Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am the proud keeper of the black-lined plated lizard which GrotesqueBurgess kept so well for so long. He is WONDERFUL! I have him eating live foods now...not a lot yet, but he is beginning to eat his superworms...

I do understand he is male. His femoral pores are pretty pronounced. Do the spurs near the vent also have anything to do with the sex or do both sexes have these?

First, its not G. nigrolineatus but G. major bottegoi what you have. In thi sspecies it is very difficult, to see differences between female and male pores.So no Sexing possible by this pic.

Ingo

Wow. When I look at pictures, it is certaintly possible to see a difference in the head of the black-lined plated and Lizzy. But with the picturs of G. major bottegoi, the coloration is wrong. He has a lot more red. It might just be pictures. The weird thing is that I've had two different "experts" tell me that he's a black-lined, and when I did research on the web, he always matched up with pictures. Now I'm wondering if my brain is fried.

I certaintly feel very stupid.

If you look at these sites, you can certaintly see the close resemblence:

http://www.hemswellfishfarm.com/stocklist.php?c=27

http://www.faunaimportuk.com/photolizards.htm

http://worldwidefauna.com/exporter.php?Gerrhosaurus-Nigrolineatus=Black-Lined-Plated-Lizard&Tanzania=importer&cPath=24&pid=231

http://holzking.net/kyherpsoc/viewtopic.php?p=17515&sid=b012f31ec1b4498c34c7faaf99483223

I've honestly never heard of female lizards getting femoral pores clogged with wax before though.
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~Sara~
"If you look down on me, I am evil, If you look up to me, I am God, if you look straight at me, I Am you"
-Charles Manson

Yes, I do definitely see the resemblance. The funny thing about that is that those are all definitely G. major. Some major major, some are major bottegoi (the latter typically have no red, but some have).
Believe me or not...but you may ask a herpetologist if you want. Your animal is G. major bottegoi.

G. nigrolineatus is very different and much more resembles G. flavigularis than G. major.
And the belly is white...

Ingo

P.S.: Show me a lateral shot. Yours may still be G. major major, but NOT nigrolineatus

I wasn't saying I didn't believe you, I was saying that there was a reason I thought he was a black-lined, and I din't just pick it out of thin air. I see that I was wrong.
I don't have this lizard anymore, so for any other pictures the new owner will have to post them.

I still have never heard of a female lizard having large femoral pores clogged with wax though. Is there anywhere I can go to read up on that? Google is producing nothing but "males have large femoral pores that get filled with a waxy substance".

I'm happy that you caught the error, not upset. I'm upset that I made the error to begin with.
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~Sara~
"If you look down on me, I am evil, If you look up to me, I am God, if you look straight at me, I Am you"
-Charles Manson

Lizzy is a HE Gerrhosaurus major boettgeri 100%. I believe I said this when you posted about lizzie months ago, based on his picture, and the fact that he was so large and intesely colored.

yeah, when I looked back on all the threads I made, I saw that I was told quite a few times that that was what he was. I have absolutely NO clue why my brain decided to befuddle it. I HAVE been told he was a black-lined, but it wasn't from here. Oh well, I'm glad his new owner enjoys him regardless of the type of plated he is. He's got a much larger cage than I could have given him, and I hope he's doing well.
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~Sara~
"If you look down on me, I am evil, If you look up to me, I am God, if you look straight at me, I Am you"
-Charles Manson

Yeah, sorry about that. I was probably late/slow in replying.

Thats great to hear that he has a great new home and owner thanks to you!

I am pretty sure the Gerrhosaurus major boettgeri are visually sexable based on color. I have a 1.2 group and the male has orange red on his face/sides, and the females are much duller.

Not different subspecies between them, just different sexes. Both females layed for me this past year, unfortunetly none of the eggs hatched out.

To me that looks more like a female. Both male and female have these spores. But a males are more rekogniseable (spelling?). I will update this a bit later with pics of my Males spores

Both sexes in Gerrhosaurus and Zonosaurus species have waxy secretions out of the femoral pores along with spurs. The males tend to excrete long spiral type secretions, especially during the breeding season which is usually Nov thru Feb in the USA. The Picture shows small bulb type secretions from the femoral pores but no Hemipene bulges at the tail base, both sexes have spurs of which the males tend to be stocker/or longer depending on species. This animal appears FEMALE, has anyone checked for sperm plugs? or during excitment male will deficate heavily also enhancing the Hemipenes to appear out of the cloacal vent. This is usually when the are removed from cage nonconformant to routine keeper has set.

As far as the species goes coloration is local specific in the ranges of the species. One cannot identify by color alone, scale size/layout on the head with body structure is a good indicator along with a few of the main species markings such as horizontal lines, side or belly spotting, and males tend to have brighter orange/red color during mating season.

If you want identification post mutiple pictures of sides, underside, top, and especially head pictures. Also the texture and arrangement of scales is a good identifer of subspecies and or region specific range. Comparing pictures alone is not enough information know body structure, size, and diet tells alot. Most of the Gerrrhosaurus species are Insectivorous only.

I have these posted in the "other lizard" section, too. He's on sand now instead of the mulch and seems much happier on it. If you need more pictures just let me know. Me and GrottesqueBurgess (I'm sure) would love to know what he/she really is as close as you can offer.