ID the tiny calummas!

[javadi]

This was some fun on Facebook, so I’ll try it here too.

Here’s something fun. When swapping enclosures, I took out these three females representing three different calumma species and quickly took a few pictures. Can anyone successfully ID the three species shown here? The diversity among these small, often overlooked species is really quite remarkable! Multiple bloodlines worth of eggs incubating for 2/3 of these, one is only here temporarily.

 

[DocZ]

I cheated and looked on FB

I would have only guessed one of them

 

[javadi]

I cheated and looked on FB

I would have only guessed one of them

Haha well thanks for the honesty! Which one would you have guessed?

 

[DocZ]

C. boettgeri and I’m not sure I’d be able to tell which one she is.

 

[Mendez]

I haven't looked. But honestly I panicked for the first few minutes. But I think I have it.

Looking at the third picture going from top-down.
Top: C. linotum (classic linotum blotches/coloring)
Middle: C. roaloko (lighter color than boettgeri and linotum)
Bottom: C. boettgeri (yellower/khaki of the bunch)

I could easily be wrong. I have never seen a female roaloko before.

 

[Mendez]

Also, don't tell me if I'm right until some others answer.

 

[MissSkittles]

Ha! Too easy! They are all c. cuteis snootius!

 

[javadi]

Ha! Too easy! They are all c. cuteis snootius!

Correct!

 

[Beman]

I was going to be a smartass like @MissSkittles but she already covered it. Saw this on FB and stared and for the life of me I do not see a ton of differences. Very similar to a female F. Antimena chameleon I saw in a pet store once. But she was more spiky on her dorsal. All these girls have some neat noses though lol.

I can see why people get so easily confused thinking they got one species and ending up with another based on this photo. To the untrained eye it is very hard to see the differences. Granted one looks like she has elephant ears tucked to her neck.

 

[javadi]

From the third picture, this is the answer:
Top: Calumma linotum
Middle: Calumma roaloko
Bottom: Calumma boettgeri

They are indeed hard to tell apart sometimes! This is one of the reasons it has been hard to establish them in captivity. Importers sell them all lumped together under "calumma boettgeri" or "calumma nasutum", without IDing them properly. It can therefore be hard for people to even be sure they have a group that are all the same species!

For calumma linotum vs. boettgeri, the key is that linotum has many more large scales on its limbs, each limb scale is larger, and they are more obviously green, than in calumma boettgeri. Plus, calumma linotum has bright blue on the nose and head when excited, boettgeri does not have a blue nose under the same circumstances. Calumma boettgeri also shows some reddish brown tints to the overall color, more "warm" than linotum. When stressed, calumma boettgeri can also show red lines between the scales that I have not observed in linotum.

Calumma roaloko can be distinguished from the others partially due to their "two toned" appearance, where its dorsal aspect and ventral aspects are clearly different colors/shades. In fact, it was named after this feature in a way, since "roaloko" means "two colors" in Malagasy! Females have yellow noses and males have very distinct blue noses with green on them. Plus, they are the smallest of all of the calumma species, which helps ID them.

There are other ways to ID them but these are the most useful ways in practice.

 

[kinyonga]

Some of you might like to read/see these...
https://www.researchgate.net/figure...um-from-Montagne-dAmbre-during_fig2_284654929

Calumma roaloko...
http://novataxa.blogspot.com/2018/10/calumma-roaloko.html?m=1

Morphology of Calumma boettgeri...
https://www.gbif.org/species/119645394