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Wrong ID in book

damnitbonnie Aug 16, 2006 08:28 AM

I've been buying books about lizards lately. I got a nice one called The Worlds Most Spectacular Reptiles & Amphibians. There are lots of nice photos but in this one they call this lizard an armata. It's a capra (possibly color enhanced)

They also have a picture of Gonocephalus doriae doriae. Jobi, Is this the right species for this lizard and is the color enhanced?

Disappointing isn't it.

Replies (2)

jobi Aug 16, 2006 10:30 AM

Unfortunately we will find such errors in many books, your first photo is a lepidogaster, looks exactly like my females, males are more colourful. In Manthey’s book on page 27 you can see a young male of this morph presented by R G Sprackland. Iv Known Robert for 25 years, use to call him all the time in my early varanophil days, however I also know that he is notorious for such mistakes of identity, this doesn’t take anything away from him, he’s a devoted and generous man, but often he has nothing more then museum specimens to study, these specimens kept in formal loos colors and one is left with scales count and appearance to work with, also occasionally Robert relies on captive specimens from hobbyist, these rarely have good data. Anyway the mistake is repeated subsequently by Manthey on page 32 the right animal is lepidogaster and the left is crucigera. Ask Manthey and see what he has to say about this.

The gonocephalus is a chameleontinus from Java, hers one of mine with its real colors, this is nothing some are much nicer.

Doria don’t even look like this, I don’t see how they can be mistaken?
However the book you are referring too is more focused on presenting the worlds most beautiful reptiles, its not about there biology. But Manthey’s book is an identification guide, it says so on the cover, I expected this book to be accurate, it is not.

Ps I am trying to obtain from a dealer in Japan a very nice morph of capra (deep blue eyes) just like this gonocephalus lacunosus (Manthey’s gono) except it has a pale turquoise body, simply an awesome lizard.

damnitbonnie Aug 17, 2006 06:59 AM

Opps to me. I've never seen a crucegia but I do see the black on it's neck now. I always thought they would look more like lepodigasters than capras.
I have the book by Manthey- Agamid Lizards. Also Amphibians and Reptiles of Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand. So many beautiful animals.
Your animals are stunning. I didn't know the Chamaeleontinus could be that colorful. What a difference a change of country can make. (I assume that's the reason for the different colors.)
Good luck on aquiring the other dragon. Should make good breeding stock for color variation.

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