Calumma parsonii cristifer

First description:

(Methuen & Hewitt, 1913)

Origin of the species name:

The English zoologist Paul Ayshford Methuen, 4th Baron Methuen, and the South African zoologist John Hewitt gave this subspecies of the Parsons Chameleon the name cristifer. Both worked at the Transvaal Museum of Pretoria (South Africa) at that time and named the subspecies after the crest of the back (Latin crista = crest), which the second subspecies of the Parsons Chameleon does not have.

Distribution:

This subspecies of the Parson’s chameleon mainly lives in the rainforest around Andasibe. They are rather easy to find in Analamazaotra and the communally led reserve V.O.I.M.M.A. The habitat is an evergreen rainforest and the animals can even be found in the gardens of hotel Feon’ny Ala. They often sit in head height.

Appearance & size:

Calumma parsonii cristifer is a little smaller than Calumma parsonii parsonii, but nevertheless has an impressive size with 55 to 60 cm total length. They have a green-turquoise basic color with different accents. Males often have a distinct orange spot on the sides, they also have two nose appendages that are characteristic of Parson’s. Females have only very small nose appendages. The easiest way to distinguish this species from its sister species is to look at the dorsal crest: Cristifer has a ridge, and parsonii has a smooth back. Until now, we could not distinguish any “locales” in this species. Males with many orange colors as well as turquoise-blueish males and even green specimen live in the same areas, partially only a few meters from each other. In females, we also could not find a difference between brown and green colored individuals, neither of which concerns age nor gravidity or finding places. In 2023, we discovered an extremely intense turquoise-coloured male, but this was a single specimen. In the following year and before, no such turquoise-coloured males of the species were discovered at the same location. The following pictures show juveniles.

Gewichtstabelle

Weibchen = female, Männchen = male, Jungtier = juvenile, Gewicht = weight, Kopf-Rumpf-Länge = snout-vent-length

Since 2017 we measure the weights of Calumma parsonii cristifer found by us on Madagascar, as far as the animals (and our scales) participate. So far there are only a few weights, in the long term, an average weight in relation to the snout-vent-length (measured from the tip of the nose to the cloaca) for each species should be read off from as large a number of measurements as possible. This means that unfortunately not too much can be a readout of the current tables, but they can be the first clue. It is important to know that all weights were measured towards the end of the rainy season (= best food supply), so they are probably maximum weights in Madagascar. Triangular symbols in females do not mean pregnant, round symbols mean pregnant.

• Climate table
• More about climate
• UVB indices
• Ground temperatures
• Air pressure

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Average temperature	23	24	23	23	22	19	19	19	20	21	22	23
Minimum temperature	20	20	20	19	18	15	15	15	15	16	18	19
Maximum temperature	27	27	27	27	25	23	23	23	24	25	26	27
Rain days	27	24	26	19	17	18	21	20	15	16	20	25

We have collected the data given above over several years with thermometers and hygrometers at the finding places of the chameleons. "Average temperature" means that values of a whole month have been calculated to one average value per month. For example all measured minimum temperature values of February have been calculated to one average minimum temperature for February. In plain language, this means single peak values of a day may be a little higher or lower than the average minimum and maximum temperatures. It is possible that a location has an average maximum temperature of 29°C, but one day during that month it had 33°C or even 35°C there.

Three examples of a daily course of temperatures in Andasibe in the rainy season can be found below. Both were recorded with data loggers in 2023.

The region around Andasibe with the associated forests of Mantadia, Mitsinjo and Analamazaotra lie in the eastern highlands of Madagascar at altitudes between 900 and 1250 m above sea level. During the day, the temperature may sometimes exceed 25°C, but the thermometer rarely climbs above 30°C, or only in sunspots. At night, temperatures plummet, especially during the dry season. 10° to 15° degrees are the rule.

Humidity in the rainforests around Andasibe is high all year round. During the rainy season it rains extensively every day, sometimes the rain lasts for days. But the dry season is not massively different either, except that it has slightly cooler temperatures overall and reaches lower temperatures at night. It still rains at least every other day. Rain, high humidity and a drop in temperature at night are therefore the central points of Andasibe's climate. In 2023, we measured relative humidity with data loggers on different days in Andasibe in the rainy season, the data can be found below.

Tageszeit = day time, Sonne = sun, Halbschatten = half shade, Schatten = shade

We have measured UVB data with a Solarmeter 6.5 in spring (March, April) at the peak of activity of chameleons in Madagascar. We always measured the values that a chameleon could maximally reach in its habitat.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Morning	23,2	23,4	22,0	22,1	20,5	16,0	16,3	16,5	17,4	16,7	21,2	-
Midday	25,4	25,3	24,5	22,5	20,2	16,5	16,3	17,7	18,3	18,0	21,4	-
Evening	25,5	25,1	25,0	25,3	20,8	17,2	16,1	17,0	19,6	23,0	22,0	-

Between 21 March 2018 and 05 February 2019, we measured ground temperatures in the rainforest of Andasibe and surrounding areas (Analamazaotra, Andasibe, V.O.I.M.M.A. and Mitsinjo) about every other day - the table is the result of these measurements. Only in December no measurements were taken. detailed review can be found here. In total, we took 418 soil temperature measurements and measured an estimated 70 different locations in Andasibe and the surrounding area at a depth of 20 cm.

In 2023, in addition to other climate data, we also measured the air pressure at the locations we visited in Madagascar. The following data is from different days during the rainy season in Andasibe. On the X-axis is the time of day or night. In Madagascar, the day begins around 6 am, and night falls at 6 pm. The Y-axis shows the atmospheric pressure in hPa.

Habitat:

The following pictures show habitats of Calumma parsonii cristifer in the region of Andasibe. Some are even from finding places of the species. The rainforest of this area consists of slender trees. Calumma parsonii cristifer prefers high trees with thick branches inside the rainforest. Sometimes you can also find them in secondary vegetation when there’s nothing else around.

Hereinafter you can find some 360° pictures from Andasibe. You can move inside these pictures via mouse click in all directions. If you click on the Theta logo, a new window with an enlarged view will open. You will also have the opportunity to look at the pictures in full screen mode. Enjoy!