A ?juvenile? Black snake with yellowish-white horizontal stripes. Wandered into our office today.
Wood turtles grow to between 14 and 20 centimeters (5.5 and 7.9 in) in length, and reach a maximum of 23.4 centimeters (9.2 in). They have a rough carapace that is a tan, grayish brown or brown color, with a central ridge (called a keel) made up of a pyramidal pattern of ridges and grooves. Older turtles typically display an abraded or worn carapace. Fully grown, they weigh 1 kilogram (35 oz). The wood turtle's karyotype consists of 50 chromosomes. The larger scutes display a pattern of black or yellow lines. The wood turtle's plastron (ventral shell) is yellowish in color and has dark patches. The posterior margin of the plastron terminates in a V-shaped notch. Although sometimes speckled with yellowish spots, the upper surface of the head is often a dark gray to solid black. The ventral surfaces of the neck, chin, and legs are orange to red with faint yellow stripes along the lower jaw of some individuals. Seasonal variation in color vibrancy have been known to occur
Snake about 12-14" long
Eats insects, especially grasshoppers, crickets, flies (adults and maggots), moths, as well as spiders, frogs, and earthworms.
Mapping Nature on Your Smartphone
For the developers at New York start-up Networked Organisms, smartphones are the butterfly nets of the 21st Century. Their tool, Project Noah, lets people upload photos of plants and wildlife around them, creating a map of the natural world and contributing to scientific research in the process.
What kind of beetle? This app knows
Bespectacled scientists of yore would carry around hefty field guides, made up of hundreds of pages of text and photos. But these days, smartphone owners have a lighter option: an app called Project Noah, which aims to help people identify plants and animals as well as collect data from "citizen scientists" about where certain species are located.
Designing ecosystems for talent development
Project Noah enables us to be part of a more focused online community where we can learn more about wildlife around us and contribute to scientific research. It pulls participants into deeper, more meaningful engagement by enabling people to go on “missions” to collectively map changes based on sightings.
A smart way to save wildlife
A modern invention that may also hold the key to saving species in the future. Project Noah is a global study that encourages nature lovers to document the wildlife they encounter, using a purpose built phone app and web community. In addition to the virtual "collection" of species, Project Noah encourages citizen science by linking up with existing surveys including the International Spider Survey and the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
Dial-a-Class
New mobile applications include a tool called NOAH that lets you take cellphone pictures of bugs and trees and then sends back an identification of the exact type in as little as 24 hours.


