# Ptychozoon and other gecko species ID and sex determination-personal paper



## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

*A short note on Ptychozoon sexing and species determination kuhli vs. lionotum ,Annandale 1905*

After having wondered for months whether my flying geckos were of the same species or not ,I decided to make a special picture thread to put into obviousness the species characteristic features and show how to sex them .

No valid key for all _Ptychozoon_ species does exist so far .I will only take into account the two most common species in the herp trade _,P. kuhli _and _P. lionotum_ ,other species are far more difficult to find and leave less doubts to the hobbyist in search of correct ID.

*My Ptychozoon kuhli pair :*







1. Tail shape 
1.1 Tail tip :





_P. lionotum_ has a relatively short and narrow tail end ,whereas _P. kuhli_’s tail shown here ends in a broad ,spatula-shaped tail .

1.2 Serrated tails

It is generally believed a tail serrated backwards indicates _P. lionotum _while a tail serrated straight ,making a right angle with the tail axis ,is typical of _P. kuhli_ .None of the scientific papers published asserts this .Tails are serrated in both species and some _kuhli_ specimens may have tails serrated slightly backwards ,so it does not count as a specific feature .

2. Head and tongue 





_P. kuhli’ _s tongues display in most cases ,but not all ,a black tip .A whole pink tongue would indicate in 90% of cases a _P. lionotum _.Heads of both species are similar ,I have made a close-up pic to show the scalation of the labials .

3. Color 

Both species are often prone to color changes according to heat ,lighting ,stress ,and environmental criteria .Color is in no way a means to differentiate both species .

4. Inbreeding 

No case of _kuhli x lionotum _intergrades were ever reported .It would be wise to think such hybrids are impossible ,both in the wild and in terrariums ,as both species are partially sympatric .

5. Dorsal tubercles 

2-6 rows of spiny ,tiny scales protruding and called tubercules are a distinctive feature of _kuhli _adults (for both sexes ) whereas _lionotum_ don’t have any such tubercles .

*P. lionotum (Photo courtesy Henke from Sweden ):*


_*
P. kuhli :*_


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## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

Green arrows on the above shots indicate the position of the tubercles .

6. Forefeet :





All four feet are webbed and bear strong claws .In _P. kuhli _,the toes in the forefeet are all gathered by the webbed skin between the toes .In _P. lionotum_ ,the toe situated the nearest to the body in both forefeet tends to be separated from the others .

7. Sexing 

Ventral view :







Hemipenal bulges are less obviously noticeable than in other gecko species ,but the row of pre-anal pores only seen in males is unmistakable .

*Hervé Saint Dizier ,© January 2008*

Bibliographic references :

New Species of Parachute Gecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Genus Ptychozoon) from Northeastern Thailand and Central Vietnam ,
Rafe M. Brown,
Copeia, Vol. 1999, No. 4 (Dec. 17, 1999), pp. 990-1001

First record of the smoothed-backed parachute gecko Ptychozoon lionotum Annandale 1905 in Indian mainland ,S. Pawar & S. Biswas ,Asiatic Herpetological Research ,vol.9 pp. 101-106 ,2001 .

Thanks to Hans Kam from Malaysia Nature Information for his help .


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## Master_Of_Darkness (Sep 18, 2007)

very interesting. You have some good photos too


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## Reiyuu (Sep 21, 2007)

Wonderfull informative article


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## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

*Sexing of other species :*

*Rhacodactylus auriculatus (aurics ,gargoyle geckos) :*

They can be sexed from 6-8 months of age.





Cresteds are far more complicated to sex ,as hemipenal pockets may appear in males of 10 months age ,sometimes more than this!

*Web-footed geckos (Pachydactylus (ex Palmatogecko) rangei):*

Males can be sexed very soon too ,about 5-6 months of age. They have a sort of "growth" visible at the base of the tail :

Male:



Female:



*Chondrodactylus turneri (Turner's gecko ,also mistakingly sold as Bibron gecko)

*Males have 2-4 rows of spiny scales around the cloaca area whereas females don't have such spines .More ,in this species ,males have white spots on their backs while females don't have any.



Male-white spots on the back:


Female-no white spots:



The spines around the male's cloaca are also a distinctive feature of many Southern African species :_Chondrodactylus angulifer _(Giant Ground Gecko ) and many members of the _Pachydactylus_ Genus.As for Giant Ground Geckos ,males have also much wider heads than females.

*
Gekko ulikovskii ,Gekko gecko ,Gekko vittatus ,Gekko marmoratus ,Gekko smithi (Tokays ,golden geckos ,palm geckos and all members of the Genus):

*Males have a row of preanal pores which is pretty obvious while females don't have any of such pores:


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## Mez (Feb 19, 2007)

really informative post, although i have to disagree on the sexing of Gekko gekko, i know the sexing of these certainly is not a case of "one has pores, the other does not". Perhaps Peter F will come in and contribute to this thread if he sees it


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## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

Ok,let me be more precise then .
As you can see in this close-up view of my own Gekko vittatus female ,pores are indeed present but much less obvious than in males. More, males' pores exsude a waxy ,brownish ,pheromone-like substance which is not the case in females .


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## capester (Oct 18, 2007)

hi, I love flying geckos but had a bad experience with WC in the past, have you any CB or LTC's available or know anyone who has?
Cheers


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## jayb185 (Sep 29, 2008)

hello can you teach me abit about the feeding a gecko


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## brittone05 (Sep 29, 2006)

What sort of gecko Jay and what would you like to know


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## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

Yeah I've had some success breeding them, adult pairs are now available (CB 08). I will be in the September Hamm show, probably sharing a table with a gecko friend.


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## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

Giant ground gecko sexing:

That is fairly easy with this species from an early age. Males have 2-4 pairs of white spots on each side of the spine whereas females lack those:

Female:



Male:


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## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

_Uroplatus henkeli_ -sexing the young:

While it is very easy to sex adult henkeli as they show a marked sexual dimorphism, this is much more problematic on juveniles.

Adult males have prominent hemipenal bulges and several irregular, large, dark patches on the back while females have uniformly reparted tiny dark round spots.

On this juvenile you can see stripe-like darker markings, it became later a male. A young female would not show such markings.




What is more, in the space between the cloaca and the tail there are some spiny scales on each side of the narrow part of the tail base. 

Those spines are longer and broader in males and males have 3-5 pairs of them while females only have 2-4 pairs of such scales. This has been confirmed to me by Neil Meister, the world's biggest leaf-tails specialist.


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