[pakinjak]

I've seen a lot of threads about sexing Uros, but it's always a specific animal or just one type of Uro. So, I thought it might be helpful to start a thread asking for everybody to list the "usual" differences between male and female of ALL Uroplatus, along with some pics if applicable. I can't contribute too much, since I only keep Fimbs and Mossies, but I'll try. Others have much better photos than me, so I'll just start with the Fimbriatus and see if this takes off.

Let's start off by saying that the hemipenal bulge is THE way to sex them, but that doesn't help too much when they're young, and there are other markers to help distinguish between male and female.

Fimbriatus-

- Seems to me that there are more pied females than males. There may be nothing to this one, so I'm not going to be adamant about it.

- I've been told that more often than not, there is a difference in the numbers of tail base serrations between male and female. I have four Fimbs, and it holds true for them. I'd love to hear from more people about this one. Here are two examples-

Male


Female

[miguel camacho!]

According to the Uroplatus book, yes...the little spikes at the base of the tail are one sexually dimorphic characteristic. I also agree that it tends to be that females have the larger lichen-looking patches, but I've seen light colors/white on males to some extent in henkeli and sikorae. Also for henkeli and sikorae, striping near the eyes is characteristic of males.

For henkeli, relatively large patches that make up the base mottling pattern is indicative males, while females have a relatively "fine" base mottling pattern.

For sikorae, mid-dorsal striping is only found on males (at least for what I've seen).

For phantasticus, I used to have an image with the caresheet that compared pattern down the center just anterior to the base of the tail. There was some level of ambiguity, but if there is a diamond pattern, it's male. Males tend to be more mottled in color/pattern. Spikes are more exaggerated on males. Some people like to talk about the "tear drops", but I think that's one of the worst methods to go by. And I'd say 90%+ of individuals with notched tails are males. I hatched one female with a heavily notched tail, and had a couple with minimal notching. I strongly believe that the same "serrations" you're talking about in male members of the fimbriatus complex are also only (or to a high degree mostly restricted to) males.

Sorry, no pics for now.

[pakinjak]

Thanks Mike. Hopefully this thread will take off and can be a one stop shop for sexing info. Is the Uroplatus book you're referencing the impossible to find one?

[qiksilver]

Which book? I have the Svatek and Van Duin book which seems to say only hemipenal bulges are important and postanal tubercles are present in both sexes. Did I miss it or is this some other book we're talking about?

[jadrig]

Well, with the henkels...

The differences are easy to tell within the first couple days/weeks...
After they start growing, there is kind of a gray area. There are some males that have a 'pied' pattern and some females that do have a stripe. They usually look exactly like either of their parents.
When henkels first hatch...males usually have longitudinal striations on the base of their head/body.
Females usually have a more solid pattern on their neck/head area.

[miguel camacho!]

The "tubercles" are not explicitly defined in the book, and yes I'm speaking of the Svatek and van Duin book. Look at the illustration of the tails of the two sexes, there are a couple of extra tubercles or spikes, whatever you want to call it. I can't tell if the postanal tubercles they describe are those on the hemipenal bulge (or the small swelling of females), or if they're the spines on the base of the tail we're talking about.

edit: upon looking into it some more, the small serrations on henkeli are not indicative of sex.

[Graham_s]

Just wanted to bring this thread back to the top, as I think it has a lot of very useful information and it would be great to get input from more people.

[luevelvet]

I think it's time for me to wrap up that sexing article on the UIC!

Luis

[uroplatus99]

Originally Posted by luevelvet

I think it's time for me to wrap up that sexing article on the UIC!

Luis

I know I brought this up to you 2 days ago for a reason hehe

[luevelvet]

I've begun work on the sexing article for the UIC and I thought everyone would find interest in what's been done up until now.

Sexing Uroplatus

I'm also working on photo documenting a few fimbriatus (we have nearly 20 atm) to see if we can't distinguish them between each other. One thing that occurred to me was, older females seemed to have a higher count of the base spines than the younger females. I will have to go back and review the photos to be sure I'm not just delirious from lack of sleep. :P

Cheers!

Luis