fauna + lore

Animals, studied twice: as living lineages and as neighbors in human life.

I work on the evolutionary systematics of African plated lizards, and on the folklore of how people raise, show, and remember animals — one body of work about how animals and people make sense of each other.

Read the publications About Stephen What is faunalore?

A Namib desert plated lizard (Gerrhosaurus skoogi) on red desert sand in Namibia. — The fauna: a plated lizard, Kunene Region, Namibia. dune_ninja, CC0, via iNaturalist

4-H club members tending their cows at the State Fair in Rutland, Vermont. — The lore: 4-H club members and their cows, State Fair, Rutland, Vermont. Library of Congress, FSA/OWI Collection

Herpetology Research Herpetology & the systematics of African plated lizards. Faunalore Faunalore The folklore & ethnography of human–animal interaction.

Featured work

All publications

Cat 'Tales: Investigating the Legend of ‘Car-Sized’ Catfish at the Base of Dams

Faunalore

Stephen M. Lochetto 2026 Contemporary Legend (4th series) 4: 265–288

Lochetto, Stephen M. 2026. “Cat 'Tales: Investigating the Legend of ‘Car-Sized’ Catfish at the Base of Dams.” Contemporary Legend, 4th ser., 4: 265–288.

Love, Loss and Blue Ribbons: An Ethnographic Study of 4-H Animal Projects in Rural Community Fairs

Faunalore

Stephen M. Lochetto 2023 Children's Folklore Review 41(1)

Lochetto, Stephen M. 2023. “Love, Loss and Blue Ribbons: An Ethnographic Study of 4-H Animal Projects in Rural Community Fairs.” Children's Folklore Review 41 (1). https://doi.org/10.14434/cfr.2023.vol41.36167.

Phylogenetic Relationships of the Genus Gerrhosaurus (Reptilia: Gerrhosauridae) Based on Morphology

Herpetology

Stephen M. Lochetto 2002 MSc thesis, Villanova University unverified

Lochetto, Stephen M. 2002. “Phylogenetic Relationships of the Genus Gerrhosaurus (Reptilia: Gerrhosauridae) Based on Morphology.” MSc thesis, Villanova University.