the moof
New member
Hi folks,
so I've been conducting research in southern Madagascar for the last two summers. On the last expedition, I found a fairly large number of P. androyensis, and what I think is probably a separate, closely affiliated, species, which I nominate P. sp. aff. androyensis. Their features were generally very similar, but they had very subtle morphological and colouration differences.
Among the colouration differences were different habits in chin-colour. Glaw and Vences 2007 claim that black chin-stripes are characteristic of this species. However, I noted that chin-stripes vary depending on (i) stress levels and (ii) time of day. Have you noticed such variation in your captive animals? Some individuals had their chin stripes irrespective of the time of day.
The second issue is with back patterns; I would really appreciate it if you could post pics of the backs of your androyensis individuals. There seem to be two dominant colour patterns that exist, which differ in the isolation of the lighter blotches on the back (and occasionally their number).
Morphologically, their tails are subtly different, with one having slightly enlarged scales on the tail relative to the other. There were other morphological differences I believe, but my notes are buried deep in one of my research journals and I can't be bothered to find them right now.
This pattern is only based on a limited number (maybe 30) of field specimens, so I'm not sure how well I can generalise it.
Anyways, I thought this might be worthy of looking into. Let me know your thoughts. I'm intrigued as to the generality of this pattern.
Cheers,
Mark
so I've been conducting research in southern Madagascar for the last two summers. On the last expedition, I found a fairly large number of P. androyensis, and what I think is probably a separate, closely affiliated, species, which I nominate P. sp. aff. androyensis. Their features were generally very similar, but they had very subtle morphological and colouration differences.
Among the colouration differences were different habits in chin-colour. Glaw and Vences 2007 claim that black chin-stripes are characteristic of this species. However, I noted that chin-stripes vary depending on (i) stress levels and (ii) time of day. Have you noticed such variation in your captive animals? Some individuals had their chin stripes irrespective of the time of day.
The second issue is with back patterns; I would really appreciate it if you could post pics of the backs of your androyensis individuals. There seem to be two dominant colour patterns that exist, which differ in the isolation of the lighter blotches on the back (and occasionally their number).
Morphologically, their tails are subtly different, with one having slightly enlarged scales on the tail relative to the other. There were other morphological differences I believe, but my notes are buried deep in one of my research journals and I can't be bothered to find them right now.
This pattern is only based on a limited number (maybe 30) of field specimens, so I'm not sure how well I can generalise it.
Anyways, I thought this might be worthy of looking into. Let me know your thoughts. I'm intrigued as to the generality of this pattern.
Cheers,
Mark
