western Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis proximus) in New Mexico.” Four other students presented posters related to their current or past work also at SRCC, including Jake Kuschel, Zoe Hutcherson, Reagan Moritomo, and Andy Gilliam.
Congratulations to Kevin and Sebastian for their awards and for successful presentations by all the students!
Five new, short notes were recently published in Herpetological Review, most of which were written by student authors or have students as coauthors. Two of these notes were Natural History Notes documenting a new prey item and scavenging behavior in the Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata) (Davis and Davis 2024) and a new predator of the Plains Black-headed Snake (Tantilla nigriceps) (Summo Elias and Davis 2024). The other three notes were geographic distribution notes documenting the occurrence of three lizard species in three separate states. The first was a new county where Rough-tailed Geckos (Cyrtopodion scabrum) were found in Texas (Davis and Genter 2024), which only represents the second known county where this species occurs in the state (Davis and Genter 2024). Another note documented new distributional records of Common Wall Lizards (Podarcis muralis) in Indiana, which is also the first time they have been recorded in the state back after they were believed to have been eradicated (Mirtl et al. 2024). The final note was a formal documentation of the widely distributed (and rapidly spreading) Wood Slave (Hemidactylus mabouia) in Orange County, Florida (Summo Elias et al. 2024).
Summo Elias SD, 
Summo Elias SD, Cuevas-Hernandez J, 
DHL undergraduate student researcher Kevin Green was recently awarded funding from the Texas Academy of Science Annual Student Research Award program. His proposed research, titled “Understanding the distribution and negative effects of recently established invasive Hemidactylus from south Texas,” involves examining the diet and parasites of three non-native species of geckos established in the Rio Grande Valley. He will make trips to the region in spring and fall 2025 to collect samples and continue to better describe the distribution, diet, and parasite load of these species.
Shell studies of the Sonora Mud Turtle, Kinosternon sonoriense, have been limited except for a description of organisms living on the shell (Hulse 1976a) and a study on individual growth and morphometrics (Hulse 1976b), both involving individuals from Arizona, USA. Shell abnormalities in K. sonoriense were reported by Hulse (1976b) and included round pits up to 3-mm diameter in 26% of the specimens examined and a “corrugated carapace”, apparently due to “uneven deposition of additional bony material in the dermal skeleton” in 9% of the specimens examined. In his earlier paper, Hulse (1976a) reported epizoic algae, including Basicladia (now Arnoldiella) chelonum, on K. sonoriense in Arizona. While Hulse (1976b) noted that this alga could have been responsible for the pits, he rejected that conclusion because he observed many turtles with the algae present that lacked these pits.
M.S. student Sebastian Summo Elias presented at the annual Joint Annual Meeting (JAM) of the NM/AZ The Wildlife Society Chapters in Albuquerque, NM last week. Sebastian presenting on some of his preliminary results from his field surveys for Western Ribbonsnakes (Thamnophis proximus). While in Albuquerque, the lab also stopped by to visit the ABQBioPark to discuss future collaborations with Stacey Sekscienski (Curator of Herpetology) and visited the Museum of Southwestern Biology at the University of New Mexico to examine specimens related to several on-going projects in the lab on Aspidoscelis, Nerodia, and Thamnophis. 
Undergraduate student researcher Kevin Green was recently awarded funding from the Texas Herpetological Society’s Grants-in-Herpetology program. His proposed research, titled “Understanding the distribution and negative effects of recently established invasive Hemidactylus from south Texas,” involves examining the diet and parasites of three non-native species of geckos established in the Rio Grande Valley. He will make trips to the region in spring and fall 2025 to collect samples and continue to better describe the distribution of these species.
A new graduate student has joined the Davis Herpetology Lab for Spring 2025 working on a project related to environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys for imperiled snake species across southern New Mexico. 
Congratulations to Zoe Hutcherson for winning 1st place at the New Mexico Alliance for Minority Participation Symposium held at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico! Her poster was titled “Range expansion of the non-native Mediterranean Gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) across New Mexico and West Texas.” Zoe was one of a handful of ENMU students to attend and present alongside other universities across the state. She won a cash prize and an award, but most importantly, gets to claim bragging rights for the next year!
Additionally, Sebastian Summo Elias was just awarded an ENMU Graduate Student Research Award funds to support research projects. These funds will be used to screen additional snake samples for Snake Fungal Disease.
The Davis Herpetology Lab has been awarded funding from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife to conduct surveys for four imperiled species of turtles in Indiana: River Cooter (Pseudemys concinna), False Map Turtle (Graptemys pseudogeographica), Smooth Softshell (Apalone mutica), and Eastern Mud Turtle (Kinosternon subrubrum). There has been little focused research on these species in the state, limiting the ability to make informed management decisions. These surveys will occur from 2025–2027 across southwestern Indiana and support graduate thesis research. Recent data suggests that some of these species occur across a greater range than previously expected, and visual surveys and hoop-net trapping will help to better understand the current range of these species in the region.
