HartmutLipp
Sun, 25 Feb 2001 10:31:06 -0800
Hi Folks, as I posted this mail about one week ago, and it did not pop up on the list, I guess my picture attachments cancelled the whole mail ... is there a limit on file-size in the attachments? Anyway, here is it again - without the pictures - and those of you, who would like to see the pictures should contact me directly and will be send the pictures offlist, OK? So here I go: > Can you tell us more about how you keep these geckos? From the little > I've read, they live on tree trunks, one male to several females, and > the males are very aggressive. But it looks like you have two males > there - I thought the striped ones were male. I have L. kimhowelli for some years now, and I think they are great animals as they are very colorful, small, day-active and tolerant. My groups are a few WCs and many CBs - as I breed them very succesfully, I mainly have CBs currently :-) (-> see picture of the tiny kimhowelli hatchling - the metal plate it sits on has about 1mm spaces - total lenght is an average of 1cm when born ... and a mating kimhowelli-pair) I bought them as "angularis", and was told that the males have the stripes and the females are without stripes. That was all I got for information. We kept them that way for a while, and were wondering about the behavior of the animals - the striped ones got along well with each other, but not with the unstriped ones. Then one day the unstriped-ones mated ... so we got a first- hand clue that we had different species here ;-) I then contacted a well-known Lygodactylus-specialist (Dr. B. Röll, she wrote some articles on Lygodactylus in the german "Sauria"), and finally got all the information I needed. She told me that they were "kimhowelli", as found in the french type-desription, and that she could give me a CB-male for my apparently two females. The unstriped-one were found out to be "picturatus", and we separated the two species. See attachment for the clear differences - if you know to look for them: - L. kimhowelli almost never loses it´s markings - it will rather darken it, while L. picturatus (males) will change from brownish grey to bright yellow (head) and blue (back and tail) (-> see pictures of the picturatus male and female) - L. kimhowelli has very distinctive markings, while picturatus has not such straight and deep-black stripes. They look rather "stone-washed" ;-) (-> see picture of the nice male CB-adult sideview) - L. kimhowelli have a sort of butterfly-shaped yellow mark on the head - the picturatus almost never have anything like it Both species show a kind of sexual dichromatism - picturatus males are bright blue and yellow, while the females stay rather grey-brown (notice that a stressed male picturatus will look like a female). Kimhowelli males are looking identical on the upside, but have an deep black throat and a more yellow underbelly instead of the orange one the females have. Hemipenis bulges can be seen with both species clearly ... on adult males. Pores are well visible, too. (-> see the picture of a subadult male underbelly and the underbelly of a still very young female. Note the interesting toe-structures as well) > do you have a reference for a type-description for Lygodactylus kimhowellii? I think she gave me a copy, but we moved last year and I don´t know where it might be ... sorry. I only remember it was in french. > Are all these names valid species but not the one you have, or are they > just incorrect names for L. kimhowelli? They are supposed to be valid names. If you seek more information ... look here - you will be astonished by the numbers you find there: http://zeta.embl-heidelberg.de:8000/srs5bin/cgi-bin/wgetz?%5BREPTILIA-Species: Lygodactylus*%5D > Information on social behaviour, and temperature/humidity/lighting/space > requirements would be appreciated. Well, they are small and can adapt to smaller housings as well - but they do like it large ;-) I keep them as (and together with) Phelsumas, so that´s all there is to it - perhaps they can tolerate dryer setups. I keep them in groups with one male and several females, which will lay very small eggs as double-clutch freely into bamboo or other plants / holes. The young will be eated when caught, and the Phelsuma think that kimhowelli eggs are a good source for calcium and food ... so I incubate them extra. They get along well with many other reptiles - except other Lygodactylus. I keep them together with P. ornata, P.guimbeaui, P. v-nigra and P. inexpectata - so far no losses. I would not mix them with P. cepediana, P. lineata or other more agressive Phelsumas - I tried it and the kimhowellis lost tails :-( Even klemmeri was no success - perhaps coloration is too similar. > I've seen them here in Canada too. I think they may be from Tanzania. They are - and this is what it looks like at the shops ;-) (->HCH-picture) As they are sold very cheap I cannot compete with the dealers and stick to most of my CBs ... or give them to friends who know the worth of CBs - so if anyone want´s some ... ;-) Imports are often heavily infested with parasites and might not live very long - but they are hardy overall. OK, I guess you are know filled in enough ;-) By the way, I still seek L. conraui or another one of the green Lygos very hard - my sources sadly cannot get me any :-( Got any clues or connections ...? Hartmut ########################################################################### THE GLOBAL GECKO ASSOCIATION LISTSERV WebSite: www.gekkota.com Archive: [EMAIL PROTECTED]/ The GGA takes no responsibility for the contents of these postings. ###########################################################################