Calumma fallax

[rantotro]

An information for keepers of this rare species.
Found 750m over sea level at the shadow side of a mountain near Andasibe.
Don't heat the eggs more than 22°C. It's the maximum I think.
Air temperature not over 29°C for the adults.
Kind regards
Andreas

 

[rantotro]

The female and the environment.

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

Thanks for the data Andreas!

 

[Davecameos]

Great pics. I really like them. Very rare species.

 

[rantotro]

But it isn't C.fallax. I was wrong.
Chris Anderson said it is a ssp. of C.nasutum, what lives in this area.
C.fallax you can find in the forest of Ranomafana.
I'm sorry.

 

[Chris Anderson]

Just to expand on what rantotro said, this animal also appears to be "Clade G" from Gehring et al. 2012, which is also referred to as "Calumma sp. aff. nasutum" in Gehring et al. 2011. Basically an undescribed taxon within the C. nasutum group. There are at least 4 distinct nasutum complex forms near Andasibe, including this one, but C. fallax is not one of them. So, while this animal is not C. fallax, I think its equally interesting, and actually even less known.

Chris

 

[kinyonga]

Could you make this a learning experience for those on this forum who don't see these rare chameleon species and explain how to tell the difference between them?

 

[Nicholasdeaan]

I'd like to know what all the abbreviations are as well. " sp.ff.". And so forth. So I could have a better understanding of what they mean. That would definitely help! Awesome looking chams!

 

[Chris Anderson]

Basically there are numerous undescribed species that are currently lumped into the Calumma nasutum group. Because these forms are not described, it is difficult to definitively say how to tell them apart. There are a few articles, however, that have started documenting some of that diversity, and hopefully soon some of those species will be described. Here are the references to the two I noted in my reply:

Gehring, P.-S., Tolley, K. A., Eckhardt, F. S., Townsend, T. M., Ziegler, T., Ratsoavina, F., Glaw, F. and Vences, M. (2012). Hiding deep in the trees: discovery of divergent mitochondrial lineages in Malagasy chameleons of the Calumma nasutum group. Ecol. Evol. 2, 1468–1479.
Gehring, P.-S., Ratsoavina, F. M., Vences, M. and Glaw, F. (2011). Calumma vohibola, a new chameleon species (Squamata: Chamaeleonidae) from the littoral forests of eastern Madagascar. Afr. J. Herpetol. 60, 130–154.

"sp. aff." is an abbreviation for "species affinis", which means that the animal in question has an affinity to, but is not the species with the name that that follows. It is used to indicate an undescribed species similar to a known species.

Hope that helps!

Chris

 

[Nicholasdeaan]

Basically there are numerous undescribed species that are currently lumped into the Calumma nasutum group. Because these forms are not described, it is difficult to definitively say how to tell them apart. There are a few articles, however, that have started documenting some of that diversity, and hopefully soon some of those species will be described. Here are the references to the two I noted in my reply:

Gehring, P.-S., Tolley, K. A., Eckhardt, F. S., Townsend, T. M., Ziegler, T., Ratsoavina, F., Glaw, F. and Vences, M. (2012). Hiding deep in the trees: discovery of divergent mitochondrial lineages in Malagasy chameleons of the Calumma nasutum group. Ecol. Evol. 2, 1468–1479.
Gehring, P.-S., Ratsoavina, F. M., Vences, M. and Glaw, F. (2011). Calumma vohibola, a new chameleon species (Squamata: Chamaeleonidae) from the littoral forests of eastern Madagascar. Afr. J. Herpetol. 60, 130–154.

"sp. aff." is an abbreviation for "species affinis", which means that the animal in question has an affinity to, but is not the species with the name that that follows. It is used to indicate an undescribed species similar to a known species.

Hope that helps!

Chris

That did help! Thanks Chris.

 

[kinyonga]

I don't have those two books handy but was hoping for a different type of answer anyway....like a photo of both and a description saying something like....... you could tell because one has five freckles on its left toe not three like the other does or it has a mole on its right knee but the other one has a wart instead....or something (not quite so ridiculous as that). You said they are difficult to tell apart and yet you seem to be very certain that it was a Culumma sp. aff. Nasutum not a C. fallax so I thought you could have told us how YOU could tell.

 

[Chris Anderson]

Actually both articles are available online for anyone who is interested in them.
- Gehring et al., 2012: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3434913/pdf/ece30002-1468.pdf
- Gehring et al., 2011: https://www.researchgate.net/public...om_the_littoral_forests_of_eastern_Madagascar

The animal in question does not match C. fallax as C. fallax is defined has having a casque that is distinctly raised posteriorly. This individual does not have a casque as raised as you would expect for this species. As far as assigning this animal to "Clade G" (sensu Gehring et al. 2012) and "Calumma sp. aff. nasutum" (sensu Gehring et al. 2011), there are photographs of "Calumma sp. aff. nasutum" in Gehring et al. 2011 (Figure 6) that match quite closely. From those photos, and the localities and the phylogeny provided, this type corresponds to "Clade G" in Gehring et al. 2012. Finally, the locality given above in this thread matches that of both in Gehring et al. 2011 and Gehring et al. 2012 for this type.

Chris

 

[kinyonga]

Thankyou Chris!! That's exactly what I wanted!

 

[TheCoop]

I believe this young man in our collection to be C. Fallax.