Uroplatus malama ?s

Bowfinger

New member
I have seen a few jobers shopping for customers on a future shippment...anyone have information on any expectations on this? I would love to get some, but having seen "giants" in the past for little mark up from phantasticus ($125 retail) that tells me they cant be that rare, maybe dificult to access if anything, just speculating and could be wrong.

I just dont want to drop $500 on something and then months later they are coming in at $100 a pop as many times this happens. Maybe someone can give me a better insight to this that I am not understanding. I know it sounds rude to question prices, but I keep my mind on my money, money on my mind when I have to.
 

EriksReptiles

New member
Well I personally have never seen one in person but they look very similiar to phants and spearpoints... I have read and heard that the only difference is that malama's dont have the "spiny scales" on there eyes. I already emailed the people and got on the "list" but I asked for pics when they get them in... We will see what they get.

Just my thoughts.

PS: Does anyone have any pictures of them? I have only seen the one in the "Uroplatus" book...


Thanks Erik
 

Bowfinger

New member
I have the description with example photo, they are similar to phantasticus, but larger with less spines also have different behavior in using larger branches. They are not ugly in examples I have seen, and are empressive but not too teribly different than phantasticus. I can pull some information on this when I make it to my storage by this weekend...
 

miguel camacho!

New member
i got wind of an ad on KS for malama that didnt stay up long. dont know if i would count on getting malama though. i just checked back and found there is quota for 100 animals appointed by CITES, so i guess there is some chance...
 

EriksReptiles

New member
miguel camacho! said:
i got wind of an ad on KS for malama that didnt stay up long. dont know if i would count on getting malama though. i just checked back and found there is quota for 100 animals appointed by CITES, so i guess there is some chance...

Very true... I would just be afraid of the people selling them passing them off as malama but they are really phants or the long tail spearpoints... I guess we will see what happens when they post some pictures!

PS: Where did you find that info Mike? I tried looking it up again as I used to have the page bookmarked but I no longer have it on this computer...

Thanks Erik
 

max power

New member
i thought the major diferance was the fact that ther ebens with tails simaler to satanics. i asked some importer freinds and was told that $500 is pretty steep for them. i sure the heck aint paying that for any wc animal
 

Protean

New member
give me one month and I will post pics of the animals I am importing. They are listed as true malama and I have requested all that are available through my exporter. It will also stand to give me physical proof that mine giants and EMS's giants are the real deal or just another form from a different area. Lets face, there are at least 5-6 different potential species of the U.ebanaui complex.

We see in January.

Cheers
Jason
 

Reptiluvr

New member
The difference between the two is mostly in size and scalation. And range. Malama are larger, about 6" total length (average). Most phantastiucs stay 4-5". The malama have larger and longer tails as well. Also, malama means "smooth" in a certain Malagasy dialect. This is because they are ENTIRELY devoid of spiny scales except over the eyes and at the base of the head on either side. Malama have come in before marked as phantasticus or long-tail ebenaui. It's pretty hard to distinguish them just from description. You should have your exporter photograph a couple examples. Let us know what happens.
 

danscantle

New member
There's no need for pictures from monkey's exporter to verify that they are U. malama. He is one of the most knowledgable and trusted authorities on Malagasy natural history.
 

danscantle

New member
Good question - you could try looking at the combined collections website. I suspect most of them are in European collections (Glaw and Vences) or at U Michigan (Rax and Nuss).
 

Bowfinger

New member
Copeia 1995, N0.1 February 15...order through biblomania if you want an actual discription of Uroplatus malama.

Shows some obvious differences, but with many new possible species in the ebenaui group there could be revision of this sometime soon.

There is an obvious difference from any long tail ebenaui or short tail phantasticus as the malama has an tail comparable to a normal phantasticus in length ratio. Here is a picture of a "normal" phantasticus next to a "long tail" ebenaui.
picture1418mk.jpg
 

Protean

New member
I have done some research and spoken with my exporter over this at a great length.

U.jpg


This is U.malama. This is one of my favorite geckos too. 6 inches and 15 grams. Her cage mate is as well. My avatar is the offspring of the above photographed female. So... she is too.

I will post photos of the rest i am receiving in January.

cheers
Jason
 

EMS

New member
Hallo monkey,
can you make a close-up of the skin that I can compare the spines with that of my Uroplatus?

EMS
 
Top