Chenggongensis courtship

[Joost]

Pyrrhogaster are dark brown. These are light brown. Those are the main part of color pattern.

FYI: pyrrhogaster can be from black to grey and from dark brown to light brown.

 

[Azhael]

Plus i was making reference to the surreal blue/purple/metallic tones they get when courting. The base colour of mine is black, nothing difficult to describe there, but the breeding colours are absolutely amazing.

They really are undefinable colours, Molch, their pigmentation can be so wonderfully complex. If you manage to paint them, make sure to share with us!

 

[Molch]

I thought it's time to update this thread also with the results of all that courtship and egg laying:

I simply let the larvae grow up in the tank with Mom and Pop and then fished out those that reached about 1.5 inches to put them into their own tank so that they could morph in peace. I rescued one 1.5-inch larvae from the jaws of his daddy - quite literally, Dad had him sideways in his mouth and carried him around like a dog with a bone, and said larvae bore a horse-shoe shaped bite mark on his flank for about a week or so, but recovered fully. It's a newt-eat-newt world in that tank...

I ended up with 5 nice strong larvae, 4 of which are either already morphed or close to morphing.

 

[Azhael]

I´m so glad you live far away beyond The Wall, Molch, otherwise that last larva had my name on it.

 

[Molch]

I´m so glad you live far away beyond The Wall, Molch, otherwise that last larva had my name on it.

you got it, dude: from now on that one is named Azzie

 

[Azhael]

Aaaaw! I know it will bare the name with might and pride
I expect pictures of my protege..regularly!

H.chenggongensis is a species that haunts me at night with increasing frequency..aah,some day...

 

[Molch]

H.chenggongensis is a species that haunts me at night with increasing frequency..aah,some day...

then again, it may not be a species at all. I mean, we don't really know, do we? It might just be a subspecies or local form of cyanurus.

Either way, they DO look different than the cyanurus I got from Jen's line...

 

[Molch]

also, I was surprised how mottled the larvae are. From what I've seen of cyanurus larvae, they vary in color a lot but are not as spotted as these "chenggongensis"

 

[Azhael]

then again, it may not be a species at all. I mean, we don't really know, do we? It might just be a subspecies or local form of cyanurus.

Either way, they DO look different than the cyanurus I got from Jen's line...

True, i accept and embrace my ignorance They might be the same species, or several different species, or an entire complex, or tiny fairies with elaborate costumes, i really have no clue...The system that we usually use in the hobby may be entirely incorrect, but since it´s what we have and most people use this classification, it´s the only way to go. I´m looking forward to the day when the taxonomy of what´s now Hypselotriton is studied in greater detail and our ignorance will be smashed by the power of knowledge (bwahahahahaha).

 

[Molch]

it's a mystery that intrigues me.

Ya know, on the Caudata cyanurus caresheet there is a pic (first one in the text labeled 2006 Henk Wallays) that shows an animal that looks just like my "chenggs". Further down there's another pic by Tim Johnson labeled "C. cyanurus pair in courtship" and those animals also look like my chenggs.

The last pic in the caresheet shows some larvae from Jennewt's line, but they look different. The chengg larvae I got were more uniformly darker colored and very strongly mottled. The mottling seems to disappear after morphing though.

Makes me wanna write a grant for some field work in Yunnan to sort out this cyanurus genetic thing....sigh...

 

[FrogEyes]

There's a small amount of hard data which indicate that H.chenggongensis, H.yunnanensis, and H.cyanurus are distinct species. What lacks is precise data as to their identification, ranges, additional species, and relationship to H.wolterstorffi [which could well BE one of these three].

The clear priority however, is how to move some offspring from Nome to Calgary