RE: [Gecko] Cepediana-Discussion

[Emmanuel Van Heygen]

Title: Message

> Red is news to me. Of the photos you attached, I would venture a guess
that
> the one  shown in profile is a upland female.That is, if my belief is
> correct. The other one shot head on I cannot even guess.

They were - as written - taken on the coast. and both pictures are supposed to show the same animal ... ;-)

The pictures show a typical coastal coloration, due to the nature of the colour you can see that the animal is unable to completely darken like upland forms.

> I never found any red or brown bellied P.cepediana on Mauritius
> either, actually it is the first time I hear about it. But there
> certainly is a morphological difference in animals from several
> locations. The animals in northern Mauritius tend to have a whiter
> ventral coloration then the animals in the southern part, where you
> find a greener ventral colour.

Now if I take you right this is rather a question of region than altitude? This would explain why I could not find any white-bellied males ... we did not see many cepediana close-up in northern Mauritius, but found quite a lot in the south ... .

> Along the coasts in the southern region though you will find many
> white or whitish ventral coloured geckos too.

Doesn�t this somehow contradict with what you�ve said before ... I am a bit confused ... or is there just no real pattern, with animals of the different underbellies spread everywhere - even though unevenly, requiring thourough research on the numbers to make any valid definition?

It sounds confusing. I try to do it better;

There are 3 main regions where you find green bellied P.cepediana only (no white coloured ones):

1. The mountains near the capital Port Louis
2. The mountain area in the east, Bamboo Mountains (this is the area of Domaine du Chasseur)
3. The mountain area in the South-West together with the southern plaines

I found green bellied animals in some coastal areas around these 3 regions, mainly in the plain south (Surinam and Soulliac) and around the Tamarin peak in the south-west. This means you have a mixture of green and white in the southern coastal region. Once you reach higher altitudes, you only find green bellied animals. A strange remark to be made is when you find P.guimbeaui guimbeaui or Phelsuma guimbeaui rosagularis you can almost be certain that you will find green bellied P.cepediana!

The only spot where I found P.g.guimbeaui and P.cepediana with white bellies was near chamarel in the south-west of the island. It still has to be said that the green bellied animals from the mountain regions are much deeper and darker green than that from some coastal green-bellied populations. The main key remains the ability to darken almost to black for the upland form.

 

> Once you go higher (altitudes from around 350-400 m) you will find
> "green bellied" P.cepediana only. It is exactly on these altitudes
> where you also find the first P.guimbeaui rosagularis!

... I was unlucky and found only the g. guimbeaui in the west ...

> A good location to see this transition is "Domaine du Chasseur" where
> you will find the first 100% green bellied animals above 350m and also
> going up from the Black River valley to Maccabee forest. More obvious
> then the green ventral colour and a more important key to determine
> upland and lowland P. cepediana is the ability of the upland animals
> to change to a very dark overall coloration to thermo-regulate! As
> these higher regions are "colder" than the coastal ones, the upland
> animals have evolved in
such
> a way that they are able to become almost entirely black when basking.
This
> has an effect on the colours of the animals when "in normal"
> coloration. The green, red and even blue tends to be darker in upland
> animals. We also see this in P.guimbeaui rosagularis. I am also under
> the impression that the animals from higher altitudes are slightly
> bigger and that the sexual dimorphism is more consistent than in the
> lowland Phelsuma cepediana.

Wow, this explanation is logical - and makes things even more complicated ... maybe someday this will be sorted out genetically, but until then I�ll be happy that my animals breed and leave it to others to determine their upland or lowland status ... ;-)

One last note on the "not interbreeding" ... I have found that Phelsuma in general can be quite choosy about their partners, even if they are for 100% of the same species (even from the same brood). I think the reason for this kind of thing might be found in the smell (Pheromones or such) rather than in the looks - so I would not be surprised if the different cepediana would suddenly interbreed if teamed up with the right partner ... have you tried to rotate them already?

Regards - Hartmut

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