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Calumma sleeping, Marojejy, Madagascar
Found during a night tour near camp 2 of Marojejy, Madagascar. Looks like my flash washed away the details in the highlights, sorry about that. I'm not sure yet of the species. It could be a short-nosed chameleon, and secretly I am hoping it is the Marojejy leaf chameleon.
Vences' chameleon is a species of chameleon endemic to Madagascar. It was named after Miguel Vences, a German herpetologist.
Similar species: Snakes And Lizards
By Ferdy Christant
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Uploaded Feb 20, 2016. Captured Oct 8, 2015 19:02.
comments (5)
The differences among these three involve the presence, absence, or size of various crests and lobes, as well as the placement of white spots on the side. Calumma marojezense is described as having two or three white spots that interrupt the thin white lateral line. Your chameleon has two visible white spots on the side (maybe a third one hidden in the photo), but they are below the white line rather than interrupting it. Calumma guillameti is described as having two rows of white spots on the side, one above and one below the white line; yours has only the one row of white spots. Calumma vencesi is not actually listed from Marojejy, but from very close to there. Males are plain green with sometimes a thin white lateral line. Yours fits that description, but the description doesn't mention any spots at all, and the one photo of a male doesn't show any. So the spots on yours don't seem to be an exact match for the descriptions of any of the three known candidates.
The casque at the back of the head, and the presence/absence/size of the dorsal crest (raised area along the spine) are other distinctions. The casque of C. guillaumeti is "slightly elevated posteriorly"; the casque of C. marojezense is "very low in both sexes"; the casque of C. vencesi is "low". The dorsal crest of C. guillaumeti is "present anteriorly, but rather indistinct"; the dorsal crest of C. marojezense is "absent"; the dorsal crest of C. vencesi is "present" (but very low in the photo). Yours has what I would call a "very low" casque, and a very small or absent dorsal crest.
So overall I would guess that yours is not guillaumeti due to the difference in casque and white spots. Between the other two, neither is a perfect match for the descriptions in Glaw & Vences. I lean towards C. vencesi because the description for C. marojezense very specifically calls for the white dots to interrupt the white line (and this is pictured). But really it could probably be either. Or maybe yet another species not yet described in Glaw & Vences (unlikely but not out of the question). Posted 9 years ago
it is a great night shot, flash or not.
Hint: Bubble wrap and a bit of elastic or sticky tape makes a great diffusor. Works even for wedding shots :) where the wildlife is more critical. Posted 9 years ago