Taiwan Whip Scorpion (Taipei)

English Name: Taiwan Whip Scorpion
Scientific Name: Typopeltis crucifer
Chinese Name: 台灣鞭蠍 (Taiwan Bianxie), 醋酸蟲 (Cu Suan Chong)
Chinese Meaning: "Taiwan Whip Scorpion", "Acid Bug"



Date: October 19, 2009
Location: Shiyuan Rd., Wenshan District, Taipei City
Coordinates:  24° 59' 24.13" N, 121° 32' 58.34" E

I spot these guys running around in the alley every once in awhile. They're pretty scary looking - the body's about the size of a man's thumb, and they can run like heck. However, whip scorpions aren't dangerous to people, unlike true scorpions, which don't live in Taiwan. Whip scorpions do have a defense weapon though - when cornered, they're able to spray acid out their back end. For a human, this might just irritate your skin a little bit, but if an animal gets it in its eye, it could hurt a lot. This acid-spraying is what earns the creature its Chinese nickname, "Acid Bug", and also its alternative English name, "Vinegarroon".

Date: November 26, 2009
Location: Shiyuan Rd., Wenshan District, Taipei City
Coordinates:  24° 59' 24.13" N, 121° 32' 58.34" E

Despite apparently being pretty common, it's a little bit hard to find a lot of information about whip scorpions in Taiwan. The website I usually go to for complete listings of species doesn't mention the whip scorpion group at all. But I was able to find some blogs and other sites in Chinese which allowed me to identify the species, though even they claimed that little research has been done on these creatures in Taiwan since the first half of the 20th Century.

Whip scorpions are not insects, but arachnids, like spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks. There are around 100 species of whip scorpions worldwide, but it seems that there is only one species known to exist in Taiwan. Although the websites I found called this species the "Taiwan Whip Scorpion", it is also found in parts of Japan. In the Western world, it is known mainly as an exotic pet.

Banded Bull Frog (Kaohsiung)

English Name: Banded Bull Frog, Chubby Frog, Asian Painted Frog
Scientific Name: Kaloula pulchra
Chinese Name: 花狹口蛙 (Hua Xiakouwa)
Chinese Meaning: "Flowered Narrow-Mouthed Frog"

Date: July 13, 2009

Location: Park by Jiahong Rd., Nanzih District, Kaohsiung City
Coordinates:  22°43'4.42" N, 120°17'42.53" E

This frog is actually native to Southeast Asia, and was introduced into Taiwan in the last ten years or so, probably through the pet trade - it's popular in pet stores, where it's known in English as the "Chubby Frog". The first picture shows one that I found hopping around on the ground. I think it might be a juvenile, because it seemed a little smaller than the others I saw.

When it's time to mate, the males puff themselves up like balloons and float in pools of water while making loud croaking noises. I found a bunch of them hanging out in the drains in this little park in the suburbs of Kaohsiung (that's what you see in the second photo). Their call is really loud, and sounds somewhere between a cow and Chewbacca from Star Wars. And when they make the sound, their throats bulge out into a big bubble, like this:

There are about 32 species of frogs and toads in Taiwan, and nearly 5,000 worldwide. About a third of the world's frog species are believed to be endangered by habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, and other threats. However, the Banded Bull Frog is not believed to be in danger - in fact, in recent times it has been colonizing more and more countries in Asia, even reaching as far as Australia and New Zealand. Individual frogs of this species are known to live for up to 10 years.

There's a lot of good information about Taiwan's frogs online, but most of it's in Chinese. However, there's a great English-language site called Frogmosa, with a really nice interface, and information about all the different species.

Malayan Night Heron (Taipei)

English Name: Malayan Night Heron
Scientific Name: Gorsachius melanolophus
Chinese Name: 黑冠麻鷺 (Heiguan Malu)
Chinese Meaning: "Black-Crowned Ma Heron"*

Date: September 11, 2009

Location: National Chengchi University, Wenshan District, Taipei City
Coordinates: 24° 58' 47.77" N, 121° 34' 13.86" E

I spotted this bird near one of the dormitory buildings up on a hill at Chengchi University. It's a juvenile of the species; adults are more solid brown on top, with a black patch on top of their heads. The Malayan Night Heron is found in much of South and Southeast Asia, from India to Indonesia to China. There are three species of night herons found in Taiwan, and seven worldwide. The Black-Crowned Night Heron, one of the species seen locally, is found all over the world. Scientists have also discovered fossils of other species of night herons, and five island species have gone extinct in modern times.

(Same date and location as above)

The Malayan Night Heron is a forest-dwelling species. It likes to hang out in dark, moist forested areas. This one was being stalked by a cat. I first noticed it after it made a bunch of noise escaping from the cat, and landed on this tree branch (you can see the cat in the bottom right of this picture).

*Translation Note: I didn't translate the "ma" (麻) character, because it's part of the name of a certain group of herons for which there is apparently no word in English. "Malu" (麻鷺) refers to this and several closely related species of night herons of the genus Gorsachius, especially the Japanese Night Heron (Gorsachius goisagi). Other genera of night herons are not referred to as "malu", and the name is also used for some more distantly related birds in the heron family. The character "ma" (麻) by itself has a variety of possible meanings, including "tingling", "hemp", "flax", and "bother".

Cicadas (Taipei)

According to an Academia Sinica website, Taiwan is home to 59 species of cicadas, more than half of which are found only here. Cicadas are large insects, but they're often difficult to spot because they hide in trees and bushes. However, the constant noisy buzzing sound they make is familiar to anyone who lives nearby them.

English Name: Cicada species
Scientific Name: Euterpnosia sp.? 
Chinese Name: 姬春蟬 (Jichun Chan)
Chinese Meaning: Roughly "Beautiful Springtime Cicada"





Date: September, 2009
Location: Zhangshan Temple Hiking Trail, Wenshan Dist., Taipei City
Coordinates:  24° 58' 29.01" N, 121° 34' 45.43" E

I found this one lying dead on the side of stone paved hiking trail that goes from National Chengchi University to Zhanshan Temple on the southern edge of the city of Taipei. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of its back, which would have helped identify the species; but based on the photos at the NTU Insect Museum website, I'm guessing that it's a member of the Euterpnosia genus, which includes a quarter of all the cicada species in Taiwan (all known in Chinese as "Jichun Chan"). In the second picture, check out the the three little red dots halfway between the eyes (click on the picture to enlarge it); these are actually miniature eyes, called ocelli, used for sensing light. All cicada's have these three extra eyes. Cool!

English Name: Cicada species
Scientific Name: Meimuna sp. (likely M. opalifera)
Chinese Name: 寒蟬 (Han Chan)
Chinese Meaning: "Winter Cicada"



Date: September 23, 2009
Location: Shiyuan Rd., Wenshan District, Taipei City
Coordinates:  24° 59' 24.13" N, 121° 32' 58.34" E

I encountered this one buzzing around confusedly in the alleyway that leads up to my home. I'm pretty confident that it's a member of the Genus Meimuna, and I think it's probably Meimuna opalifera, the "Winter Cicada". This species is found in many parts of East Asia, but it has several close relatives which are found only in Taiwan.

English Name: Cicada species (molted exoskeleton)
Scientific Name: Family Cicadidae 
Chinese Name: 蟬 (Chan)
Chinese Meaning: Character means "cicada" or "continuous"



Date: September 11, 2009
Location: National Chengchi University, Wenshan District, Taipei City
Coordinates:  24° 58' 47.77" N, 121° 34' 13.86" E

When cicadas first emerge from the ground as larvae, they have to "molt", or shed their exoskeleton (an insect's hard outer skin) before they can take on their full adult form. Here's a discarded exoskeleton left attached to a tree. This photo was taken outside of the ZihCiang Residence Hall building on the NCCU campus. In North America, some species of cicadas are seen only once every 17 years, because the entire species spends almost 17 years under ground growing as larva before they all emerge and reproduce at the same time, only for their offspring to then spend the next 17 years under ground. These are called "periodical" cicadas. In Taiwan however, all of the cicada species are all "annuals", meaning there's a new batch of them every year.

Five-striped Blue-tailed Skink (Taipei)

English Name: Five-striped Blue-tailed Skink
Scientific Name: Eumeces elegans (Plestiodon elegans)
Chinese Name: 麗紋石龍子 (Li Wen Shilongzi)
Chinese Meaning: "Elegant Striped Little Rock Dragon"



 
Date: October 21, 2009
Location: Xianji Yan Hiking Trail, Wenshan District, Taipei City
Coordinates: 24° 59' 27.33" N, 121° 32' 44.05" E

These guys are less common and harder to spot than the grey and brown lizards that you see all over the place. They're also extra skittish - the first few times I saw them, I didn't get the chance to take a picture. I've mostly come across them on the slopes of the mountain in Jingmei, but once I spotted one briefly on the Chengchi University campus. This one was basking in the sun on the stairs up to the main trail from the Buddhist Temple near Shih Shin University.



Date: September 26, 2009
Location: Xianji Yan Hiking Trail, Wenshan District, Taipei City
Coordinates:  24° 59' 28.04" N, 121° 32' 39.96" E

This photo's from an earlier encounter. It's not as clear, but you can see the blue tail really well. This one was on the main path that leads up the mountain from Jingmei Night Market. What a beautiful creature!