U. ebenaui question

[Saurian]

I seperated my ebenaui tonight. I have 1.2. I was seperating them cause one of the females had to be at least a inch-inch and a half bigger then the others and I was scared she was intimidating the other two. I put the pair in a 5.5 gallon. I think they were having trouble finding food in a larger viv and the pair is so small maybe 2.5 or close to 3 inches so I will keep them in there for a little bit to let them get bigger then I will transfer them to something bigger. However, after looking at several pictures the bigger of females maybe aff. ebenaui. I included some photos. The pics suck cause I was trying to coral them but they didnt want to co-op to get good ones.

The first pic is the lg. female, then the 2nd blurry one is the other female, and the last one the male. Click the links. Thanks.

http://crac.bravehost.com/lgfemale

http://crac.bravehost.com/geckos 002.jpg

http://crac.bravehost.com/geckos 003.jpg

 

[Poimandres]

Tough to tell from the pictures. From my understanding the big difference between the Nozy Bé locality of U. ebenaui and the mainland variants (U. aff. ebenuai and U. cf. ebenaui) is in the tail lengths. The mainland localities have a much longer tail that still retain the “spear” shape but fail to reach the length of the tails found on U. malama and U. phantasticus.

 

[Protean]

Incorrect. Main difference is overall size. Nosy be ebenaui are roughly 1/2 the size of mainland ebenaui.

Mainland ebenaui also vary quite a lot from locale to locale, however, locale information is not commonly available in the trade as it is not notated.

Also, this female - http://crac.bravehost.com/lgfemale - is gravid.

-jason.p

 

[Saurian]

She cant be gravid. She hasnt been with a male for about 3 months now and even when she was she was always that size.

 

[Mallick]

Impaction then, or just obesed?

 

[Poimandres]

You have the possibility of sperm retention for several months, or she could just be cycling inferts. But I agree in that photo her midsection definitely suggests that she could be gravid.

Jason,

Thanks for clarifying. I was under the impression that some mainland localities differed from the Nosy Bé locality mainly by means of tail size.Do you perhaps happen to have a good source of literature that distinguishes the different ebenaui localities? All the articles in journals I've come across will mention up to 5 locales of ebenaui (all in N. Madagascar) but never really go into defining the variances in morphology...moreover, they all conclude that some of these localities may indeed be different species entirely. The only descriptions of body size, tail lengths, etc. seem to come from hobbyist who have seen the different "localities" in their collections or at shows, etc.

 

[NigelMoses]

Female U. malama or U. cf. ebenaui or U. aff. ebenaui. This a picture of my female to show you the difference in tail shape opposed to U. phantasticus and U. ebenaui. The last picture is of my male.

 

[Saurian]

She probally just karge. She has always been that size since I got her. Dont think she is impacted cause she is eating ok and isnt showing any signs of going down hill.